ESIA criteria

Criteria Social criteria Communal criteria Environmental criteria

The ESIA communal standard recognizes that the project activities, equipment, and infrastructure introduced by the ethanol and sugar industry can bring benefits to local communities, namely, employment, services, and opportunities for economic development.

By the same token, such projects can also increase the exposure of communities to the risks and impacts arising from equipment breakdown, infrastructural failures and the usage of hazardous material.

Communities may also be affected by impacts that sugar and ethanol production has on their natural resources and the ways in which people have traditionally access them. The ESIA takes these risks fully into account, whilst acknowledging the role that public authorities must also take in promoting the health, safety and security of the public.

The ESIA assessment thus stresses the responsibility of the client to avoid or minimize the risks and impacts on the health, safety and protection of the community that may arise from its corporate activities. The level of risk and impact contained within this standard is chosen with the specifics of the sugar and ethanol sectors firmly in mind.