The Bonsucro Inspire Awards recognise the exceptional contributions of Bonsucro members towards accelerating sustainability in the sugarcane sector.
Meet the 2024 winners below!
Best value chain sustainability initiative
Winner: Green Rural Loan
Socicana, in partnership with Sicoob Coopecredi
Brazil
Green Rural Loan is a new line of financing exclusive to farmers who have proven their sustainability credentials through Bonsucro certification, or participation in TopCana (Socicana’s sustainable development programme). It grants interest rate discounts on loans in line with how sustainable the farmer’s production practices are, allowing farmers to save up to 20% on the cost of a loan in a year.
More than 120 sugarcane farmers already have access to the programme, and more than USD $1.33 million have been awarded to date.
Best social sustainability initiative
Winner: Mechanised harvesting: Sugar Woman’s
Ingenio La Union
Guatemala
Mechanised harvesting: Sugar Woman’s is a programme generating employment opportunities in agriculture for Guatemalan women. Ingenio La Union helps the women develop the skills they need to build their career, from corporate induction to technical training and transferable skills, and technical evaluation.
The project has involved creating schools to help the women gain the required knowledge, and those who complete the programme receive a diploma from the Technical Institute for Training and Productivity, which has significant weight and recognition in Guatemala.
At present the programme has led to 85 women working across two harvesting groups – and 21% of sugarcane harvested at Ingenio La Union is now harvested by women.
Best environmental sustainability initiative
Winner:Â Regenerative and sustainable management of sugarcane with high agricultural yield
BP Bunge Bioenergia
Brazil
This project aims to eliminate the use of chemical fertilisers, across 11 of BP Bunge Bioenergia’s production units, thereby reducing production costs and improving sugarcane’s environmental impact. It focuses on two main methods: organomineral fertilisation, derived from recycled industrial waste such as vinasse and ash, and replacing nitrogen and phosphate fertilisers with specific bacteria.
This strategy, combined with other initiatives, contributed to a 34% reduction in scope 1 emissions during the last harvest.
Lifetime contribution
This year, we’ve presented a special award for lifetime services to sustainability in sugarcane.
Robert Quirk is an independent farmer from Australia, and has been growing sugarcane since he left school in 1959. He is firmly committed to sustainability, and has partnered with Bonsucro since our early days to help accelerate sustainability in sugarcane.
We’re incredibly pleased to recognise Robert’s significant achievements over the years with this award.
Continuous Improvement Awards
Each year we recognise and celebrate our members’ commitment to continuous improvement, a key component of our strategic plan.
The annual Continuous Improvement Report, submitted by every member each year, gives us insight into where our members are on their sustainability journey, and how they plan to become more sustainable against the backdrop of their unique context.
Best report
This award goes to the producer and buyer organisations whose reports scored the highest for quality of answers and evidence submitted.
The winners are:
Producer: São Martinho S/A, BrazilÂ
Buyer: PepsiCo, United States of America
Most improved report
We also celebrate the organisation who has shown most evidence of improvement from 2022.
The winner is:
Omnicane, Mauritius