ISEAL's Annual Report 2022 reflects on the year’s most significant developments and achievements to support credible practices, together with the financial statements for the year ended December 2022. ISEAL's Annual Review 2022 summarises key achievements from the Annual Report.

ISEAL is delighted to announce that the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) has been confirmed as an ISEAL Community Member. We are excited to be working with a standards system dedicated to supporting the sustainability of one of the world’s most important food staples.

This resource represents ISEAL’s submission to Science Based Target’s Initiative’s Corporate Net-Zero Standard v2.0 draft consultation. The submission draws on ISEAL’s thought leadership in defining credible practices for sustainability systems, as well as input from ISEAL community members working to decarbonise industry in their respective sectors.

ISEAL’s 2020 Annual Report reflects on the year’s most significant developments and achievements to support credible practices. Download a pdf of the report.

This research briefing aiming to inform practice is based on primary research by ISEAL over the last two years and is part of ISEAL’s project with IDH on strengthening sustainability standards to advance living wage goals. This report was written by Kate Robinson of The Outcome Gap, with editorial support from Vidya Rangan, at ISEAL.

ISEAL submitted feedback into the Canadian Competition Bureau's public consultation on the Competition Act's new greenwashing provisions that will inform future enforcement guidance about environmental claims.

This document is specifically aimed at 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 represents a short ‘start here’ level introduction to the ‘Accounting & Reporting the Emissions of Certified Commodities’ suite of guidance documents. This document is specifically aimed at Certificate Holders and potential applicants for certification (henceforth ‘CH/A’) 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. The CH/A community for each scheme will reflect the nature of the work entailed.

This ISEAL webinar discussed the challenges and lessons learnt from our consultation on sustainability benchmarking good practices

Improving the livelihoods, wellbeing and sustainable production practices of small-scale producers requires effective methods to engage with and connect these producers and other stakeholders – which can be a challenge in complex global supply chains. This case study looks at how sustainability systems and their partners supported by the ISEAL Innovations Fund are approaching this topic.

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

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.

The ASC have developed an Improver Programme (IP) comprised of a set of procedures and tools to ensure that ASC standards or best practice improvements are consistently and effectively implemented by the producers. The IP model encourages uptake by groups of farmers and provides processes for group engagement in the improvement project. This document summarises joint efforts from ASC and SFP to develop a joint monitoring and evaluation framework for this new IP model. 

ISEAL welcomes the EU Commission's proposal for a Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (CSDDD) as a necessary and pivotal step towards mainstreaming sustainability in corporate practices and fostering corporate accountability. Within the proposal, certification and verification schemes, as well as industry and multi-stakeholder initiatives play a key role in organising compliance with the proposed CSDDD.

As part of its ongoing engagement with EU policymakers, ISEAL submitted targeted input to the European Parliament on the Omnibus Package, specifically addressing the proposed amendments to the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).Our recommendations aim to support the directive’s simplification objective while ensuring that effectiveness, inclusiveness, and alignment with international standards are not compromised.

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 assesses leading metrics for measuring and reporting performance over time and across multiple spatial scales. It examines six critical sustainability issues: deforestation, biodiversity, water use, forced labour, poverty, and greenhouse gas emissions. The research supports sustainability systems in making data-driven outcome claims and provides insight into evaluating metric suitability. The report focuses on applicability of metrics and data sources, best practices, and associated limitations and trade-offs.