A1.5 Sustainability audits
Develop and incorporate mandatory sustainability audits into conservation/farm plans. Develop program and identify funding to reduce energy use and promote best management practices (BMPs).
Many of the farm and forestry auditing systems are tied to certification practices or commercial requirements in various ways. “Auditing for Sustainable Forest Management” provides a detailed comparison of the two main systems for certifying sustainable forest products – FSC and SFI (though they may have changed in the dozen years since this article.)
There are a lot of companies offering sustainability audits to big farms that want to sell to food companies or wholesalers with sustainability requirements, like the Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA) standards developed by the food industry’s Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI). One of them, SCS Global Services, has a Farm Sustainability Assessment: User Guide with details about what the audit covers. (According to the WSDA’s “Washington Agriculture: Strategic Plan 2020 and Beyond” 90% of Washington potato growers are now perfoming “sustainability audits” as defined and required by their buyers.) At the other end of the spectrum, there are audit procedures like one developed in collaboration with small British dairy farmers in a local area; farmers can use it themselves and it takes a couple of hours.
The Pacific Northwest Direct Seed Association has developed the Farmed Smart Sustainable Agriculture certification program in collaboration with various Washington stakeholders; unsurprisingly, it’s focused on direct seeding and its expected benefits. (Its current auditors work for several Eastern Washington conservation districts.)