This cross-sectoral learning brief distils the in-depth reports and tools from the M3 Partnership that can be found on the M3 Partnership website or ISEAL website.

In 2019, Gold Standard received a grant from the ISEAL Innovations Fund to develop guidance for accounting and reporting the emissions of certified commodities, in close collaboration with a group of ISEAL Community Members.

Benchmarking guide for analysing or evaluating sustainability initiatives or performance.

Read about the Living Wage Working Group that ran in 2021 and 2022 for Certification and Auditing Systems.

ISEAL is the global membership association for credible sustainability systems. We support ambitious sustainability systems and their partners to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges. With our growing global network and our focus on credible practices, we drive impact and make markets a force for good.  We are implementing a 4.5-year programme of work that aims to identify, pilot, learn and support scaling of promising market-led initiatives that create enabling conditions for sustainable land use for smallholders and their communities. 

ISEAL is the global membership association for credible sustainability systems. We support ambitious sustainability systems and their partners to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges. With our growing global network and our focus on credible practices, we drive impact and make markets a force for good.  We are implementing a 4.5-year programme of work that aims to identify, pilot, learn and support scaling of promising market-led initiatives that create enabling conditions for sustainable land use for smallholders and their communities. 

The document at the bottom of this page provides a high level summary of what polygon location data is and why it is of significant value to sustainability standards. It aims to encourage decision makers within systems to consider the operational collection and use of polygon data within their organisations.

Six years ago, ISEAL published a comprehensive review and synthesis of existing literature and evidence of the business benefits of using sustainability standards.

Download the PowerPoint presentation for The ISEAL Code breakfast session at the ISEAL Global Sustainability Symposium 2024

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

There is wide recognition that the ongoing pandemic has had a profound impact on women across all dimensions of economic and social activity. From shifting gender roles within the household to effects on women’s active role in the economy and the real health and well-being effects of the pandemic, there is a growing concern that women are ‘losing out’ severely. From the standpoint of sustainability standards and systems, the pandemic has opened up the opportunity to review many streams of work, including how they conduct their assurance activities.

This technical paper identifies opportunities for further Guidance that we believe will strengthen an effective implementation of EUDR. ISEAL has been engaging closely with sustainability systems to understand how they are aligning and adapting in response to EUDR. In the process of adapting, sustainability systems have identified outstanding ambiguities in the Regulation and published FAQs (v1.2) which may hinder effective and consistent implementation of EUDR by operators and traders. Our paper identifies three opportunities for further guidance:

This document identifies the Traceability and Chain of Custody options available for improvers' products, as identified through the ASC Improver Programme pilot. 

This report looks at the issues facing small certified producers and their expectations and experiences of certification, and explores how standards can address producers’ needs and priorities.

This briefing note shares insights and learnings from a series of semi-structured interviews ISEAL conducted with fourteen leading, global companies engaged in living wage actions.

This document provides practical guidance for sustainability systems to support them in generating valuable and actionable insights from data. Utilizing concepts in data science, it is intended for sustainability systems seeking to maximise the value of their data, combine data sources, and enable improved data-driven decision making procedures.

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. 

This report includes a comparison of the International Water Stewardship Standard (AWS Standard) and the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR) Policy Framework, with recommendations to improve water stewardship in the natural rubber sector.

This report includes a comparison of the International Water Stewardship Standard (AWS Standard) and the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil Principles and Criteria (RSPO P&C), with recommendations to improve alignment for better water stewardship in the oil palm sector.

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

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.