The Australian Agricultural Sustainability Framework (AASF) is a national, industry-led initiative that provides a common language to describe sustainability in Australian agriculture. It is a joint initiative led by the National Farmers’ Federation and supported by the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. The AASF is a program of activities delivered by the partnership of Australian Farm Institute, CSIRO, KPMG, ERM and Schuster Consulting.
The AASF translates commodity-specific goals into common principles aligned with global frameworks and standards, providing international markets and trade partners with confidence in Australia’s agricultural sustainability credentials. It builds on existing industry frameworks and schemes, offering a clear, consistent and credible mechanism for communicating Australia’s agricultural sustainability story – domestically and internationally.
Through its Themes, Principles and Criteria, the AASF facilitates cross-industry alignment and supports clarity in sustainability discussions across the supply chain, finance, and policy sectors.
The AASF sets out a unified understanding of sustainability objectives through an overarching set of Themes, Principles and Criteria. The Framework spans across three Themes encompassing environmental stewardship, wellbeing of people, animals and community, and bolstering economic resilience. There are 17 Principles that represent fundamental aspects of sustainable agriculture, and 43 Criteria which outline the essential conditions that uphold each Principle. Aligned to environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, the AASF is the first country-specific tool to articulate the sustainability of Australian agriculture on a whole-of-industry basis.
The National Farmers Federation continues to lead the ongoing development and testing of the AASF, joined by project delivery partners the Australian Farm Institute (AFI), CSIRO, KPMG, ERM and Schuster Consulting Group.
The Australian Agricultural Sustainability Framework is funded by the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry through the National Agriculture Traceability Grants Program. Project delivery is led by the National Farmers’ Federation.
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
© The Australian Agricultural Sustainability Framework. Copyright of National Farmers Federation.
Carmel is dedicated to supporting CommBank’s agribusiness customers with the opportunities and risk management related to sustainability. She leads the development of solutions that support climate resilience and natural capital enhancement in agriculture. Her team’s achievements include the launch of Australia’s first Sustainability Linked Loan for agriculture and the CommBank Agri Green Loan. Strategic partnerships have been formed with Ruminati ag tech emissions measurement platform and sponsorship of research with Farming For The Future to reveal the quantified economic benefits of more trees and biodiversity in support of profitable farming production.
Carmel works closely with industry and farming customers to support transition to sustainable, productive systems, focused on the opportunities for farmers in sustainability strategies and plans, building knowledge and networks, and evolving opportunities in environmental markets. She is passionate about empowering producers with the tools and financial pathways to improve natural capital while building long-term resilience.
Through her work, Carmel is helping shape a future where sustainability and farm profitability go hand in hand.
David is Principal Research Scientist for CSIRO and leads the Social and Strategic Design Team. David’s research interests focus broadly on the nature of data (especially geospatial data), and the ways in which society creates, manages, governs, and structures data and data supply chains for the purposes of sharing data. He designs and leads projects aimed at creating new systems for sharing information as well as systems for managing environmental information.
Over his career, David has worked across numerous domains including environment, agriculture, water, defence and transport and is regularly called upon as a trusted advisor with respect to the design of human systems for the purpose of sharing data across multiple organisations.
Angela is the Managing Director of Schuster Consulting Group and a member of the cross-functional team responsible for delivering projects under the Australian Agricultural Sustainability Framework. Angela is Chair of the Agricultural Business Research Institute (ABRI) and Standards Australia’s technical committee on data-driven agrifood systems and was previously the Australian representative for the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) Strategic Advisory Group on Smart Farming.
In addition, Angela and her husband run a sheep, cattle and cropping enterprise just out of Dubbo in the Central West of NSW.
David is a farmer and physicist who has worked in precision agriculture for 30 years. He is presently the Chief Scientist of Food Agility CRC which is focussed on transforming the agrifood sector using the power of data and digital. He also leads the AgTrace initiative in partnership with DAFF. Passionate about ‘reality-fuelled’ agtech innovation on farms, he has established two university smart farms and the Global Smart Farm Network.
