About Excellence Through Stewardship

Excellence Through Stewardship^® is the first biotechnology industry-coordinated initiative to promote the global adoption of stewardship programs and quality management systems for the full life-cycle of biotechnology-derived plant products. Excellence Through Stewardship has the following components:

1. Stewardship Objectives, Principles and Management Practices, which members are required to adopt and abide by to contribute to responsible product management.
2. Guides to Understanding and Implementing Stewardship and Quality Management Systems that promote stewardship and quality management practices for the responsible use of biotechnology-derived plant products globally.
3. A Global Stewardship Audit Process that involves third-party audits of members to verify that stewardship programs and quality management systems are in place.

Stewardship Objectives, Principles & Management Practices In Action

Objectives of Our Stewardship Programs

1. Fully comply with applicable regulatory requirements,
2. Seek to achieve and maintain plant product integrity, and
3. Work to prevent trade disruptions in order to facilitate the flow of goods in commerce.

The Principles and Management Practices We Adopt Comprise:

1. Defining and documenting stewardship programs and quality management systems designed to achieve the above-described objectives for the full product life cycle.
2. Implementing a third-party audit process that follows approved Excellence Through Stewardship^® audit protocols and verifies that stewardship programs and quality management systems are in place.
3. Including stewardship and quality management requirements, practices or specifications in applicable contracts and agreements involving plant biotechnology with third parties that are consistent with the Stewardship Objectives, Principles and Management Practices.
4. Reaching out to others involved in the development and production of biotechnology-derived plant products to promote stewardship programs and quality management systems.
5. Engaging others in the food, feed, fiber and energy value chains to promote stewardship programs and quality management systems.

Global Leadership
With the growing global demands for quality food, feed, fiber and energy, the importance of biotechnology-derived plant products continues. Equally important is the responsible use of plant biotechnology, which has always been a top priority for those engaged in discovering, developing or commercializing biotechnology-derived plant products (e.g., biotechnology commodity crops, specialty crops, energy crops, perennials, ornamentals, plant-made pharmaceuticals and plant-made industrial products).

Global adoption of stewardship practices helps to assure that all companies and institutions continue to promote the responsible use of this technology. Membership and participation in Excellence Through Stewardship is encouraged for those involved with this technology in order to achieve a truly harmonized and robust approach to plant biotechnology stewardship.

Education and Outreach
Through education and outreach efforts, Excellence Through Stewardship aims to become the trusted source for stewardship and quality management practices in the plant biotechnology industry. With this in mind, Excellence Through Stewardship provides several Guides on the development and implementation of stewardship programs and quality management systems for biotechnology-derived plant products. The Guides are available on this website to members and non-members.