This report has been developed to support voluntary sustainability standard setting organizations (VSS organizations), businesses, or industry groups that operate, or are seeking to partner with local third-party organizations to develop company or multistakeholder grievance mechanisms in accordance with the principles set out in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP).This document will illustrate how third-party partners can support these organizations in the design and implementation of grievance mechanisms, and provide a practical framework for selectin

This report will  discuss the challenges the M3 Partnership faced developing a shared approach to stakeholder engagement, explore the extent to which the higher-level objective of reducing duplicative or competitive communications and reducing stakeholder confusion and fatigue has been achieved throughout the project, and outline lessons learned.

In general, in a territory the social actors work collaboratively, they themselves define the channels and mechanisms of participation in accordance with their cultural framework and the roles recognized for each one.

There are different ways in which sustainability systems can operate at landscape level. The ATLA project was designed to explore some of the key considerations at play in these strategic decisions, such as where to focus efforts, the scale of time and resources needed, how to measure performance at landscape level, and what it means to work in partnership with existing multi-stakeholder initiatives. Two project pilots, in Turkey and Pakistan, provided practical insights for these strategic decisions in the case of Better Cotton.

The Mining, Minerals, and Metals Partnership (M3 Partnership) is a collaboration of the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA), Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), ResponsibleSteel, and Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM). The M3 Partnership aims to identify opportunities for alignment and collective action to drive improvement in social and environmental performance. This report summarizes lessons learned across four key M3 Projects, including the Integrated Assessment Protocol (IAP) Tool, IAP Pilots, Greenhouse Gas (GHG), and Due Diligence Projects

This cross-sectoral learning brief distils the in-depth reports and tools from the M3 Partnership that can be found on the M3 Partnership website or ISEAL website.

In 2019, Gold Standard received a grant from the ISEAL Innovations Fund to develop guidance for accounting and reporting the emissions of certified commodities, in close collaboration with a group of ISEAL Community Members.

This case study forms part of the Rainforest Alliance project Use of Risk Maps for Child and Forced Labour in Risk-Based Assurance Processes, supported by the ISEAL Innovations Fund. The project sought to test the prototypes of sectoral risk maps for child labor and forced labor in Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, and Honduras.

FPIC-360° is an Equitable Origin initiative in partnership with the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) and the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin (COICA).  The FPIC-360° Tool for monitoring and verifying free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) is a multi-pronged tool, founded on the premise that FPIC can only be conducted responsibly and successfully if the Indigenous Peoples affected by a proposed project are co-owners and implementers of the entire process, from design, through implementation and monitoring phases.

This document identifies the Traceability and Chain of Custody options available for improvers' products, as identified through the ASC Improver Programme pilot. 

This user manual has been created as part of the Tech4Communities: Hybrid Community-based Monitoring system (HCMS) project. The project seeks to create a hybrid “remote” and “on the ground” monitoring and evaluation programme to support data gathering and management at a landscape level.

An introduction to the new GIS self-starter kit, which gives a glimpse of the possibilities of GIS and how the tools can be integrated into audit routines. The self-starter kit explains what GIS is, introduces some commonly used GIS software and applications and describes how to use them.

This report includes a comparison of the International Water Stewardship Standard (AWS Standard) and the Regional Competitiveness Framework of the Sustainable District Association in Indonesia (LTKL), with recommendations to improve alignment for better water stewardship at jurisdictional level.

This report includes a comparison of the International Water Stewardship Standard (AWS Standard) and the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR) Policy Framework, with recommendations to improve water stewardship in the natural rubber sector.

This report includes a comparison of the International Water Stewardship Standard (AWS Standard) and the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil Principles and Criteria (RSPO P&C), with recommendations to improve alignment for better water stewardship in the oil palm sector.

Juan Isaza, Program Manager, explains what the IPM Coalition is and how this initiative will accelerate the elimination of highly hazardous pesticide usage throughout the world.

A working paper for the project “New data to detect forced labour in agriculture”.

Thanks to donor support, the ISEAL Innovations Fund continues to support innovative projects until 2027