The recent release of the Australian cotton industry's annual sustainability report coincided with the launch of a new cotton industry sustainability website, designed around the PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. Sustainability Framework to showcase sustainability data and reporting.
The industry's annual sustainability reports, published by CRDC and Cotton Australia, show progress for one year and trends over five years, or longer where possible. Annual reporting is an important tool for transparently communicating to growers, customers and stakeholders the industry's progress across planet (environment), people (social) and paddock (economic) topics in the framework.
While the annual sustainability reports are designed to be as concise as possible, they are supported by a comprehensive summary and a detailed data pack, including data sources, assumptions and in-depth information. All of these documents are now available online at the new Australian Cotton Sustainability website.
Sustainability consultant Chris Cosgrove said the annual report had also been structured differently, to deliver a clearer picture of the industry's performance.
"To meet the evolving requirements of our supply chain, brands and retailers, we've structured our 2024 report as an integrated sustainability report," Chris said. "This aims to show how sustainability can be integrated. For example, positive or negative impacts on one part of the system, like water, will have positive or negative impacts on other environmental, social and economic parts of the system.
"We're able to do this because we have developed a new indicator framework to better measure changes in condition and function of the natural and human resources we depend on to grow cotton.
"This creates more granular data that supports better decision-making, helping the industry manage risks and opportunities by seeing more clearly the positive and negative trade-offs involved in cotton production, and what impacts those changes."
Data shows changes over time
In farming systems, seasonal variations can make a single year look much better or worse than average. As a result, the sustainability data is reported to show change over one year and over longer periods, to give a true indication of what is happening.
Key 2024 findings include that water use efficiency (WUE) improved slightly on an annual basis, while the rate of water use efficiency gains has been largely flat for the last 15 years, the industry now using around 50 per cent less water to grow a bale of cotton in most seasons, compared to 1997. In very wet or dry seasons, water efficiency is lower. Reducing losses in water storage and transmission, along with improved application efficiency, are outlined as key pathways to continued WUE improvement in the sustainability framework.
CRDC is supporting several projects aimed at reducing evaporation loss from storages, including the Novel Energy and Evaporative Storage Technologies for Irrigators (NEESTI) project, which is exploring the installation of floating solar panels on irrigation storages to mitigate evaporation and generate on-farm power.
"Together with our work to maintain or improve soil health and biodiversity on Australian cotton farms, this data brings the industry in line with the Global Biodiversity Framework's call for an increase in sustainable intensification," said CRDC Executive Director, Allan Williams.
"Innovative research will deliver better solutions and further improve productivity in the industry, which means building resilience to an increasingly variable climate with limited water and reduced inputs.
"Growers and others in the value chain also have the Sustainability Framework available to help them identify risks and opportunities and apply strategies to manage them.
"PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. is designed to deliver a coordinated, whole-of-industry approach to managing sustainability risks and opportunities, to benefit the entire industry through improved productivity, resilience, risk management and market access."
