ISEAL Alliance

Norma Tregurtha, ISEAL's Senior Policy Manager

Since June 2010, the ISEAL Alliance Secretariat has been developing a tool to support the comparison or “benchmarking” of standards systems. The aim of the Comparison Tool is to enable companies, certification bodies and NGOs to compare standards systems against a number of different variables. The tool will also be used to compare standards systems against government regulations and other sustainability tools such as ISO standards and FAO guidelines.

The initial idea behind this project was formed out of the challenges affecting the biofuels sector, which was struggling to integrate multiple supply chains, certification schemes and legislative frameworks. However, it soon became clear that the Comparison Tool had much wider relevance and needed to cover all sectors and standards. Whilst there have been countless studies aimed at comparing standards over the years, very few have been driven by the standards community. This has resulted in comparisons that have failed to capture the factors that really distinguish standards systems - important issues such as credibility and impact - and this is what makes this initiative unique.

After just one year of implementation, and despite funding constraints, the project has made a lot of progress. A formal governance structure to oversee the project has been crafted as well as a stakeholder engagement strategy. We have also mapped out a draft framework and completed initial field tests in palm oil production in Colombia that were financed by the Sustainable Biomass Consortium. Furthermore, two core pieces of research have been undertaken to better understand how to categorise and qualify requirements in both standards and applicable regulations.

The project is being developed in partnership with GIZ, the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels and the Rainforest Alliance. To date, ISEAL’s role in this initiative has been to facilitate the project’s Steering Group, organise Technical Committee meetings, coordinate research and contribute technical expertise to the tool development. Going forward we will also steer the public consultation process to gain buy-in and support for the tool’s content. The Comparison Tool framework is expected to be complete by the end of 2011 with plans to launch the web-based platform towards the middle of next year.

The project has been possible, in part, thanks to a grant from the David & Lucile Packard Foundation. Other project funders include GIZ and the Sustainable Biomass Consortium (of which Boeing is the major sponsor). We are delighed to announce that the Packard Foundation, have recently confirmed their support for a further year. While the Comparison Tool will be the main focus of this new grant, we will also work on co-regulation issues in the biofuels sector with a specific focus on how governments use standards to demonstrate regulatory compliance. Here the emphasis will be on formulating, testing and sharing best practice guidelines that show what credible recognition processes look like in practice.

The need for this piece of work flowed from the EU Renewable Energy Directive’s biofuels work and the perception that the process which regulators follow to recognise voluntary schemes isn’t transparent. While the Comparison Tool will help regulators identify which standards systems are genuinely consistent with their legal framework, the best practice guidelines will provide them with a road-map on how to implement and maintain a recognition system. The guidelines will also outline the supportive role that frameworks such as the Comparison Tool can play.

If you have any questions or would like more information about the project please contact norma [at] isealalliance [dot] org (Norma Tregurtha).