Gold Standard’s vision is ‘Climate security and sustainable development for all’. Their role as a standards body is to maximise the impact of climate and development activities. It was developed with an aim to ensure that projects that reduced carbon emissions under the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) also delivered on the dual mandate to foster sustainable development.
Find out more about Gold Standard at - https://www.goldstandard.org/
ISEAL Code Compliant designates members who have successfully undergone independent evaluations against the ISEAL Codes of Good Practice in Standards-Setting, Assurance and Impacts.
As a result of this independent evaluation, Gold Standard have made the following improvements to how they develop their standards:
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Strengthened and developed additional measures to ensure the continued balanced representation of their Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). The TAC is a body of independent technical experts that provides TAC provides transparent, credible and timely expert advice, strategic input and decision making to standards developed and maintained by Gold Standard.
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Made it clear to external stakeholders how the standard can be accessed.
As a result of this independent evaluation, Gold Standard agreed the following improvements to their assurance system:
- Updated the validation requirements in the Validation and Verification Standard for audit reports to include names and affiliations of external technical experts.
- Agreed to update documents to ensure that all assurance providers are consistent in their implementation times for corrective actions.
As a result of this independent evaluation, Gold Standard has made the following improvements to their M&E system:
- Commissioned an external outcome and impact evaluation for the Global Goals Certification Program, covering unintended impacts and effects.
- Outlined the structure of the M&E team, responsibilities and staff time allocation.
- Shared performance monitoring data with Gold Standard staff.
ISEAL Code Compliant members provide publicly available reports that give a comprehensive and accessible overview of a member's system.
ISEAL System Overview Gold Standard 2022