In 2019, ISEAL carried out a review of the Credibility Principles in order to determine if they require revision. The findings of the review informed the decision to proceed to revision of the principles. This documents outlines the revised terms of reference for the Credibility Principles and the timeline for the revision in 2020.

The ASC have developed an Improver Programme (IP) comprised of a set of procedures and tools to ensure that ASC standards or best practice improvements are consistently and effectively implemented by the producers. The IP model encourages uptake by groups of farmers and provides processes for group engagement in the improvement project. This document summarises joint efforts from ASC and SFP to develop a joint monitoring and evaluation framework for this new IP model. 

Forests are vital to the survival of the natural world. To decouple agricultural supply chains from deforestation, a ‘smart mix’ of policies is needed: a combination of mutually reinforcing measures that provides a framework for all stakeholders to act, both on the ground in producer countries and in consumer countries. This paper discusses how voluntary sustainability standards and certification schemes can play an important role in this smart mix, in particular in terms of supporting supply chain regulation.

This report summarizes the key lessons learnt by each of the key stakeholder groups from participation in the ASC Improver Programme pilot. The ASC standards set principles, criteria, indicators, and measurable performance levels for environmentally and socially responsible aquaculture. However, producers carry the responsibility to implement these standards at their farms, where smaller operations may have financial or technical constraints.

This resource reviews the benefits and challenges of metrics alignment and data sharing for organisations, and provides a roadmap and considerations to help think through undertaking them. The guidance builds on learning's from a number of ISEAL, and ISEAL member projects that either focused on metrics alignment and or data sharing as an ultimate goal, or where metrics alignment and or data sharing were key activities within the project.

ISEAL’s 2019 Annual Report reflects on the year’s most significant developments and achievements to support credible practices. Download a pdf of the report.

ISEAL’s 2020 Annual Report reflects on the year’s most significant developments and achievements to support credible practices. Download a pdf of the report.

ISEAL’s 2021 Annual Report reflects on the year’s most significant developments and achievements to support credible practices. Download a pdf of the report.

ISEAL's Annual Report 2022 reflects on the year’s most significant developments and achievements to support credible practices, together with the financial statements for the year ended December 2022. ISEAL's Annual Review 2022 summarises key achievements from the Annual Report.

ISEAL's Annual Report 2023 reflects on the year’s most significant developments and achievements to support credible practices, together with the financial statements for the year ended December 2023.

As part of its 2030 Strategy, Better Cotton has committed to strengthen impacts at farm level across the countries where it works and is currently setting ambitious global targets in key impact areas. In parallel, Better Cotton is exploring whether a landscape approach can deliver better impacts and efficiencies, to facilitate an evaluation of the potential of landscape approaches in the context of the BCSS, Better Cotton developed the Adaptation to Landscape Approach (ATLA) project.

A collection of background materials explaining the basics about blockchain technology.

This document guides the incorporation of informed consent for the Delta Framework indicators data collection into existing organisational data strategy and policies.

The growth and integrity of the sustainable biofuels industry, as well as the interests it seeks to protect, are in jeopardy due to the vulnerabilities in methods it currently uses for tracking transaction claims and verifying their authenticity — as identified by recent biofuel fraud investigations in the Netherlands.

This briefing note captures broader insights from a project ISEAL implemented with support from the German International Development Agency GIZ in 2018-2019, in which we explored the implications and linkages between corporate due diligence processes and voluntary sustainability standards.

Report on ISEAL member collaboration on shared impact reporting.

This brochure presents a list of critical elements to ensure that comparisons and benchmarking between standards systems are credible

ISEAL is looking for an experienced consultant/advisor for short to medium-term support to its outreach and policy workstream that is focused on regulatory changes at the EU-level. The consultant will be an expert in EU matters with a strong understanding and working knowledge of the EU’s institutions and policy-making processes, with the ability to directly support and advise ISEAL’s outreach efforts.

ISEAL is seeking a consultant to put together a summary of the main critiques and recommendations for improvement that NGOs/civil society organisations have made about sustainability standards and certification schemes (or similar multistakeholder initiatives that are using market-based approaches to drive sustainability impacts). This research will serve as an input to ISEAL’s revision and integration of our Codes of Good Practice, helping us to better reflect the priorities of this stakeholder group.

ISEAL has commissioned a systematic review being led by Carlos Oya and Dafni Skalidou on the effects of supply chain sustainability approaches on decent work outcomes in the agriculture, textile, and apparel sectors in low and middle income countries. The review aims at gaining a better understanding of what works to improve labour rights and conditions in these sectors, why, under what circumstances and for whom. For more information, please read the protocol for the review below.