This document is a short ‘start here’ level introduction for Certificate Holders and potential applicants for certification with ISEAL member schemes or other sustainability systems that have or are commencing on a process to align their certification of commodities and chains of custody models with emissions reporting good practices.

In the suite of guidance documents, there are four such 'opening' guides, for certificate holders/applicants (this document), schemes, assurance and oversight providers and buyers. It is recommended that each stakeholder group begins with their respective opening guidance, followed by the general ‘Introductory Guidance’, which goes into more contextual detail and finally the ‘Guidance for Sustainability Systems to Design and Implement Credible Greenhouse Gas Reporting systems’.

Learn more about the project, 'A shared value approach to climate impact at landscape scale' (2020-22), led by Gold Standard, supported by the ISEAL Innovations Fund and Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO.