This Guidance supports sustainability systems to design and implement good practice greenhouse gas emissions accounting, reporting and disclosure strategies for users of their schemes. This approach affords several opportunities for the ISEAL community. The intended users of this Guidance are ISEAL member schemes that are involved in the certification of commodities. The guidance may also be of interest to their communities (certificate holders, applicants, assurance providers, oversight bodies, buyers, governments, civil society and the public).

Sustainability systems represent and support complex supply chains, with a wide variety of commodities, producers and geographies included. Emissions reporting is a complex and fast-moving space. Thus, these systems and their communities may face challenges keeping pace with developments and developing consistent and appropriate good practices that can benefit their communities and climate security.

This document describes how ISEAL will use, process and share information collected from members in the course validating that members meet the ISEAL Community Member Requirements, ISEAL Accreditation Member Requirements and ISEAL Code Compliant Requirements.

Going further in establishing robust credibility criteria, promoting multistakeholder participation, and supporting clear pre-approval and verification processes for sustainability schemes. This paper reiterates our longstanding support for the Commission’s efforts to introduce more stringent regulations to tackle greenwashing, enabling consumers to make informed purchasing decisions. We would also like to share our views on the proposal and suggest some amendments to make it even more effective.

Tackling gender inequalities is becoming increasingly important for voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) and similar systems to address. Sustainability systems are looking to integrate gender into their standards and the management of their organisations. Sustainability systems that are not gender-responsive can result in unnecessary health and safety risks for women and girls, and lead to unequal impacts and unintended consequences.

Please use this form to submit comments and suggestions on sections of the revised ISEAL Sustainability Claims Good Practice Guide. 

This is the 3rd workshop in our series of Workshops dedicated to increasing our collective understanding of how remote auditing practices are evolving.

The ISEAL Complaints Procedure outlines how stakeholders can report concerns about members’ adherence to ISEAL Community Member Requirements, ISEAL Code Compliant Requirements, and ISEAL Accreditation Member Requirements, and how ISEAL will work with stakeholders and members to resolve complaints.

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 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 has contributed to the UK’s Sustainability Reporting Standards (UK SRS) consultation. The consultation sought views on the exposure draft UK SRS, which are based on IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information and IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures. 

Bonsucro and Responsible Jewellery Council engaged Business & Human Rights consultancy twentyfifty to conduct a research project into Grievance Mechanisms within Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS). The research investigated how grievance mechanisms have been set up and how grievances are managed and remediated within their memberships.

An introduction to the Membership Committee, a permanent committee of the ISEAL Board of Directors that is responsible primarily for forming recommendations on new membership applications, deciding on member disputes that may arise as a result of an independent evaluation of Code Compliance, and deciding on appeals decisions of the Secretariat not to recommend ISEAL Community Member status or to suspend or withdraw Code Compliant status.

ISEAL’s 2021 Annual Report reflects on the year’s most significant developments and achievements to support credible practices. Download a pdf of the report.

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.