Understanding whether sustainability standards make a difference on the ground is an ongoing concern for sustainability standards and for the many businesses and governments that rely on them to operationalize sustainability in supply chains and landscapes.

The shift in recent years towards a more sustainable global economy has seen an increasing focus on how businesses address human rights and potential labour exploitation in their supply chains. Companies are now expected to go beyond public commitments, and face the task of operationalising human rights policies in a transparent fashion. Credible standards organisations have proven to be important tools to bridge the implementation gap of these policies, raising the question of how standards systems are equipped to identify forced labour and what happens when cases are detected.

Sustainability systems are market-based tools designed to address the most pressing social and environmental challenges of our time. They define responsible practices, assess the implementation of these practices, and measure and communicate results. Sustainability systems are used in most sectors worldwide to improve social and environmental performance. Download this one page, full description of a sustainability system.

This document sets out what our Code Compliant status recognises for our Community Members and outlines the structure of the ISEAL membership.

ISEAL works to improve the credibility and impacts of sustainability standards and understanding impacts is an important strategic goal. This paper is the first attempt to draw on internal performance monitoring data of schemes and external research to analyse the reach and characteristics of smallholder farmers within ISEAL member agriculture schemes. This is the third in a series of collective reporting briefing papers researched by ISEAL as part of the ‘Demonstrating and Improving Poverty Impacts’ (DIPI) project. 

Joining ISEAL’s learning community helps sustainability systems become more effective at achieving positive impacts.

Polygon data can provide huge benefits to sustainability systems if collected and used effectively. Recognising this, we have produced a package of tools and guidance on the benefits of polygon data and how to collect it.

The Challenge the Label webpage is a tool to help buyers understand sustainability claims and how to dig deeper into the claims they encounter.

Expand the reach of your business with sustainability standards leadership