AIC at 20: Launching a Sustainability Self-Assessment Framework to support the industry's net zero transition
As AIC marks 20 years as the UK agri-supply industry’s leading trade association, we're looking back at some of its greatest achievements since it was founded in 2003.
Each week throughout 2023, we’ll explore a major achievement where AIC represented its Member businesses, promoted the benefits of modern commercial agriculture in the UK, and supported collaboration throughout the food chain.
Discover why AIC designed and launched a Self-Assessment Framework and associated training, supporting its Members' ambitions on sustainability and net zero.
Supporting industry ambitions
For several years, there has been a concerted drive for enhanced sustainability within the UK's agri-supply industry.
AIC Members are acutely aware of the drive for sustainability within the agri-food supply chain and that they have a part to play in achieving this. There is a willingness to act but, for some businesses, it can be hard to know where to begin.
To help facilitate and advance this shared industry ambition, AIC set out to develop a voluntary framework to help Member businesses to businesses better understand the sustainability credentials of their operations and benchmark their sustainability efforts.
In July 2023, AIC launched its new "Introduction to Sustainability for the Agri-Supply Industry" online training and Sustainability Self-Assessment Framework.
This valuable offering from AIC is designed to assist agri-supply businesses in making sense of sustainability and support them as they take action to enhance their competitiveness in this area.
The training provides a background to, and basic knowledge of, sustainability terminology and application within the agri-supply industry.
Members need to complete the essential training before using the framework because it ensures consistency of understanding of sustainability within the agri-supply industry.
The Framework aims to help agri-supply businesses in the early stages of their sustainability journey to assess where they are and monitor their progress as they develop actions to improve their sustainability credentials.
The knowledge gained from the training module can be used in conjunction with the Framework to further a business' work on sustainability.
Early interest
Since launching in the summer AIC has seen strong early interest in these Sustainability services, with initial Member feedback highlighting its value to individual businesses and the wider agri-food supply chain.
In time, AIC hopes that uptake of the Framework will be sufficient to allow it to collate and share anonymised data with Member businesses for cross-sector and cross-industry benchmarking.
Visit AIC's Sustainability policy webpage for more information, including FAQs for the training and framework.
Watch the video below to learn about AIC's role as the UK agri-supply industry's trade association.
Make sure you're following AIC on X and LinkedIn for regular updates.
Visit the AIC at 20 webpage for more content like this.
Authors
Oli Hill
As Head of Communications, Oli creates and oversees the content published on AIC's website, emails, Member briefings, print publications, and social media. A qualified multimedia journalist, he previously spent six years working at Farmers Weekly magazine as a Senior Reporter on the arable team, and latterly as Community Editor. More recently he was Communications Manager at Red Tractor.
Vicky Robinson
Vicky Robinson is Head of Sustainability and is responsible for leading and co-ordinating AIC's work on sustainability.
Andrew Pearson
Sue Whittington
Sue is a Technical Manager for AIC Services. She is responsible for the Feed Adviser Register (FAR), the AIC Sustainability Programme and responsible sourcing and the Potato Cyst Nematode (PCN) Laboratory Proficiency Testing Programme.
