Stewardship Index For Specialty Crops

When the Stewardship Index was launched in late 2008, the Coordinating Council identified a draft list of issues critical to sustaining people, planet and profits in the specialty crop industry. The list was later updated based on input from many stakeholders. The chart below shows the current list of issues and where we propose to measure them along the supply chain.

If you are interested in helping develop specific metrics around one or more of these issues, or wish to receive project announcements, please click here to read about the Metrics Review Committee or click here to join the Metrics Review Committee

If you have more general questions or comments about the project, please click here to contact the Steering Committee.

		Farm	Processing	Distribution	Retail / Food Service
PEOPLE
	Human resources (worker health & safety, employment practices, etc.)	X	X	X	X
	Community (local sourcing / hiring, etc.)	X	X	X	X
PLANET
	Air quality	X	X	X	X
	Biodiversity and ecosystems	X
	Energy use	X	X	X	X
	GHG emissions	X	X	X	X
	Nutrients¹	X
	Packaging	X	X	X	X
	Pesticides ^{1, 2}	X	X	X	X
	Soils	X
	Waste	X	X	X	X
	Water quality ³	X	X	X	X
	Water use	X	X	X	X
PROFIT ⁴
	Green procurement	X	X	X	X
	Fair price/incentives	X	X	X	X

1. includes related water quality issues
2. includes health and safety of workers and communities
3. includes stormwater runoff and process water
4. improved efficiency/cost reduction will be incorporated into other metrics where appropriate