COSA Approach
The Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA) has developed a globally comparable set of indicators to quickly assess the extent of any farm's relative sustainability.
Once complete, the COSA project will provide the first set of objective data and analyses on the social, economic and environmental costs and benefits of any sustainability efforts including those of the standards or certifications currently operating.
COSA's design allows multi-criteria analysis for a wide range of end-users to apply their specific value framework to reach locally relevant conclusions on the application of sustainable practices. The analysis and corresponding data set were also designed to serve a wide variety of analytic systems including: Relevance Tree Analysis; Cross Impact Analysis; Lifecycle Analysis; Emergy Analysis; and Ecological Footprinting.
COSA first focused on the coffee sector, now it is expanding to cocoa and a variety of other agricultural products, particularly where market access is increasingly conditional on compliance with specific social and environmental requirements.
COSA's Basic Approach
1. Three Pillars to Sustainability:
COSA will evaluate the environmental, social and economic impacts of implementing sustainable practices and generate both quantifiable and qualifiable data using a multi-criteria analysis approach.
2. Coverage:
The project measures the impacts of sustainability initiatives most prevalent in the target country. In addition to measuring the impacts of many of the most common sustainability labels such as Fairtrade, Organic, Utz Certified, Rainforest Alliance, COSA has the capacity to analyze the impacts of local sustainability initiatives and other "on farm interventions" on a case-by-case basis.
3. Adapted to a National Level:
The COSA tool is designed to be adapted to the national context with the support of local partners.
4. Implementation via Technical Assistance Programs:
In each target country COSA will work to train local actors such as government agencies, NGOs, extensionists and research institutions in using COSA tools. The COSA team will work with at least 15 small-holder producer organizations over a three year period and will rely heavily on the foundations of in-country technical assistance networks and complementary initiatives like the Sustainable Commodity Assistance Network (SCAN) for implementation.
How Producers Use COSA
- Diagnostic Tool: Evaluate farm practices based on international sustainability standards.
- Didactic Tool: Learn what the implementation of sustainable practices would mean at the field level.
- Business Decision-Making Tool: Assess changes necessary to be compliant with leading sustainability systems and develop an implementation plan to prioritize activities and maximize benefits.
- Monitoring and Evaluation Tool: Using the tool over time, sustainability progress can be assessed and returns on investments or cost/benefit-ratio evaluated. Negotiating tool: Better understanding the real costs and benefits of adopting sustainable practices enables producers to negotiate more realistically.
For more information on the Committe on Sustainability Assessment (COSA) contact: info@sustainablecommodities.org
