AFi releases updated Common Methodology for corporate reporting and assessment

Today, the Accountability Framework initiative (AFi) released an updated version of the Common Methodology for Assessment of Progress Towards Deforestation- and Conversion-Free Supply Chains.  

First published in 2019, the Common Methodology offers a set of recommended metrics that can be used to assess company policies, actions, and performance on eliminating deforestation, conversion, and associated human rights abuses from commodity supply chains. 

A standardised approach to corporate assessment 

The Accountability Framework reflects the consensus of leading civil society organisations and international norms regarding corporate policies and action to on eliminate deforestation, conversion, and associated human rights abuses from commodity supply chains. It also serves to standardise how commodity buyers, investors, and civil society evaluate corporate performance on these topics.  

The metrics of the Common Methodology provide the basis for ensuring that different stakeholders collect and assess that information in alignment with the Framework and with each other.  

The Common Methodology was developed in collaboration with key corporate disclosure and assessment initiatives as part of an ongoing process to increase alignment and reduce data gaps across their tools and methodologies. Over the past four years, the Common Methodology has been used to strengthen and standardise the methodologies of corporate disclosure platforms such as CDP, reporting standards such as GRI, assessment initiatives such as Forest 500, and the policies and KPIs of industry associations such as the Consumer Goods Forum.  

What’s new in the Common Methodology? 

This updated methodology reflects the learnings of disclosure and assessment organisations over the past five years, as corporate policy and action on deforestation and ecosystem conversion has matured. While retaining continuity from the prior version, this revision provides several important updates. These include: 

• refining the language and concepts used to characterise company performance to reflect recent developments in the corporate sustainability space; 

• ensuring that the methodology addresses the needs expressed by companies, financial institutions, and other stakeholders for clear, accurate, and complete information on company activities such as supply chain traceability and monitoring; 

• adding a set of new metrics related to deforestation-free and conversion-free production and trade, which have been developed and adopted by reporting and assessment organisations and which are interoperable with new target-setting and accounting frameworks for climate and nature. 

Who should use the Common Methodology? 

The Common Methodology is intended to be used by initiatives and organisations that are working to adopt and improve questionnaires, disclosure methodologies, reporting standards, assessment tools, and key performance indicators related to corporate performance on deforestation, ecosystem conversion, and related human rights risks.  

By using the Common Methodology, diverse stakeholders can ensure they collect and assess information in a comparable way, improving the quality, interpretability, and value of the information collected. 

The Common Methodology is not designed for direct use by companies to structure their own reporting. Companies are encouraged to report and disclose using reporting standards and disclosure platforms that adopt and align with this methodology.  

The Common Methodology in action 

Currently, as this updated and revised methodology is being released, partner organisations are using it to develop cutting edge, user-friendly, and fit-for-purpose tools to understand and communicate how companies are progressing in their efforts to build and maintain deforestation- and conversion-free supply chains. 

CDP forests questionnaire 

The launch of the Accountability Framework and the Common Methodology in 2019 spurred major revisions to CDP’s forests questionnaire in 2020. In 2022-23, CDP worked as part of the AFi coalition to develop new metrics to assess company performance related to producing and sourcing deforestation- and conversion-free (DCF) commodity volumes, which are now included in both the revised Common Methodology and the CDP forests questionnaire. These metrics include both a breakdown of DCF proportions in relation to total supply chain volumes as well as information on how deforestation and conversion are assessed, monitored, and verified. These metrics of DCF performance provide a way for stakeholders to accurately understand corporate progress toward achieving their supply chain goals.  

The revised Common Methodology is also central to the significant redevelopment of forests questions and scoring underway for 2024. These changes reflect progress and growing maturity in the reporting and assessment of social, forest and land-related issues and getting to the information that is most important - impact, supply chain management and industry wide action that’s being taken to get there and sustain it. That is being reflected in CDP’s revised approach to assessing industry and individual company performance that is streamlined, simplified and in essence, an even closer reflection of the Common Methodology. 

For CDP and its stakeholders, the Common Methodology brings a harmonised approach that is comparable and so can be used in decision making across platforms. It really focuses on the metrics that are important to assess the impact on forests and the transition to ethical, deforestation and conversion-free commodity production, and consumption. 

Forest IQ 

The Common Methodology has supported the greater alignment of many methodologies used by different initiatives and organisations to assess companies on their action towards ethical supply chains. This alignment has enabled the data collected by these initiatives to be connected and shared across these datasets, unlocking standardised data at scale. 

Forest IQ is a new data platform for financial institutions that does just that, connecting seven different datasets including several of those aligned with the Common Methodology. It provides data on how companies are addressing their exposure to deforestation by drawing from 2,400 indicators from the underlying datasets and synthesising them to create three comparable core metrics. The alignment of these data across platforms and companies enables financial institutions to easily screen their portfolios and engage with the most at-risk companies. Forest IQ already provides data on more than 2,000 companies, which indicates how harmonised methodologies and datasets can provide standardised information at scale. 

Palm Trader Performance Assessment  

The Common Methodology has supported successful alignment of leading public reporting and benchmarking platforms. However, this harmonisation had not been carried out for the trader and refinery assessments conducted by commodity buyers and other stakeholders specific to the palm supply chain. At the beginning of 2023, key organisations and initiatives working on company assessments in the palm sector convened to develop an aligned list of questions for assessing palm traders and refiners - the Working Group for Aligning Palm Trader Performance Assessment, convened by 3Keel and Proforest. The group built upon the revised Common Methodology and aligned tools and platforms, as well as alignment by the Palm Oil Collaboration Group (including on the NDPE Implementation Reporting Framework) and Consumer Goods Forum. 

The group released an aligned list of questions in November 2023, for use by palm buyers and organisations that support supplier assessment in palm supply chains beginning in 2024. This is a crucial step in achieving greater consistency and alignment in how traders and refiners in the palm oil sector are assessed and brings greater efficiency as companies will spend less time answering questionnaires, allowing more resources for improving performance and creating positive impact.  

Accessing the Common Methodology 

To download the Common Methodology for Assessment of Progress Towards Deforestation and Conversion-Free Supply Chains, visit the dedicated resource page on the AFi website: 

Access the Common Methodology

 

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Authored by:

• Sarah Draper, Corporate Performance Programme Lead, Global Canopy

• Tomasz Sawicki, Associate Director Forests and Land Use, CDP

• Justin Dupre-Harbord, Principal Project Manager, Proforest