Reflecting changing sentiment in the SSF

To ensure the Sheep Sustainability Framework (SSF) addresses the key sustainability issues facing the industry, stakeholders are periodically engaged through a materiality assessment to share their views on the biggest challenges they face.

The results of this assessment help guide the direction of the SSF over a three-to-four-year period.

SSF Steering Committee Chair Scott Williams said the 2024 materiality assessment was largely consistent with results from 2020.

“The material issues that ranked at the top back then are still largely the same, including ‘animal wellbeing and welfare’ and ‘animal husbandry and handling’,” Scott said.

The most notable shift over the past four years has been the rise of certain topics in stakeholder priority.

“‘Access to labour’ has significantly increased as a concern, and is now the fourth ranking topic, despite being ranked 19th in 2020,” Scott said.

The assessment also showed growing importance in areas such as ‘greenhouse gas emissions and carbon management’, ‘occupational health’ and ‘energy’.

Meanwhile, topics like ‘biodiversity’ and ‘water security’ slipped slightly in perceived importance, but remain in the top 10.

“The rise of some of these topics is unsurprising following conversations which have been amplified lately,” Scott said.

While several factors likely contributed to changing priorities, Scott said updates to the assessment process may have also contributed.

“We need to be careful in how we interpret these changes and why they happened, as the methodology and topics themselves have shifted.”

How will this shape the SSF?

The SSF aims to define and measure sustainability progress within the industry, with the latest data reported annually.

Scott said the shifts in stakeholder sentiment could be reflected in the next annual report, or more gradually in successive years.

“It’s important to balance the need to ensure the report is reflective of current needs, while maintaining continuity with previous reports so that trends can be seen over time,” Scott said.

Altering metrics too frequently could disrupt the ability to monitor ongoing trends, so some changes will likely be integrated through explanatory notes accompanying the data.

“We are also seeking to reflect the ranking of various topics by supplementing, rather than changing our metrics, for example, on access to labour, capacity building, and farm profitability.

“Those changes may not be seen in the upcoming report, but potentially in later ones,” Scott said.

However, to maintain alignment with global reporting frameworks, some updates may still be introduced in the next annual report.

Any changes, now or in the future, will be carefully considered to ensure SSF remains fit-for-purpose.

“The materiality assessment was a very thorough process. We believe we have a very good picture of what the key topics are for stakeholders across and outside the industry.”

Matrix of material topics for the Australian sheep industry.

The highest ranking material topics across the SSF’s four themes.