New Social Responsibility standard for flowers and ornamentals enters public consultation

New Social Responsibility standard for flowers and ornamentals enters public consultation

A new solution for the flowers and ornamentals sector is in development. Find out who it’s aimed at, what’s included, and how to provide your comments on the initial draft during a public consultation phase.

Introducing the new Social Responsibility standard for flowers and ornamentals

At a glance:

• Targets social conditions in floriculture production in high-risk countries.

• A core solution (standalone or combinable with other GLOBALG.A.P. standards and add-ons)

• Enters public consultation on 3 February 2025 – submit your feedback until 21 February!

• Scheduled to launch later in 2025 (third quarter).

Purpose and format

GLOBALG.A.P. developed this standard to target important social and labor conditions in flowers and ornamental production in high-risk countries, as defined by the GLOBALG.A.P. Country Risk Classification Concept.

While the standard can be implemented independently, it has been designed to combine with the IFA standard for flowers and ornamentals (v6 Smart) and the Impact Driven Approach add-on or Module.

It aims to benchmark to the Sustainability Supply Chain Initiative (SSCI) and the social basket of the Floriculture Sustainability Initiative (FSI)

Topics included:

• Social management system

• Human and labor rights

• Working conditions

• Health and safety

• Community impacts

Public consultation: Have your say

The content has been drafted based on a combination of well-consulted and approved principles from IFA v6 workers’ health and safety section, GRASP v2, as well as outstanding requirements from SSCI. The draft principles and criteria content will now enter public consultation for feedback and comments.

Public consultation begins 3 February and closes 21 February 2025.

To participate in the review process and share your feedback, please visit our public consultation portal.

Implementation and training

Certification bodies currently approved to audit IFA for plants will be able to apply for an extension to gain approval to audit to the new Social Responsibility standard for flowers and ornamentals. Training will be offered in quarter 3 of 2025.

Note that certification body auditors of the Social Responsibility standard are required to be social auditors with sufficient knowledge and experience in social audits.

All registered growers will receive a GLOBALG.A.P. identification number and successful audits will result in a certificate.

Indicative development timeline

• Q2-4 2024: Concept development and initial draft

• Q1 2025: Public consultation, review and integration of feedback; finalize documents

• Q2 2025: Adoption by the GLOBALG.A.P. Advisory Board; Pre-launch preparations (training development, IT)

• Q2-3 2025: Launch of the Social Responsibility standard

Help and contact

If you have specific questions about this public consultation and the Social Responsibility standard for flowers and ornamentals, please direct them to Juan Carlos Isaza via isaza@globalgap.org.

For general comments on a GLOBALG.A.P. standard or add-on, you can contact publiccomments@globalgap.org at any time.

For more information on the standard-setting procedure, please see our five-step development process.