This short paper provides high-level summaries of BetterCoal, IRMA and TSM and outlines under which circumstances ResponsibleSteel will recognise mine sites participating in the programmes.

ResponsibleSteel has assessed Bettercoal, IRMA and TSM against a defined recognition benchmark as laid out in the ‘Recognition assessment tool’. The recognition assessments served to determine whether the programmes meet our benchmark and could thus be recognised. This paper provides high-level summaries of the three programmes and outlines under which circumstances ResponsibleSteel will recognise mine sites participating in the programmes

This document describes ResponsibleSteel’s methodology for the recognition of input material programmes. It is underpinned by a series of Excel templates, the ‘ResponsibleSteel Recognition Assessment Tool’, that serve to implement the methodology.

If you’re interested in any of our roles, download our application process summary. Please note that we do not accept speculative CVs. If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, such as extra time, online interviews or anything else, please let us know.

Remediation is a fundamental principle of international human rights. In 2022 and 2023, ISEAL ran a dialogue series with ISEAL members, supported by the UN OHCHR Accountability and Remedy Project, to build awareness on key remediation concepts and activities, take stock of existing efforts on remediation, identify cross-cutting challenges, and inspire further action on remediation.

Information about grants to conduct remote auditing pilots

A compilation of the lessons learned from four pilot projects in remote auditing from Responsible Jewellery Council, LEAF Marque, Beter Cotton Initiative, and Fairtrade USA. LEAF Marque and the Responsible Jewellery Council looked at the extent to which remote auditing could provide an alternative to in-person on-site visits, while the two other pilot projects used a remote phone survey based on worker voice technology to carry out interviews with workers in factory settings (in the case of Fair Trade USA) and in an agricultural setting on cotton farms (Better Cotton Initiative – BCI).

This resource presents a summary of the one-on-one interviews with ISEAL members and select other sustainability initiatives as part of the project on remote auditing practices and assurance responses to COVID-19.

Discussion paper and webinar on landscape and jurisdictional assurance and claims.

In this report ISEAL offers insights from three baselines of evaluations that it commissioned in 2015 and were published in June 2016

The ISEAL-funded research project Integrating new data to improve risk assessments and detection of forced labour in agricultural supply chains (2017 – 18) is an attempt to build the evidence base around monitoring and remediating forced labour in agricultural supply chains.

This report first examines how standards systems are being applied to landscapes and jurisdictions. It then explores factors that are important to the effective application of sustainability strategies at a landscape level and identifies opportunities to strengthen the role that standards systems can play in implementing those strategies.

Moving towards an outcome-based standard creates the opportunity for LEAF to communicate more closely on the impacts of implementing the LEAF Marque Standard, measuring outcomes directly rather than proxying them with practices.

This report explores the relevance of current trends in technology to sustainability standards – from mobile data collection and the internet of things, to open data and blockchains – and proposes a roadmap for development. 

ISEAL is seeking a consultant to conduct research on the nature of support that our members and their stakeholders and partners need in order to scale pilot and early-stage projects into sustainable long-term initiatives.

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

In 2019, we launched a review of the principles to find out how they have been used and adopted. The outcome of the review will decide whether the principles need to be revised to adapt to new international frameworks and norms, changing stakeholder expectations or innovations in sustainability tools, and, if so, the scope of the revision. This document contains information about the review objectives, process and opportunities for involvement.

This is a consultation draft for the revised good practice guide for benchmarking of voluntary sustainability systems. The consultation runs from 31 October to 15 December 2024. More details on the consultation.

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 2022, CGIAR's HER+ initiative researchers partnered with ISEAL to explore how sustainability systems are able to contribute to advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment. Gender is a crosscutting theme in ISEAL’s strategic priority to power solutions to sustainability challenges.

This document provides an overview of the development of the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Sustainability Systems (the ISEAL Code). It includes a summary of the consultations on the first and second drafts of the ISEAL Code, and an overview of key changes from the existing Codes of Good Practice. We would like to thank everyone who provided feedback on the drafts, and to those who supported the consultations by engaging with events and sharing information about the consultations with colleagues and stakeholders.

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 report offers lessons learned on how interoperability of sustainability standards in the metals, minerals and metals (MMM) sectors can help standards systems in other sectors. In particular, it explores how MMM, forestry and agriculture standards can enhance collaboration and improve sustainability impacts through interoperability.