To avoid any confusion with the Bluenumber Foundation, which is a separate organisation that is not associated with this initiative, this new programme no longer refers to “UN Blue Numbers”. Within GS1, we now speak of the partnership of GS1 with the ITC’s Sustainability Map.
The purpose of the ITC’s Sustainability Map
The ITC’s Sustainability Map is an independent ‘sustainability marketplace’ aiming to enhance food security, promote sustainable consumption and production, simplify compliance reporting and enable the authentication and visibility of upstream supply chains.
It serves three main purposes:
- Farmers and agri-businesses can use the ITC Sustainability Map to perform a self-assessment against standards and certifications available on the ITC Sustainability Map and can report against any sustainability framework, such as Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, GlobalGap, etc.
- Brands & retailers can use the ITC Sustainability Map of their upstream suppliers.
- Governments: The ITC Sustainability Map can help them make policy decisions to support their agricultural sector to become more sustainable and productive.
How GS1 standards are used in the ITC Sustainability Map?
GS1 GLNs will be used to provide a unique identifier to each farm, no matter how big or small.
The Global Farm Registry is a special module of the GLN Service that will be used to ensure an efficient exchange of allocated GLNs and related master data between GS1 MOs and the ITC Sustainability Map.
Besides the GLN and the GLN Service, the Global Product Classification (GPC) is also an important enabler.
ITC, the International Trade Centre, is a joint agency of the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations.
Click here to find out more on ITC Sustainability Map. Contact Ms Han hanmy@gs1my.org (ext 62867312) and Mr Leong kah_leon@GS1MY.ORG (ext 62867217) for more information.