Targeting sustainability through impact-driven farming
What is the Impact-Driven Approach to Sustainability?
The Impact-Driven Approach to Sustainability (IDA) is a system to help flower and ornamentals farms to collect, process, and store their environmental sustainability data. It is in line with Floriculture Sustainability Initiative requirements regarding digital registration for environmental metrics.
How does it work?
GLOBALG.A.P. offers two pathways of the IDA. They are both to be used in combination with a farm
management system (FMS) chosen by the producer.
1. The IDA module is used without further farm assurance (pathway 1). It may be used as a
stepping-stone to progress to pathway 2.
2.The IDA add-on (pathway 2) is used with the GLOBALG.A.P. Integrated Farm Assurance
standard for Flowers and Ornamentals (IFA FO) v5.2 (or benchmarked equivalent).
The process is simple. Firstly, upload your input consumption data on a monthly basis to a GLOBALG.A.P. compatible FMS. After six months of uploading data (or three months for the add-on), you can undergo an IDA assessment with a GLOBALG.A.P. approved certification body of your choice.
The data is then sent to GLOBALG.A.P. for processing and returned to you in the form of historical trend graphs and comparison reports. You can use this information for improving your farming efficiency and therefore your environmental credentials.
Which data is collected?
Input consumption data, which you may already be collecting in an FMS or otherwise, is shared with GLOBALG.A.P. This data consists of plant protection products, fertilizers (nitrogen and phosphorus), and water and energy usage.
All data that the FMS shares with GLOBALG.A.P. for processing is treated confidentially and shared only back to individual producers in agglomerated and anonymized form – in historical trend graphs and progress reports. Personally identifiable data is not shared with other parties.