This report documents ideas for how certifiers can leverage blockchain technology to reduce audit inefficiency, create a single source of truth for chain of custody (CoC) tracking and support sustainability data reporting. 

This paper presents the findings of a structured review of the GHG aspects of the standards of the four members of the M3 Standards Partnership1—the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA), Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), ResponsibleSteel and Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM)—as well as a variety of other organizations in the mining, minerals and metals sector. It also reports on the responses to a detailed survey of leading mining companies drawn from the M3 Partnership’s memberships.

This document supports the implementation of common data models to facilitate future data aggregation and collective reporting.

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.

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.

The only way to solve the sustainability challenges that we face today – from deforestation to biodiversity loss to inequality and poverty – is through greater collaboration, collective action, and innovation. We believe that sustainability systems are an important part of this solution by driving the sustainable transformation of complex commodity sectors and global supply chains. But to remain effective and add value, sustainability systems need to constantly push boundaries.

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

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 Guidance document has been developed to facilitate the use of the Integrated Assessment Protocol (IAP). This macro-enabled Excel Workbook was created to assist the Mining Organization and Operation with an integrated approach to assessing conformity to select responsible mining initiatives. This workbook includes a combined protocol that represents the following standards: Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) Responsible Jewelry Council (RJC)

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 on deforestation.

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.

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

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 document guides the incorporation of informed consent for the Delta Framework indicators data collection into existing organisational data strategy and policies.

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.

The Landscape Monitoring Framework of the socio-economic dimension (LMS) is a tool that provides practical guidance to assess the socio-economic status of a landscape to monitor progress and facilitates action for development. The LMS targets the stakeholders of the landscape initiative, and in particular the initiators of the initiative, as the main user group.

This information pack introduces the ISEAL Core Metadata Set - it is for people interested in increasing the value and integrity of the data and information their organisation curates and manages. The ISEAL Core Metadata Set was developed through the Information and Data Standard for Sustainability project, led by the Forest Stewardship Council in partnership with ISEAL.

This document summarises a use case piloted as part of the Information and Data Standard for Sustainability project. It is for people interested in increasing the value and integrity of the data and information their organisation curates and manages. The ISEAL Core Metadata Set was developed through the Information and Data Standard for Sustainability project, led by the Forest Stewardship Council in partnership with ISEAL.

Small-scale producers are at the sharp end of supply chains. They can - and do - face significant challenges in achieving and maintain a decent standard of living. ISEAL has been engaging with stakeholders about equity and livelihoods in sustainable supply chains. We have opened up conversations on improved incomes for producers within supply chains and unpacked the approaches that work to address the inequities that underpin persistent poverty.

Sustainability systems are positioned to advance human rights protections in specific geographies and commodities through verification and remediation of human rights violations, such as forced and bonded labor. However to ensure impact, detecting those violations is central and often elusive. This report captures project learnings and shares general recommendations for those working to improve FBL detection in different sectors.

BCI and WWF-Turkey have cooperated in the ATLA (Adaptation to Landscape Approach) GIS project. The purpose of the ATLA GIS project is to create baseline information and get a clear understanding of how farming activities have been interacting with Buyuk Menderes Delta and Lake Bafa over time.

A Report produced for the ISEAL Alliance Innovations Fund project “Integrating new data to improve risk assessments and detection of forced labour vulnerability in agricultural supply chains”.

The M3 Partnership Integrated Assessment Protocol (M3 IAP) is a tool designed to allow mine sites to be assessed against multiple site-level standards in a single audit, supporting identification of alignment across standards, and promoting demonstration of conformity with multiple standards with greater efficiency and reduced cost. This document describes the M3 IAP.

The Impact Alliance is a voluntary collaboration between sustainability initiatives sharing similar goals to provide oversight of and support in the development, maintenance, promotion and claiming of Impact Incentives and Impact Partnerships. The purpose of this policy is to outline the Impact Alliance’s governance structure and mechanisms and can be made available to interested parties upon request.