A key solution to address climate policy goals 

In a race against time, sustainability systems offer a critical solution to achieve climate policy goals. Through independently verified standards and strong assurance systems, they provide something climate policy urgently needs - trusted, credible mechanisms to mitigate climate change on the ground. 

Addressing climate change is a key goal for many sustainability systems such as those in the ISEAL Community. With decades of experience in working with businesses, producers and supply chains, they help operationalise climate mitigation and adaptation activities and build climate resilience in high-impact sectors. 

Many ISEAL members are embedding climate policy goals into their strategies and aligning their standards and systems to enable supply chain actors to advance towards meeting these goals. They operate across a range of sectors — including agriculture, mining, textiles and other high-impact industries critical to achieving net zero. 

Turning commitments into action: on-the-ground examples 

In a recent webinar, ISEAL members discussed how their strategies intersect with climate policy, the barriers they face to engaging in regulatory spaces, and the types of support that could strengthen their contribution to climate policy goals.

From tools to monitor and verify greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, to scaling climate-smart practices and incentivising investments in decarbonisation and nature-based solutions, ISEAL members are providing practical solutions to help businesses, governments and civil society advance on credible climate action. 

Better Cotton, for example, has committed to a 50 percent emissions reduction per tonne of Better Cotton lint by 2030. It works with both smallholders and large-scale farmers to implement climate-smart agriculture practices that reduce emissions and boost resilience. It is also playing a key role in advocating for more inclusive climate adaptation strategies to build capacity and farmer resilience on the ground.

Accounting for Nature is helping restore trust in carbon markets through its CarbonPlus model, which links carbon credits to verified environmental outcomes. As scrutiny around greenwashing increases, such approaches are playing a key role in strengthening credibility and transparency in voluntary and compliance markets.

Through the ISEAL Innovations Fund, we have supported a range of sustainability systems to explore how they can integrate GHG quantification and accounting into their assurance and traceability systems. These projects were made possible thanks to a grant from the ISEAL Innovations Fund, which is supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO and UK International Development from the UK government.

The Sustainable Rice Platform is developing a ‘low-carbon’ assurance model that enables companies to make verifiable sustainability and carbon claims in their value chains. With support from the Fund, Better Cotton has also been exploring how to incorporate scope 3 accounting and reporting into their system.

Support from the ISEAL Innovations Fund hasn’t just enabled schemes to build out GHG quantification and reporting tools — Bonsucro is working to consolidate their climate action roadmap, and develop a platform for project partners to share their climate action experience, to support adaptation in the sugarcane sector.

Adapting to policy: why sustainability systems matter 

As climate policy and regulation evolve, many ISEAL members are helping businesses understand the implications and meet new legal requirements. While many new legal frameworks are ambitious in scope, their success depends on credible verification, data, reporting and claims — areas where sustainability systems can make a significant contribution.

ISEAL members are closely tracking three key EU policy areas:

• Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD): Requires companies to report on both the financial and environmental/social materiality of sustainability issues. Sustainability systems can provide independently verified supply chain data — especially on scope 3 emissions and environmental and social impacts — to support credible, comparable reporting.
• Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM): Applies a carbon price to imported goods to prevent carbon leakage. Sustainability systems offer emissions data and traceability tools to demonstrate lower embedded carbon, supporting fair treatment under CBAM.
• Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF): Aims to certify carbon removals, including carbon farming and long-term storage, within the EU. Sustainability systems with land use and agriculture expertise can contribute credible methodologies, robust assurance, and monitoring to support CRCF implementation.

Given the direction of climate policy, sustainability systems have a key role to play in scaling up mitigation and supporting adaptation for farmers and other climate-vulnerable communities.