About us

The VIVE Programme is a globally recognised continuous improvement sustainability programme, designed to make global supply chains more responsible, transparent, and resilient. Through independent assessment, VIVE supports producers, traders, processors and buyers to access verified sustainability products across farms and facilities.

VIVE operates across the entire supply chain and is benchmarked against other major sustainability initiatives, allowing one assessment to meet multiple programme requirements, and aiming to reduce audit fatigue whilst ensuring compliance with ESG and due diligence requirements.

VIVE is jointly owned by Czarnikow Group and Intellync (AB Agri Ltd) combining CZ’s deep supply chain expertise with Intellync’s sector-leading technological solutions to deliver an internationally recognised and benchmarked sustainable supply chain programme.

VIVE is a verification standard that has been benchmarked to various certification programmes, global standards, and industrial buyer criteria. VIVE is benchmarked to the International REC Standard, the Coca-Cola Principles for Sustainable Agriculture (PSA), Smartcane BMP and is a leader programme for The Coca Cola Company. VIVE is recognised as Silver Equivalent to the FSA (SAI Platform).

VIVE’s Mass Balance Traceability Platform offers exceptional supply chain transparency, enabling the tracking of raw materials back to their origin, primary processor and supplying farms.

VIVE is a multi-commodity programme and covers a range of agricultural commodities including but not limited to sugar and related products, fruits, nuts, grains, seeds, dairy and cassava.

The VIVE Programme includes five modules: Farm (Company Owned and Independent), Facilities, Shipping, Energy and Chain of Custody. These modules are tailored to address the most relevant ESG-related requirements at different supply chain stages.

VIVE participants enter a three-year participation cycle. At least one of the three assessments are conducted by an independent third-party auditor. Intellync manage the review of the self-assessment, conducting onsite and in country assessments for the other two years and overall review management of long- and short-term remediation (continuous improvement plans).

All independent third-party inspection bodies are contractually bound to follow VIVE protocols and use VIVE systems as well as vetted for competence, financial viability, and reputational integrity. VIVE retains full responsibility for training, quality control, and issuing final reports, ensuring impartiality and consistency.

Verification, as used in the VIVE Programme, is an independent assessment confirming that the data, practices, and sustainability performance reported are accurate, credible, and demonstrate progress. Unlike certification, verification does not require full compliance with a single rigid standard. Instead, VIVE uses a continuous improvement model, benchmarking participants against industry expectations and multiple certification schemes, without being a certification standard itself.

VIVE ensures deforestation-free sourcing in line with a deforestation cut‑off date of the 31^st of December 2020 and verification of participant data of geo-referenced farm polygons, satellite checks, GIS mapping, and land use history. All data is fully traceable to individual farms, and if issues arise, VIVE requires an immediate stop to activities and a formal remediation plan. The programme is also aligned with global regulations such as the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and provides buyers with verified land use and deforestation data to demonstrate compliance and progress.

VIVE Climate Action provides science-based GHG emissions calculation for farm and factory, providing product foot printing and credible mitigation pathways for Scope 1 to 3.

VIVE provides verified primary data on greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and regenerative practices. Buyers can access consistent, comparable, and verified Scope 3 emissions data aligned to their sustainability strategies.

VIVE Supporters include buyers, financial institutions, programme participants, and consultants, a network committed to sustainable procurement across supply chains and portfolios.

The Buyers Supporting VIVE (BSV) is a network of buyers who support sustainable improvements within global supply chains, and includes organisations such as Nestlé, The Coca Cola Company, Friesland Campina, Heineken and many more – all keen to drive the right market signals for producers to engage on sustainability.

Buyers can apply to become a Buyer Supporting VIVE by completing the following form on the VIVE website.

VIVE offers training, guidance documents, and capacity-building support to help participants meet sustainability guidance. Initial onboarding includes mandatory training to ensure understanding of programme expectations and how to use our online platform.

VIVE has regional experts located around the world who can provide tailored support in local languages.

Onboarding typically includes initial training and self-assessment setup, completed within a few weeks. VIVE provides ongoing support throughout the process. The cycle is typically 3 months from initial onboarding, self-assessment completion to onsite assessment. This can be extended based on the needs of the participant if more time is required to prepare for assessment.

Participants must provide documentary evidence for responses, which is verified during onsite assessments. While documentation is the primary method of verification, additional verification takes the form of visual observations on farm and factory of alignment to VIVE performance indicators.

The farm and modules require participants to undergo a full onsite assessment in Year 1, followed by follow-up onsite assessments in Years 2 and 3. This three-year cycle ensures continuous improvement and regular verification of sustainability practices, performance is tracked year-on-year. 100% of the criteria are assessed in the first year, 50% assessed in the second and third year. Long-term remediation plans are monitored annually until resolved.

Remote assessments are not a substitute for an onsite assessment and are to be used only where there are no viable options for an onsite assessment (e.g during covid 19).

Yes, all participant data is strictly confidential and stored securely, accessed only by the VIVE team. Data is shared only with authorised buyers with the approval of the participant or in aggregated, anonymised form.