Multi-year assessment of Unilever's progress towards agricultural sustainability I: Indicators, methodology and pilot farm results

This review describes the establishment in 1997 of an agricultural sustainability initiative by the foods, home and personal care company, Unilever. It analyses the development and testing of a system of indicators used over several years on the company's model research farm at Colworth in the UK. The approach taken was first to develop a sustainability audit, based around a common set of indicators, and then to support pilot projects for a select number of crops, with the aim of adapting parameters for each crop, establishing baselines, developing recommendations to increase agricultural sustainability, and holding field trials to test these new practices and technologies. The purpose of the initiative was the development of a system of agricultural assessment that would be practical and effective over short time scales so that changes in company policies and practice could be made. The indicator structure developed uses 10 clusters of indicators (later revised to 11). These had to be easily measurable, ...