Andrew is an accomplished technology leader with over 25 years experience delivering cutting-edge solutions across diverse industries, including media, utilities, defence, manufacturing, health, and agrifood. He possesses extensive expertise in international agri-food technology ecosystems, and is a trusted advisor to industry organisations, supply chain entities, researchers, startups, and governments. Andrew founded the technology consultancy More Than Machines, where he assists agrifood organisations, startups, researchers, and governments in developing digital strategies, policies and technology solutions that leverage data and AI to optimise their land, production, markets, and products. Previously, as Chief Data Officer at Meat and Livestock Australia, he developed and implemented the Australian Red Meat industry data strategy and digital supply chain research programs, demonstrably increasing productivity, product quality, and enabling new market opportunities through targeted digital technology implementation.
Anna is a wine industry professional since the late 90’s, working in vineyard management and winemaking both in Australia and overseas, and later as General Manager of a premium, sustainability focused, wine producer in South Australia. She has been a non-executive director on private and government boards in the fields of biosecurity, natural resource management and grape and wine business and currently sits on the board of Landcare Australia. Immediately prior to the formation of Australian Grape and Wine she gained experience in national advocacy as Chief Executive Officer of Australian Vignerons. Having worked across a broad range of roles, including practical hands-on industry experience, she is well placed in her role to promote the best interests of the sector on domestic policy issues relating to environmental and economic sustainability. She is leading the project on carbon emissions traceability that is the focus of the presentation.
Melindee is a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne’s School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystems Science, where she focusses on the consumer defined opportunity for sustainable food production. Melindee has over 20 years’ experience in R&D leadership for academia and international FMCGs such as Cadbury, Kraft, and Mondelez.
Warwick is General Manager of Natural Resource Management with the National Farmers Federation, and Project Lead for the Australian Agricultural Sustainability Framework.
Warwick was raised on a farm in the NSW Southern Highlands and has almost 30 years experience in rural and regional advocacy. Prior to joining NFF Warwick had been working in the Commonwealth Government in stakeholder engagement roles and had previously spent a decade with NSW Farmers’ Association and a further decade as chief executive of Australian Forest Growers.
Su McCluskey was most recently Australia’s inaugural Special Representative for Australian Agriculture. With an increasing focus on more environmentally sustainable production, Su worked to promote and demonstrate Australia’s commitment to climate-smart sustainable agriculture, and counter prescriptive policy that could negatively impact Australian agriculture and global food security. She brought a depth of knowledge to this role, being a cattle producer herself, as well as a Director of LiveCorp, Crawford Fund and the Australasian Pork Research Institute, a member of the CSIRO Food and Agriculture Advisory Group and an ATSE Fellow.
Su has held numerous senior level positions, including Director of Australian Unity, Commissioner for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Commissioner on the National COVID-19 Advisory Board, a member of the Charities Review, CEO of the Regional Australia Institute and the Council of Rural Research and Development Corporations, and the Executive Director of the Office of Best Practice Regulation. Su has also held senior positions with the Business Council of Australia, the National Farmers’ Federation and the Australian Taxation Office.
Neil is a Senior Policy Officer providing advice on international market access, trade and capability building to grow the state’s agricultural industry.
His career has a balance of government and private industry experience including eight years at Coles Supermarkets where he was Responsible Sourcing Manager transforming the animal welfare and sustainable production credentials for its own brand products.
David, commonly referred to as ‘DJ’, is a third generation dryland mixed farmer. DJ operates his family’s property at Murra Warra in the Wimmera, Victoria, producing various broadacre crops and finishing prime lambs. He has been heavily involved at all levels of farmer advocacy since finishing his Diploma of Applied Science (Ag Services) at Longerenong College. DJ was elected as President of the National Farmers’ Federation in October 2023 after serving as Vice President and Director for numerous years.
DJ is a past recipient of a Nuffield Australia Scholarship and Australian Rural Leadership Program and is an active contributor to his local community.
