trustea is a sustainability program for the tea sector anchored on the three pillars of environment, safety and livelihoods. The program enables producers, buyers and others involved in the tea supply chain to obtain tea that has been produced sustainably according to agreed, credible, transparent and measurable criteria.
trustea is working with smallholder tea growers, bought leaf factories, estates and packers to address issues such as working conditions, health and safety of tea workers, water pollution, food safety, soil erosion and contamination, gender issues, sustenance of biodiversity and adverse effects of climate change.
Find out more about trustea at - https://trustea.org/
ISEAL Code Compliant designates members who have successfully undergone independent evaluations against the ISEAL Codes of Good Practice in Standards-Setting, Assurance and Impacts.
Please note, all ISEAL Code Compliant members are also ISEAL Community Members.
The ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Sustainability Systems (‘the ISEAL Code’) v1.0 became effective as of 1 March 2024. There is an 18-month transition period of ISEAL Code Compliant organisations to align their systems to the ISEAL Code.
During the transition period, no independent evaluations against the Standard-Setting, Impacts, or Assurance Codes are conducted, but Code Compliant organisations will engage in compliance activities and are expected to align their systems with the ISEAL Code. Independent evaluations against the scope of the ISEAL Code are anticipated from Q4 2025. Information about the transition period is publicly available on the What is ISEAL Code Compliant page.
As a result of this independent evaluation, trustea has made the following improvements to how they set their standards:
- Updated their Standards Development and Revision procedure.
- Made improvements to the transparency and accessibility of their public consultation process.
- Increased efforts to reach out to other standard systems operating in the same space as themselves.
- Implemented record-keeping procedures after completing their standard revision.
As a result of this independent evaluation, trustea made the following improvements to their assurance system:
- Provided additional transparency on the competence of assessors used for oversight purposes.
- Improved the independence of their appeals process.
- Put in place measures to mitigate misrepresentation or corruption in the case of the suspension of certificate holders.
- Defined procedures that improve the transparency of CB and internal staff competency whilst making sure measures are in place for ongoing professional development.
As a result of this independent evaluation, trustea made the following improvements to their M&E system:
- Improved the identification of unintended effects and made these more transparent for their stakeholders.
- Improved the reporting of performance monitoring, as well as the outcomes and impact evaluations within their M&E system.
- Updated their Logical Framework Analysis (LFA) to aid the transparency of their intended impact and outcomes.
- Published their first M&E report in line with the requirements of the ISEAL Impacts Code.