The Journey to Sustainable Sugar Begins Here

a tall stalk of sugarcane with a sugarcane field in the background

Sustainability can be sweet.

As one of the world’s thirstiest crops, sugarcane has a significant environmental impact—particularly when it comes to water use and quality—on many critical regions, from Southeast Asia’s Mekong River Delta to Central America’s Mesoamerican Reef. Yet it can be produced in environmentally, socially and economically sustainable ways.

WWF works with Bonsucro and a wide range of stakeholders—farmers, processors, food and beverage producers, traders, investors, industry specialists, and civil society operate—to develop, strengthen and promote standards for sustainable sugarcane cultivation and processing.

In Honduras, Azunosa became the first processing mill to achieve Bonsucro certification in Central America—a big win for local communities and hundreds of species of native birds, fish, turtles and other wildlife that rely on the Mesoamerican Reef. The mill’s certification lead, Ruth Ascencio, said: “It was a big challenge at first. …Once it was reviewed, it made a lot of sense. I think any sugar mill is capable of doing it. WWF was there along the way to help us out, supporting us directly. Achieving this certification is a triumph for both.”

If you’d like to work with WWF to explore Bonsucro certification, please contact us.

Learn more about the impact unsustainable sugar production has on our environment and wildlife, and what WWF is doing to minimize those effects.

Dive deeper:

Bonsucro is a global non-profit, multi-stakeholder organization fostering the sustainability of the sugarcane sector through its leading metric-based certification scheme and its support for continuous improvement. Learn more about Bonsucro here.