This is a conceptual framework which outlines the justification and process for the development of the ISEAL Common Core Indicators. This work began as part of ISEAL's Developing and Improving Poverty Impacts project (DIPI).

In 2021, ISEAL worked with seven different sustainability schemes to conduct ten field-based pilot audits in different country-sector combinations around the world. The objectives of these pilot audits were two-fold: to provide participating schemes the opportunity to test the use of the Salary Matrix and accompanying IDH Verification Guidelines with certified entities and to provide IDH learnings and recommendations for these pilots to improve these Roadmap’s tools.

This series of papers was developed as part of an exploratory workstream investigating the role and maturity of monitoring and measurement in different landscape and jurisdictional initiatives. The papers are targeted towards landscape and jurisdictional practitioners and focus on the practicalities of measurement for landscape and jurisdictional initiatives.

This report summarises an assessment of a range of leading metrics that can be used to credibly measure and report on performance over time and across multiple spatial scales. The research focuses on six critical sustainability issues: deforestation, biodiversity, water use, forced labour, poverty, and Greenhouse Gas emissions.

This ISEAL commissioned report, carried out by 3keel and the University of Oxford, aims to understand the effectiveness of sustainability standards and certification tools in driving the adoption of more sustainable practices in certified entities, thereby contributing to the achievement of key sustainability outcomes

There is growing commitment from supply chain and policy actors to advance action towards delivering living wages for workers around the world. Voluntary sustainability standards continue to be widely adopted by businesses (upstream and downstream) as approaches to advance on decent work and living wage goals. Read our one project to learn about the ISEAL-IDH project on living wage. 

There is now wide recognition that the ongoing pandemic has had a profound impact on women across all dimensions of economic and social activity. From shifting gender roles within the household to effects on women’s active role in the economy and the real health and well-being effects of the pandemic, there is a growing concern that women are ‘losing out’ severely. From the standpoint of sustainability standards and systems, the pandemic has opened up the opportunity to review many streams of work, including how they conduct their assurance activities.

The Wage Auditing Working Group sought to explore this potential by providing opportunities for sustainability systems to discuss the topic of wages, including auditing and verification of wages, to support their efforts to measure and bridge living wage gaps. The working group ran from May 2021 to June 2022. It was set up as part of a 1.5-year project led by ISEAL on supporting effective measurement, verification and improvement of living wage gaps.

This webinar provided an opportunity for those working in the palm oil sector in Asia, including on the demand side, to hear about ongoing efforts in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore that are strengthening demand for sustainable palm oil such as youth engagement, industry platforms, and company rankings.

'The changing nature of trust and the role of credible standards' presented by Karin Kreider, ISEAL’s Executive Director, Joe Wozniak from International Trade Centre and Philip Schleifer from University of Amsterdam.

Joshua Wickerham, ISEAL Policy & Outreach Manager, guides us through key insights from the producer needs survey, with input from Stefano Savi from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and Rosario Galan from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). We also discuss RSPO’s and FSC’s smallholder strategies and lessons learnt from the survey findings.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) recently reached a landmark agreement on the definition and operationalisation of a living wage, following its meeting of experts in February.

An alliance for improving smallholder incomes founded by GIZ, Sustainable Food Lab and ISEAL