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:

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 labor. However to ensure impact, detecting those violations is central and often elusive. This report captures project learnings and shares general recommendations for those working to improve FBL detection in different sectors.

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.

The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), together with Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) and Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program (SFW), are piloting an improver programme to implement best management practices with the aim of improving farm and zonal management to mitigate critical production risks. This document identifies key lessons from this project.

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.

The Landscape Monitoring Framework of the socio-economic dimension (LMS) is a tool that provides practical guidance to assess the socio-economic status of a landscape to monitor progress and facilitates action for development. The LMS targets the stakeholders of the landscape initiative, and in particular the initiators of the initiative, as the main user group.

The Landscape Monitoring Framework of the socio-economic dimension (LMS) is a tool that provides practical guidance to assess the socio-economic status of a landscape to monitor progress and facilitates action for development. The LMS targets the stakeholders of the landscape initiative, and in particular the initiators of the initiative, as the main user group.

The Landscape Monitoring Framework of the socio-economic dimension (LMS) is a tool that provides practical guidance to assess the socio-economic status of a landscape to monitor progress and facilitates action for development. The LMS targets the stakeholders of the landscape initiative, and in particular the initiators of the initiative, as the main user group.

This report provides an endline status of the ISEAL-BSR project ‘Improving data and impact measurement for women in supply chains project’, which aimed to support standards in mainstreaming gender equality within their strategy, tools and systems.

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 document provides instruction to aid users in using the ODK tool. The function of the ODK tool within the Blueprint project has been to provide offline data collection capabilities and data that can be stored in SAN’s technology platform the iHub which provides a secure, agile, and scalable backend for the mobile app.

A matrix of indicators for use with farm owners and when using the ODK Mobile App, as part of the Blueprint Project. 

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 series of papers was developed as part of an exploratory workstream investigating the role and maturity of monitoring and measurement in different landscape and jurisdictional initiatives. The papers are targeted towards landscape and jurisdictional practitioners and focus on the practicalities of measurement for landscape and jurisdictional initiatives.

A study to identify the prospect on incentive design for the uptake of water stewardship in Indonesia. The report looks at the existing government and financial sector landscape, as well as some best practices of financing mechanisms and incentives in the region and globally. A set of high-level recommendations are provided to support government and financial institutions in Indonesia to drive more incentive for good water stewardship uptake in Indonesia.

A study to identify the prospect on incentive design for the uptake of water stewardship in Indonesia. The report looks at the existing government and financial sector landscape, as well as some best practices of financing mechanisms and incentives in the region and globally. A set of high-level recommendations are provided to support government and financial institutions in Indonesia to drive more incentive for good water stewardship uptake in Indonesia.

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.

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.