Paradigm shift in sustainability assessment

What is SMART?

Holistic Sustainability Assessment with SMART

SMART in a nutshell

SMART is an innovative instrument for holistic sustainability analysis and evaluation of agricultural and food companies and is based on the globally valid SAFA guidelines. It was developed by sustainability experts from the FiBL research institutes with the involvement of more than 60 agricultural experts from other research institutions and consists of a highly efficient database as well as a scientifically sound evaluation methodology including an extensive indicator pool.

Your Benefit

SMART creates transparency.

In accordance with a defined evaluation methodology, over 300 indicators are used to assess the extent to which an agricultural enterprise or a company has achieved the sustainability goals defined in the SAFA guidelines for each of the 58 sustainability topics. This achievement of objectives is evaluated on a five-step scale from red (insufficient) to dark green (objectives achieved in full, maximum sustainability). This scale is also used for the representation of the rating in the spider diagrams, in which the achievement of objectives is shown as a percentage.

SMART enables benchmarking of different suppliers.

SMART uses a standardized analysis and evaluation procedure and considers the SAFA guidelines of the FAO as an internationally recognized framework. This enables a global benchmarking of sustainability performance after an evaluation with SMART.

SMART enables credible communication.

SMART offers you an optimal basis for sound, transparent and credible sustainability communication and thus contributes to your positioning as a pioneer in the field of sustainability. SMART enables reporting according to various standards (SAFA, SDG).

Advantages of SMART

SMART is credible.

SMART is scientifically sound: both the methodology and the indicators were developed over several years by experts from FiBL and other international institutions and are regularly adapted to the latest scientific findings. In order to achieve the greatest possible acceptance, legitimation and compatibility, further reference documents (including GRI, UN Global Compact, ISO 26000, SA8000, ILO standards, Economy for the Common Good) were taken into account in the development of the indicators.
SMART is based on the internationally valid SAFA guidelines of the FAO.
SMART is transparent: the evaluation methodology and indicators are regularly part of scientific publications. A comprehensive results report provides customers with a well-founded overview of the most important indicator results.

SMART is holistic.

SMART assesses the sustainability performance of agricultural farms in all sustainability topics of the SAFA guidelines (58 sub-themes in the four dimensions “Good Governance”, “Ecological Integrity”, “Economic Resilience” and “Social Welfare”).
SMART considers all measures and activities of a company as a whole, also in the indirect sphere of influence of the company (e.g. the purchase of means of production).
SMART considers trade-offs and synergies between the individual sustainability issues.

SMART is smart.

SMART takes into account existing information from existing certifications, audits, CO2 calculations or climate and life cycle assessments in order to keep the effort for all parties involved as low as possible.

The SAFA Guidelines

SAFA stands for “Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture Systems”. The guidelines define four dimensions of sustainability: “Ecological Integrity”, “Economic Resilience”, “Social Wellbeing” and “Good Governance”, which in turn are subdivided into 21 topics and a total of 58 sub-topics. Concrete targets have been formulated for each of these sub-themes, making it possible to assess sustainability performance. These internationally recognised guidelines provide the first global framework and a uniform language for standardised, transparent and comparable sustainability assessments in the agricultural and food sector.

Further information can be found directly on the FAO website.
Click here to download the SAFA Guidelines.

Further questions?

If you have further questions about the method or functioning of SMART or about specific steps of the analysis by SMART, do not hesitate to contact us. We will be glad to provide you with further information.

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