Bonsucro: Operational Excellence and Innovation

Accenture helped Bonsucro develop a business plan and strategy in line with its commitments to the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labeling (ISEAL) organization. By linking its sustainability goals with better management practices down the sugar cane value chain, Bonsucro demonstrates that the pursuit of sustainability and high performance are not mutually exclusive.

Bonsucro (formerly The Better Sugar Cane Initiative Ltd.) is a global multi-stakeholder not-for-profit organization that aims to improve the social, environmental and economic sustainability of sugar cane by promoting the use of global standards.

Bonsucro helps stakeholders in the sugar cane value chain reduce adverse environmental and social impacts through the use of metric-based standards that have been developed through a multi-stakeholder process. Through global standards, all those participating in the sugar cane value chain benefit, while the industry itself becomes more sustainable.

As part of its drive to establish global standards for sugar cane production, Bonsucro became a member of ISEAL, a global organization dedicated to creating a world in which ecological sustainability and social justice are the normal conditions of business. In order to fulfil its membership obligations, Bonsucro had to develop a five-year operational plan.

Bonsucro engaged Accenture Development Partnerships (ADP) to help develop a business plan and business strategy that identified staffing, budget and revenue targets that would make the organization self-supporting financially. Bonsucro chose to work with ADP based on work we had done for the World Wildlife Fund, with which we are closely associated.

ADP jointly developed a business plan with the Bonsucro secretariat and board with a special focus on membership management, financial modeling and operational planning. The draft strategies were then subjected to review by a range of Bonsucro members and further refined. ADP then drafted the final report, including recommendations.

ADP made several recommendations to help Bonsucro to achieve its business strategy and global standards objectives, in particular by identifying ways in which revenue targets could be met. The report thus helped Bonsucro mitigate financial risk. The report also recommended redefined governance and operational structures, and better financial and marketing strategies. Improved governance, in particular, will help ensure that the Bonsucro standard remains objective. Bonsucro meets ISEAL’s criteria for full membership which is important in ensuring that the standard is seen as credible.

“This was a particularly exciting initiative for us to work on because of the way that Bonsucro aims to achieve its sustainability goals by encouraging better management practices down the length of the sugar cane value chain," said Gib Bulloch, executive director-Accenture Development Partnerships. "This convergence of development and business interests to further a common goal is a key emerging principle for a better future.”