ENVIRONMENTAL AUDIT PROCESS & METHODOLOGY

With the objectives of eliminating duplication, driving a cost- and time effective approach and providing better transparency to stakeholders on a global scale, the partnership between GLOBALG.A.P and SIZA has reached another great milestone. Producers will now have the option to combine their SIZA Environmental 3rd-party audit with the GLOBALG.A.P Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) audit.

If requested by markets, SIZA Environmental members can schedule either a stand-alone SIZA Environmental 3rd-party audit or a combined 3rd-party audit with GLOBALG.A.P. via the MySIZA platform.

What do I have to do when I want to book a combined SIZA Environmental 3rd-party audit?

  1. Complete your Environmental Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) on the MySIZA platform and submit for approval. Once your Environmental SAQ has been APPROVED, you can book an SIZA Environmental 3rd-party audit.
  2. When booking your GLOBALG.A.P audit, it is important to inform your chosen audit company that you would like to combine the SIZA Environmental and GLOBALG.A.P IFA audits.
  3. Book your combined audit on the MySIZA platform by selecting your chosen audit company.
  4. Make sure that your SIZA Environmental audit is scheduled on the same date as your GLOBALG.A.P IFA audit.

How will the combined SIZA Environmental 3rd-party audits be conducted?

Once enrolled for the combined solution, both standards will be covered during one audit. This means that SIZA Environmental members that chose the combined solution will go through their GLOBALG.A.P IFA audit as usual, and the environmental questions that are not covered by GLOBALG.A.P. IFA will be asked as additional questions. These questions will be available on the GLOBALG.A.P database and can be accessed here. The outputs of the combined solution audit will be two separate audit reports, one for the GLOBALG.A.P IFA audit and one for SIZA Environmental. Each audit report will be uploaded onto the respective platforms.

How do I receive my SIZA Environmental audit completion letter?

  1. Where areas of non-conformances were flagged in the SIZA Environmental audit report, members will have to upload their corrective actions on the MySIZA platform and NOT on GLOBALG.A.P.
  2. Corrective actions need to be uploaded within the given timeframes as agreed upon on the day of the audit. If corrective actions are not submitted within the stipulated timeframes, a member will be penalised with a shortened audit frequency period.

Once all corrective actions have been signed off by the auditor, the member will receive their SIZA Environmental Audit Completion Letter.

Please note that the validity period of the audit completion letter will be based on the amount and severity of non-conformances identified during the audit, thereby a risk rating and validity period will be assigned as set out by the SIZA Environmental Audit Frequency Matrix. Depending on the risk rating members can receive an audit completion letter that is valid for 3-years (platinum) 2-years (gold or silver) and 1-year (bronze). The validity of the completion letter is subjected to the member’s SIZA profile being active and the Environmental SAQ being completed on an annual basis.

More information on the Environmental 3rd-party audit methodology and requirements can be found in the SIZA Environmental Audit Process and Methodology.