L.SFP.1021 - Independent review of the Environmental Credential platform

Summary

The national online platform, Environmental Credentials for Australian Grassfed Beef (ECGB) has been built to enable grassfed beef producers to measure and report on their environmental credentials. The project is being led by MLA, in partnership with the UQ and WWF Australia, funded through the National Landcare Program’s Smart Farming Partnership grant.

The purpose of this sub-project was to independently review the platform during the piloting phase to gather feedback and inform its finalisation before the release in May 2024.

During the pilot period of the platform, producers were then able to trial it for their own properties in their own time and provide feedback through an online survey. Survey data was analysed and has been used to form recommendations for refining the platform. this was then collated with feedback from an independent reviewer who also trialed the platform during this time.

Recommendations from the pilot and independent review informed changes which could be made to the platform prior to its release in 2024 and future iterations of the platform. This included some changes to the design to make it more intuitive and an external review for editing of the learning module content. This was presented back to producer pilot participants by the independent reviewer at the end of the pilot period.

Objectives

The overall objective of this project was to deliver an independent review of the Environmental Credentials platform and all its content. This was to ensure that any improvements could be made before its release in 2024.

Key findings

Feedback from the pilot process identified key themes to base the focus of recommendations on. These themes include:
• improving platform access
• improvements to ease of use/navigation
• refinement of the learning library
• modifications to the carbon calculator
• improvements to the biodiversity self-assessment quiz
• changes to the MyCredential section
• editing of the learning modules for readability and target audience.
Many of the simple issues and value-adds suggested could be actioned in the short term, and other issues and suggestions may need to be held over for the next iteration of the platform.

Benefits to industry

The pilot testing phase and independent review enabled user testing of the platform which will in turn allow for valuable feedback to inform improvement and finalisation of the platform prior to public release. This work should lead to the development of a better product and increased satisfaction with the platform and greater value to be gained by industry using the tool.

MLA action

MLA is seeking funding to further develop the Environmental Credentials platform and will continue to maintain and improve the platform to build the user base.

Future research

Further investment is required to maintain and continually improve the Environmental Credentials for Grassfed Beef Platform. MLA is scoping up a maintenance model currently.