This document guides the incorporation of informed consent for the Delta Framework indicators data collection into existing organisational data strategy and policies.

This training manual provides a high-level overview of the important steps to consider for mine closure. It has been developed to support clear, informed and balanced discussions about bauxite mine closure. Its purpose is to help communities understand the key steps and considerations for mine closure, how to achieve them, discuss some of the language used and therefore better understand what is being discussed, what rights exist, and what questions may be important to ask.

This checklist distils the key elements in developing and implementing a benchmark of sustainability systems.

The global regulatory context and reporting requirements are increasingly incorporating biodiversity and nature components for the private sector. This brief introduces how existing datasets, metrics and tools can help to report on biodiversity and nature outcomes in landscape and jurisdictional approaches so that those working on and supporting these initiatives can better align their data collection and reporting with global corporate reporting needs.

Landscape and jurisdictional approaches foster collaboration among stakeholders within a landscape to advance shared sustainability objectives and tackle systemic challenges like deforestation, biodiversity loss, tenure insecurity and livelihood sustainability. They aim to tackle environmental or social issues concentrated in a particular landscape through integrated landscape management and monitoring to have wider positive impact.

The growth and integrity of the sustainable biofuels industry, as well as the interests it seeks to protect, are in jeopardy due to the vulnerabilities in methods it currently uses for tracking transaction claims and verifying their authenticity — as identified by recent biofuel fraud investigations in the Netherlands. 

This document summarises the steps to replicate the land cover analysis system developed by the Blueprint Project in the same pilot area (Zona Bananera) as general guidance to apply it in other productive agricultural regions in tropical or subtropical zones, and facilitate the development of a land use cover monitoring system in accordance with the objective, scale, and level of local studies to be implemented over time.

This briefing paper complements ISEAL’s Recommendations, released in November 2022, which focus on two main areas of legislative reform for the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD):

This brochure presents a list of critical elements to ensure that comparisons and benchmarking between standards systems are credible

Swiss companies are increasingly working with sustainability systems while navigating rising expectations on responsible business conduct and corporate due diligence. 

This infographic illustrates the research report authored by AidEnvironment and commissioned by ISEAL. The report is a refresher of the 2016 review and synthesis of literature and evidence of the business benefits of adopting sustainability standards. In total 40 credible source research documents, covering seven sectors were reviewed.

Access Aluminium Stewardship Initiative's CARE project archive and wider resources on circularity below.

The ‘first mile’ – the journey from the production farm to the first aggregation or processing point – is a critical yet often overlooked segment of agricultural supply chains. These case studies, produced by Proforest and commissioned by ISEAL, aim to shed light on the actors operating in this space and the dynamics that shape it, drawing on examples from cocoa, coffee, rubber and palm oil across diverse regions.

The Modelling a Path to More Sustainable Landscapes project was a three-year effort, led by Bonsucro, 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 was a three-year effort, led by Bonsucro, 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.

Small-scale producers play a vital role in sustainable production and land use — but too often, they lack the resources and economic resilience needed to adopt more sustainable practices.This case study highlights practical approaches that are helping bridge this gap by creating incentives that bring climate, environmental and social benefits, including premiums, incentives and recognising and rewarding community stewardship.Part of a series exploring promising approaches for enabling small-scale producer market access and shifts to sustainable production:

The Modelling a Path to More Sustainable Landscapes project was a three-year effort, led by Bonsucro, 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.

Small-scale producers play a vital role in sustainable production and land use — but too often, they lack access to the resources they need to adopt more sustainable practices and participate in global value chains, limiting their ability to achieve a decent standard of living.

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.

Improving the livelihoods and well-being of smallholders, small-scale producers and workers is a priority for many sustainability systems. This case study looks at some of the innovative ways sustainability systems and partners supported by the ISEAL Innovations Fund are enabling small-scale producers to benefit from accessing markets and participating in global value chains.

Small scale farmers face several structural barriers that limit their power, income and participation in global value chains. Founded in 2009, Producers Direct is a farmer-owned nonprofit which brings together a network of over one million small producers, located across East Africa and Latin America. Recognising these structural barriers, Producers Direct has innovated a platform that enables farmers to co-design the tools and services they need.

This is no longer the most up-to-date version. To view the latest guidance, see the revised Chain of Custody Models and Definitions Guidance v2 (2025).

This guidance developed by ISEAL on Chain of Custody (CoC) System is a reference document for sustainability standards systems that complements ISEAL's Sustainability Claims Good Practice Guide.

This document complements the revised ISEAL Chain of Custody Models and Definitions guidance v2.The following diagrams provide worked examples of how certified materials move through different supply chains, illustrating segregation, controlled blending, and mass balance approaches. They are strictly illustrative – real supply chains are complex, context-specific, and may vary depending on local practices, ownership structures, and processing steps.These examples focus on the main product flow; by-products or waste from production account for the remainder of the material.

This learning brief was produced by FSC as part of their Creating partnerships for research and testing impact verification frameworks in Indigenous and traditional communities project, supported by the ISEAL Innovations Fund, Swiss State S