ISEAL Code of Good Practice revision and integration

The ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Sustainability Systems (‘the ISEAL Code’) was approved by the ISEAL Board on 29 November 2023, following recommendation for approval by the ISEAL Technical Committee. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the revision and integration process.

About the ISEAL Code

The ISEAL Code revises and integrates the ISEAL Impacts, Standard-Setting, and Assurance Codes of Good Practice, along with essential practices from the ISEAL Sustainability Claims Good Practice Guide.

Following two rounds of stakeholder consultation in 2022 and 2023, the ISEAL Code v1.0 was published in December 2023. It is effective as of 1 March 2024. There is an 18-month transition period for ISEAL Code Compliant organisations to meet the requirements in the ISEAL Code.

Read the ISEAL Code.

You may also be interested in a summary of the consultations and changes, a comparison with previous drafts, and a comparison against the original Codes.

Approach to compliance and the transition period

Read the approach to compliance and the transition period for the most recent update.

For ISEAL Code Compliant Members, we encourage you to familiarise yourself with the content of the ISEAL Code, and to identify opportunities in any upcoming review and revision of scheme components and/or workplans to ensure sufficient provisions to support the 18-month transition period for meeting the desired outcomes of all clauses in the ISEAL Code. Further resources to support understanding of the ISEAL Code and interpretation of clauses will be made available throughout 2024.

Revision and integration process

The revision and integration process was overseen by a Steering Group, made up of a diverse group of stakeholders, who provided guidance and support to this significant change process.

The first round of consultation ran from September to December 2022. All comments received in the consultation are publicly available in the comment log and a synopsis of feedback is also available.

The second draft of the Code incorporated feedback received in the first consultation. We supplemented this with further activities to understand stakeholder perspectives, including commissioning a review of NGO recommendations and critiques of sustainability systems, and conducting interviews with representatives of sustainability systems with innovative models.

The second round of consultation ran from 31 May to 30 July. We also considered feedback received through a producer-focused workshop held in August. All comments received in the consultation are publicly available in the comment log and a summary of the feedback is also available.

In November 2023, the ISEAL Technical Committee recommended that the ISEAL Board approve the final version of the ISEAL Code. The ISEAL Board approved publication of the ISEAL Code on 29 November.

For more information, read the revision and integration plan, and the approach to compliance and transition period for the revised Code.