The State of Sustainable Markets 2015
Statistics and Emerging Trends
This publication shows significant growth in sustainability markets. Offering a pathway to formalizing the reporting process, with a view to making data on sustainable markets more accessible to all, it provides a market data survey on Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS). The first section constitutes an overview of the VSS surveyed, including a short description and key data. Section two includes production-related data for key global sustainability standards across nine commodity sectors – bananas, cocoa, coffee, cotton, forestry, palm oil, soybeans, cane sugar and tea – and addresses each product's serious sustainability challenges, such as child labour, water scarcity, workers’ rights, use of chemicals, and more. Demonstrating ITC's support for "good trade" that contributes to environmental and social sustainability for producers and consumers, the report provides transparency by summarizing those challenges and by noting which standards initiatives are gaining traction.
