In May 2024, ISEAL, in partnership with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), hosted a webinar focused on the integration of voluntary sustainability standards (VSSs) into trade policy as a tool to advance sustainability goals. Targeting actors across the trade sector, the webinar zeroed in on free trade agreements (FTAs) and presented our jointly produced research.

In September and October 2021, we co-hosted a webinar series with Evidensia to take a deep dive into how and why the new Credibility Principles are important.

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.

Since launching in 2013 after extensive global consultations, ISEAL's Credibility Principles have become an international reference for defining the foundations of credible practices for sustainability standards. Starting mid-May 2020, we are leading consultations that will expand the scope of the Credibility Principles beyond sustainability standards to include a wider range of systems, such as data-driven and landscape approaches. We are also updating content to reflect current and future trends affecting standards and similar systems.

Experts from ISEAL, and ISEAL members discuss what our research is telling us about the reach, contribution and impacts of standards on smallholder farmers and what this means for future innovations and partnerships.

We believe that the credibility of market-based sustainability tools is more important than ever for trade and public policy. But what do we mean by credibility? And what trends and issues are shaping our understanding of credibility going forward?

In 2013, ISEAL launched the Credibility Principles, which provide an international reference for defining the foundations of credible practices for sustainability standards. Over the last decade there has also been increasing interest and research into specific principles such as transparency, accessibility and how system credibility is an important factor influencing impacts.

In this webinar, the results at the mid-point of a 5-year mixed methods study that considers the impacts and perceptions of certification-linked sustainability programs and market access in smallholder coffee value chains in the southern regions of Sumatra, Indonesia are presented.

In this webinar, Mark Oorschot (PBL) presents the findings of the report ‘The Impact of International Cooperative Initiatives on Biodiversity’.

We are excited to launch the revision of the ISEAL Chain of Custody (CoC) Definitions and Models Guidance. The revision process will include:

Improving the flow of sustainability information through a new standardised metadata set

An introduction to the new GIS self-starter kit, which gives a glimpse of the possibilities of GIS and how the tools can be integrated into audit routines. The self-starter kit explains what GIS is, introduces some commonly used GIS software and applications and describes how to use them.

In this video, small producers report on the impact sustainability standards have had on their life. 

Webinar on key concepts in the development of a Theory of Change (ToC) for standard systems.

Rainforest Alliance reports on and receives feedback for their public consultation on the new sustainable agriculture standard.

This webinar looks at the critical factors that help independent assurance programmes be credible and effective. Member examples, including RSPO, are used.

This resource includes the recording of the Webinar: ISEAL guidance to support remote auditing practices; Overview, Discussion and Next steps

Juan Isaza, Program Manager, explains what the IPM Coalition is and how this initiative will accelerate the elimination of highly hazardous pesticide usage throughout the world.

This resource includes the recording and slides of the second learning workshop of the remote auditing project.

An introduction to the World Benchmarking Alliance.

This ASI research report identified possible approaches, good auditing practices, and potential areas for alignment between sustainability standards and has been presented in a webinar.

'The changing nature of trust and the role of credible standards' presented by Karin Kreider, ISEAL’s Executive Director, Joe Wozniak from International Trade Centre and Philip Schleifer from University of Amsterdam.

This webinar shows how a focus on data and information management in assurance can improve both the effectiveness of the assurance process and the value of that process for certifying enterprise, supply chain actors and the scheme owners themselves.

Joshua Wickerham, ISEAL Policy & Outreach Manager, guides us through key insights from the producer needs survey, with input from Stefano Savi from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and Rosario Galan from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). We also discuss RSPO’s and FSC’s smallholder strategies and lessons learnt from the survey findings.

This ISEAL webinar discussed the challenges and lessons learnt from our consultation on sustainability benchmarking good practices