About
The New Zealand Sustainability Dashboard Project's goal is to significantly enhance sustainability assessment and reporting in NZ's agricultural sector in response to increasing market, business improvement/resource use and regulatory drivers and requirements. It is a 6 year research programme which commenced in October 2012 and is funded by the NZ Government, (The Ministry for Businesses, Innovation and Employment - MBIE) as well as by various industry partners.
The project is built on a core of existing capability and knowledge in the Agriculture Research Group On Sustainability (ARGOS), supplemented by additional specialist researchers and their international networks to build strong collaborations. More information on this programme available in Research Report 13/01 or in Research Summary RS13/01.
The Research partners include Lincoln University (AERU), University of Otago (CSAFE), The Agribusiness Group, Landcare Research, Scion, Ngai Tahu, 1000Minds, Ecosystem consultants and Lincoln Agritech.
Industry partners include New Zealand Winegrowers, Zespri International and other Kiwifruit partners, Forestry organisations, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and BioGro New Zealand.
One of main objectives of the project is to help industries develop user-friendly tools to facilitate sustainability assessment and reporting. Ideally, these tools will facilitate uploading of regular monitoring results and instantly summarise and report back trends to the producers, to industry representatives, and to agriculture regulators and policy makers at regional and national government levels. It could as well provide information to enhance management decision making for businesses and assist in enhancing their overall sustainability performance and to provide regular feedback to producers for learning.
It is anticipated that sustainability and assessment tools will enhance information flows and will assist producers optimise their overall farm performance including productivity/profitability while protecting environmental and social values. Also, it is expected that they will reduce monitoring and regulatory costs, build consumer trust, secure market access and garner support from wider New Zealand society by verification and regular reporting of standardised sustainability criteria.
Internationally recognised frameworks and their key generic sustainability performance indicators (KPIs) will be co-opted to ensure that overseas consumers can benchmark and verify the sustainability credentials of New Zealand exported products.
The project is built on a core of existing capability and knowledge in the Agriculture Research Group On Sustainability (ARGOS), supplemented by additional specialist researchers and their international networks to build strong collaborations. More information on this programme available in Research Report 13/01 or in Research Summary RS13/01.
The Research partners include Lincoln University (AERU), University of Otago (CSAFE), The Agribusiness Group, Landcare Research, Scion, Ngai Tahu, 1000Minds, Ecosystem consultants and Lincoln Agritech.
Industry partners include New Zealand Winegrowers, Zespri International and other Kiwifruit partners, Forestry organisations, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and BioGro New Zealand.
One of main objectives of the project is to help industries develop user-friendly tools to facilitate sustainability assessment and reporting. Ideally, these tools will facilitate uploading of regular monitoring results and instantly summarise and report back trends to the producers, to industry representatives, and to agriculture regulators and policy makers at regional and national government levels. It could as well provide information to enhance management decision making for businesses and assist in enhancing their overall sustainability performance and to provide regular feedback to producers for learning.
It is anticipated that sustainability and assessment tools will enhance information flows and will assist producers optimise their overall farm performance including productivity/profitability while protecting environmental and social values. Also, it is expected that they will reduce monitoring and regulatory costs, build consumer trust, secure market access and garner support from wider New Zealand society by verification and regular reporting of standardised sustainability criteria.
Internationally recognised frameworks and their key generic sustainability performance indicators (KPIs) will be co-opted to ensure that overseas consumers can benchmark and verify the sustainability credentials of New Zealand exported products.
The New Zealand Sustainability Dashboard project is a 6 years research programme started in October 2012 and funded by Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment - Science + Innovation - Part of the 2012 biological Industries Science Investment Fund (More details).