SIZA Environmental third-party audits are not a pass/fail exercise but rather a process to measure a suppliers’ compliance against the SIZA Environmental Standard, in order to identify areas on the site which are non-compliant and that require corrective actions and improvement. As more and more markets are requesting Environmental audits to be conducted, it is important for SIZA members to understand what their options are when it comes to the SIZA Environmental audit process.
If an environmental audit is requested by your buyer, you have the option to do a stand-alone SIZA Environmental third-party audit, which will follow the same format as a regular SIZA Social audit. Members that also have to complete the GLOBALG.A.P. Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) audit, have the option to combine the SIZA Environmental third-party audit with their GLOBALG.A.P. IFA audit.
This means that both these audits, SIZA Environmental and GLOBALG.A.P. IFA, will take place on the same day at the same time. Only the questions in the SIZA Environmental Audit that are not covered by GLOBALG.A.P. IFA will be asked as additional questions. The additional questions can be found on the GLOBALG.A.P. database by clicking here. This audit will still cover the entire SIZA Environmental standard, but the member will save time and costs as the questions that overlap between the two standards will only be asked once, and it will not be necessary for the auditor to visit the farm twice.
After the site visit has taken place, the GLOBALG.A.P. IFA and SIZA Environmental audit processes will be completed independently from each other. 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, where each audit report will be uploaded onto the respective platforms. If any findings were raised during the member’s SIZA Environmental audit, evidence of corrective actions will have to be uploaded on the MySIZA platform and NOT onto GLOBALG.A.P. Once all corrective actions are signed off on MySIZA, members will receive their SIZA Environmental Audit Completion Letter that will have a validity based on the SIZA Environmental Audit Frequency Matrix. Completion of the GLOBALG.A.P. IFA audit should be done according to their own audit requirements.
Why two separate audit reports and certificates?
Each market has its own requirements for its supply base in terms of environmental compliance, and some markets only accept certain environmental standards. Having two separate audit reports and certificates ensures that SIZA Environmental members meet the requirements of the different markets they supply to, but also that the audit reports and certificates are available on the visibility platforms that are used by their different buyers. Furthermore, as SIZA Environmental audits are combined with GLOBALG.A.P IFA audits and is not an official GLOBALG.A.P. add-on (i.e. SPRING and GRASP), it is required that separate reports and certificates are generated once the process is completed. The MySIZA platform is built to provide visibility on the Social (Ethical) and/or Environmental performance of a member. Therefore, it is important that the reports of their performance are visible under the SIZA brand. If the SIZA Environmental audit was a formal add-on to GLOBALG.A.P, it would have been a requirement that producers audit on an annual basis and not according to the SIZA Environmental Audit Frequency Matrix as set out by the SIZA Environmental Audit Process and Methodology.
What if I need to do other GLOBALG.A.P. add-ons as part of my audit?
It is possible to have a combined SIZA Environmental and GLOBALG.A.P. IFA audit done and still complete other official GLOBALG.A.P. add-ons as part of the same audit. However, it is important that you confirm with your chosen audit firm whether they are able to conduct all the necessary audits and add-ons prior to scheduling your audit, as each scheme and standard has their own auditor competency requirements.
For more information on SIZA Environmental third-party audits, please click on the following link or call the SIZA office at 021 852 8184.
