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.

This cross-sectoral learning brief distils the in-depth reports and tools from the M3 Partnership that can be found on the M3 Partnership website or ISEAL website.

In 2019, Gold Standard received a grant from the ISEAL Innovations Fund to develop guidance for accounting and reporting the emissions of certified commodities, in close collaboration with a group of ISEAL Community Members.

Benchmarking guide for analysing or evaluating sustainability initiatives or performance.

There are a myriad of sustainability claims in the market today. The ISEAL Sustainability Claims Good Practice Guide was developed through a multi-stakeholder consultation process to define good practice for scheme owners in setting and managing claims about their standards system.

Read about the Living Wage Working Group that ran in 2021 and 2022 for Certification and Auditing Systems.

The document at the bottom of this page provides a high level summary of what polygon location data is and why it is of significant value to sustainability standards. It aims to encourage decision makers within systems to consider the operational collection and use of polygon data within their organisations.

Six years ago, ISEAL published a comprehensive review and synthesis of existing literature and evidence of the business benefits of using sustainability standards.

Download the PowerPoint presentation for The ISEAL Code breakfast session at the ISEAL Global Sustainability Symposium 2024

This is a standardised metadata set that provides a common code for search and discovery to improve the flow of sustainability information.

There is 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.

Voluntary sustainability standards (VSSs) are increasingly directly and indirectly referenced in trade policy. They are integrated into various policy instruments, including market access and due diligence regulations, FTAs, public procurement policies, and export promotion strategies. This report details the use of VSSs and serves as a practical guide for how to assess the credibility of various VSSs and make informed decisions on which standards to integrate into trade policies.

This resource explores the concept of adopting a holistic and interconnected framework for managing and utilising data. It highlights how a digital ecosystem approach facilitates collaboration and data sharing across various stakeholders and systems to address complex challenges like ensuring sustainability through origin traceability. 

This technical paper identifies opportunities for further Guidance that we believe will strengthen an effective implementation of EUDR. ISEAL has been engaging closely with sustainability systems to understand how they are aligning and adapting in response to EUDR. In the process of adapting, sustainability systems have identified outstanding ambiguities in the Regulation and published FAQs (v1.2) which may hinder effective and consistent implementation of EUDR by operators and traders. Our paper identifies three opportunities for further guidance:

This document identifies the Traceability and Chain of Custody options available for improvers' products, as identified through the ASC Improver Programme pilot. 

This report looks at the issues facing small certified producers and their expectations and experiences of certification, and explores how standards can address producers’ needs and priorities.

This briefing note shares insights and learnings from a series of semi-structured interviews ISEAL conducted with fourteen leading, global companies engaged in living wage actions.

Amidst today’s geopolitical turmoil and structural adjustments, it’s crucial to continue supporting businesses advancing their sustainability strategies. Voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) are there to help, with years of experience on the ground and continuously improving and expanding their offer. The International Trade Centre (ITC) and ISEAL organised a joint webinar to discuss the different ways in which VSS deliver value to businesses, and what are useful criteria to determine how credible a VSS is.

This document provides practical guidance for sustainability systems to support them in generating valuable and actionable insights from data. Utilizing concepts in data science, it is intended for sustainability systems seeking to maximise the value of their data, combine data sources, and enable improved data-driven decision making procedures.

An introduction to the new GIS self-starter kit, which gives a glimpse of the possibilities of GIS and how the tools can be integrated into audit routines. The self-starter kit explains what GIS is, introduces some commonly used GIS software and applications and describes how to use them.

In this video, small producers report on the impact sustainability standards have had on their life. 

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.

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.