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.

This document contains a summary of the core operating practices that voluntary sustainability systems should have in place to be considered credible.

An examination of both content and scope for the EU Directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition.

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.

Sustainability systems (such as voluntary sustainability standard and certification schemes) are increasing their efforts to advance gender equality, recognising its importance both as a fundamental human right and as a means to achieving other aspects of sustainability. This toolkit aims to support these systems to advance their thinking and action on gender equality by compiling curated resources and practical case studies.

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 learnings from projects by ISEAL and its members, where metrics alignment and data sharing were key.

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. ISEAL's Annual Review 2023 summarises key achievements from the Annual Report.

ISEAL's Annual Report 2024 reflects on the year’s most significant developments and achievements to support credible practices, together with the financial statements for the year ended December 2024.

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

This checklist distils the key elements in developing and implementing a benchmark of sustainability systems.

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.

This briefing paper complements ISEAL’s Recommendations, released in November 2022, which focus on two main areas of legislative reform for the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD):

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

Improving the livelihoods, wellbeing and sustainable production practices of small-scale producers requires effective methods to engage with and connect these producers and other stakeholders – which can be a challenge in complex global supply chains. This case study looks at how sustainability systems and their partners supported by the ISEAL Innovations Fund are approaching this topic.

Improving the livelihoods and well-being of smallholders, small-scale producers and workers is a priority for many sustainability systems. This case study looks at some of the innovative ways sustainability systems and partners supported by the ISEAL Innovations Fund are enabling small-scale producers to benefit from accessing markets and participating in global value chains.

This guidance developed by ISEAL on Chain of Custody (CoC) System is a reference document for sustainability standards systems that complements ISEAL's Sustainability Claims Good Practice Guide.

The context in which sustainability systems operate significantly influences the scale, depth and durability of their impacts. This is an important consideration when designing new strategies to improve sustainability performance. To provide support in this area, we have developed the following resources: