To meet today’s sustainability challenges requires new thinking, collaborations and ways of working. ISEAL's Innovations Fund cultivates this by providing grants to sustainability systems to develop innovative approaches and drive sector transformation.This learning brief:

This report captures learnings from a project led by GoodWeave to develop a rapid assessment tool to detect forced and bonded labour (FBL), and shares general recommendations for those working to improve FBL detection in different sectors. 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 labour. However to ensure impact, detecting those violations is central and often elusive. 

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 document identifies key lessons from a collaborative project between ASC, SFP and SFW to develop an improver programme to implement best management practices with the aim of improving farm and zonal management to mitigate critical production risks. 

Small-scale fisheries are a critical source of employment and livelihoods for millions of coastal families and communities, although in many cases, employment is seasonal and alternative sources of income are required. Small-scale fisheries also contribute to local food and nutrition security through the supply of high protein fishery products. However, small-scale fisheries face considerable challenges that limit their potential to contribute to sustainable livelihoods. 

The Living Income Community of Practice has designed a series of infographics that aids in the visualisation of the living income concept, measurement as well as the objectives of the community of practice. We encourage all within the community to use these infographics to keep the conversation going. ​Conditions for use: All the images are downloadable in a pdf format. It is advisable to use the graphics in its entirety. Also, we kindly request you credit the Living Income Community of Practice.

Low wages persist in the banana sector, and workers struggle to make a decent living. Even in contexts of certified value chains, workers can experience a gap between their earnings and living wage benchmarks. In 2023, Fairtrade International launched three mechanisms to contribute to closing living wage gaps for banana workers (see page 3 for details). In addition, the Fairtrade Minimum Price and Fairtrade Premium benefit both farmers and workers. Together, these tools aim to increase incomes for banana producers and workers in certified value chains.

ISEAL has developed a good practice guide to help ensure that sustainability claims made by jurisdictions, landscape initiatives, and the companies that source from or support them, are credible. The guidance covers the structural and performance claims a jurisdictional entity may wish to make, along with the supporting action claims of other related stakeholders.

ISEAL developed a framework for credible living wage claims following input from a range of standard setting organisations, companies and trade unions. It focuses on claims about living wages and guides credibility in sustainability communication. Since January 2021, ISEAL has worked with sustainability systems to strengthen their approaches in supporting supply chain action on living wages.

This report highlights lessons from pilot projects  across five supply chains in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific between 2024 and 2025, and cover sugar, cocoa, cotton and flowers. It captures Fairtrade’s approach, key lessons learned, and practical considerations, when Fairtrade facilitated direct dialogue between companies and farmers/workers. It also offers practical guidance for businesses and third-party facilitators. It is aimed at companies and (potential) facilitators of meaningful rightsholder dialogue.

This brief presents practical strategies for strengthening monitoring approaches within voluntary sustainability systems, with a focus on promoting inclusion and equity. Drawing on experiences from ISEAL members, it provides actionable insights and examples that can inform more effective and inclusive monitoring and evaluation practices. These learnings are also relevant for businesses, governments, and civil society organisations aiming to support more just and equitable markets.

From mid-2022 – mid-2024, ISEAL led a stream of work focused on Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) for landscape and jurisdictional approaches. As part of this endeavour, we committed to supporting three sustainability systems and related organisations through pilot project funding. The goal was to explore the practicalities of measuring landscape and jurisdictional level performance improvement to tackle sustainability issues at scale, with a particular focus on biodiversity and nature, human well-being, and human rights.

This methodology aims to support national commodity associations and other relevant public bodies to aggregate producer-level data using the Delta indicators to assess and report on the sustainability performance of the commodity’s production at country level.

This case study is part of a series that looks at how credible VSS are responding to one of the most important legislative developments: the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which aims to prevent products associated with deforestation from being sold on the EU market. Featuring Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade International, it explores how credible VSS drive not only compliance but also meaningful transformation across the cocoa sector.

This case study highlights how credible voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) support palm oil companies with regulatory requirements such as the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). Featuring the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), it explores how VSS enable traceability, ensure legal production, and promote smallholder inclusion - helping businesses build deforestation-and conversion-free (DCF) supply chains that go beyond compliance.

This case study looks at how credible voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) are responding to one of the most important legislative developments: the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which aims to prevent products associated with deforestation from being sold on the EU market. Featuring the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS) and ProTerra,  it explores how credible VSS drive not only compliance but also meaningful transformation across the soy sector.

This document is a short ‘start here’ level introduction for buyers of certified commodities as users, stakeholders, participants and license holders of ISEAL member schemes or other sustainability systems.

This document is a short ‘start here’ level introduction for Certificate Holders and potential applicants for certification with ISEAL member schemes or other sustainability systems that have or are commencing on a process to align their certification of commodities and chains of custody models with emissions reporting good practices.

This document is a short ‘start here’ level introduction for Oversight and Assurance Providers to ISEAL member schemes or other sustainability systems that have or are commencing on a process to align their certification of commodities and chains of custody models with emissions reporting good practices.

This document is a short ‘start here’ level introduction for ISEAL member schemes or other sustainability systems who have commenced or are considering commencing on a process to align their certification of commodities and chains of custody models with emissions reporting good practices.

ISEAL engaged consultancy ANC Ltd to understand the strategic implications of sustainability reporting for VSS. To date, the opportunities for mutual benefit from collaboration between sustainability reporting frameworks and VSS were underexplored and underdeveloped.This summary report details the strategic pathways and implications of deeper collaboration between VSS and sustainability reporting frameworks for bigger sustainability impacts.

An introduction to ISEAL’s Finance Committee, which was established in 2006 to oversee all issues related to the financial management of ISEAL. The Committee reviews for example ISEAL’s quarterly accounts, annual budgets and other issues related to ISEAL’s financial reporting and performance.