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.

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” runs the old business adage. Conversely, good metrics and data can help you make better management decisions, develop effective strategies and monitor progress.

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.

This webinar shows how a focus on data and information management in assurance can improve both the effectiveness of the assurance process and the value of that process for certifying enterprise, supply chain actors and the scheme owners themselves.

This document provides guidance for sustainability systems looking to collect or improve the collection of polygon location data. This is an updated version of guidance compiled and prepared by ISEAL and partners in 2020. The content has been refreshed and updated to reflect how geospatial technologies and practices have evolved in the last five years and includes a variety of different polygon collection options and technologies. 

This resource reviews the benefits and challenges of metrics alignment and data sharing for organisations, and provides a roadmap and considerations to help think through undertaking them. The guidance builds on learnings from projects by ISEAL and its members, where metrics alignment and data sharing were key.

This document discusses core concepts, such as consent and rights, that underpin governance of data use and sharing. It proposes general principles and steps for a reasoned and documented approach to data rights, control and sharing for the ISEAL community. The purpose of this guidance is to help sustainability systems: 1) establish certified entities’ rights to data related to certified activities; and 2) responsibly use and share those data.

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 report explores the relevance of current trends in technology to sustainability standards – from mobile data collection and the internet of things, to open data and blockchains – and proposes a roadmap for development. 

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.

ISEAL is convening a working group of landscape and jurisdictional practitioners who are acting to improve landscape performance measurement. 

Assessing environmental and social sustainability at the landscape level poses significant challenges related to the availability of accurate cultural, economic, and ecological information. In this sector, decision-making must take this intersectional information into account to develop management strategies that enhance the sustainability of the territory, prevent detrimental actions to ecosystem services, and defend against poor socioeconomic management of a region.

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 Modelling a Path to More Sustainable Landscapes project is a three-year effort to spatially analyse the baseline risk of commodity production and the role of sustainability policies to mitigate those risks. This document is for people interested in increasing the value and integrity of data and in assessing the potential impacts of policy decisions in terms of agriculture production and environmental outcomes.

The Modelling a Path to More Sustainable Landscapes project is a three-year effort to spatially analyse the baseline risk of commodity production and the role of sustainability policies to mitigate those risks.  This document is for people interested in increasing the value and integrity of data and in assessing the potential impacts of policy decisions in terms of agriculture production and environmental outcomes.

The Modelling a Path to More Sustainable Landscapes project is a three-year effort to spatially analyze the baseline risk of commodity production and the role of sustainability policies to mitigate those risks. This document is for people interested in increasing the value and integrity of data and in assessing the potential impacts of policy decisions in terms of agriculture production and environmental outcomes.