The Centre for Responsible Business (CRB) has partnered with the TEEB Unit of the United Nations Environment Programme to promote sustainable agriculture and supply chains in India, by supporting businesses to apply the TEEBAgriFood principles.
These principles are outlined in the TEEBAgriFood Framework, the foundational framework for True Cost Accounting. The framework describes a four capitals approach (natural, produced, human, social) to food systems decision making. The TEEB Operational Guidelines for Business were previously developed by Capitals Coalition to support businesses implementing the TEEBAgriFood Framework. CRB’s initiative is now adapting these guidelines for businesses in India.
Siya Chopra, Deputy Director of Communications at the Centre for Responsible Business (CRB) in Delhi, India, shared insights from the initiative so far.
Can you give me a quick overview of the Centre for Responsible Business, and the project you are working on with the TEEB Unit of UNEP?
The Centre for Responsible Business is a think tank based in New Delhi, India, and since 2011 we have been supporting businesses to integrate sustainability into their core business practices. We do this through research, advisory services, training, and capacity building and knowledge forums. At the moment, we are mostly working with the agricultural and textile industries.
We’ve worked with Capitals Coalition since 2019 – at that time, we were helping to familiarise large businesses with the TEEBAgriFood Framework. We covered businesses in India, and the work was really around building capacity. Now, we are working with the United Nations Environment Programme on a food systems transformation project, implementing the TEEB for Business Framework in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Assam, with over 10 large agribusinesses and over 100 FPOs [Farmer Producer organisations] and SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises].
What was the process like to engage businesses to be part of this project? How did you communicate the importance of the initiative?
As we are working with a mixture of businesses, the communication does depend on the size. With larger businesses, it’s a conversation about business strategy, whereas with smaller businesses it’s more about implementation.
We already work with businesses who want to do the right thing, but we have to help them navigate how many frameworks and tools are available. So they need to understand how using this particular framework can benefit them – maybe through knowledge development or improving access to market, for example.
What have been the key lessons learned from working with the agrifood businesses taking part in the initiative?
We’ve found that larger businesses often already have thought through their processes and are working at some level of sustainability, or are thinking about their impacts and dependencies. However, smaller businesses need more hand holding and support – we are working with a large network of farmer-producer organizations (FPOs).
For us, the challenge is how to take quite a complicated document and make it easy for them to understand and relate to. The more complicated, the less likely it will be adopted: even large businesses need something easy to pick up. It can’t be seen as an additional tool or compliance to what they are already doing. So we’ve linked it to existing national regulatory frameworks and guidelines to show how it complements existing efforts.
We have also simplified the tool and we’ve translated it into local languages. The trainings are being provided in local contexts. So it’s about local integration and finding out the real problems these businesses face, helped by our local partners. It has to be relevant to the businesses taking part and not become an overwhelming process.
What are your hopes for the future of this initiative?
Our vision for the future is to create a self-sustaining ecosystem for sustainable agrifood practices in India.
Specifically, we hope to:
- Cultivate TEEB Champions: We envision dedicated TEEB Champions emerging from the three states, equipped to advocate for and guide the framework’s adoption within their regions and beyond.
- Expand geographically: We are actively exploring the adoption of the TEEBAgriFood framework in additional states to amplify its impact.
- Mainstream the capitals approach: The ultimate milestone is the widespread adoption of the “capitals approach” thinking, driving a transformative shift towards a nature-positive and socially just food system.
Find out more about CRB and the project:
https://c4rb.org/teeb-agri-food/