In 2019, ISEAL carried out a review of the Credibility Principles in order to determine if they require revision. The findings of the review informed the decision to proceed to revision of the principles. This documents outlines the revised terms of reference for the Credibility Principles and the timeline for the revision in 2020.

The ASC have developed an Improver Programme (IP) comprised of a set of procedures and tools to ensure that ASC standards or best practice improvements are consistently and effectively implemented by the producers. The IP model encourages uptake by groups of farmers and provides processes for group engagement in the improvement project. This document summarises joint efforts from ASC and SFP to develop a joint monitoring and evaluation framework for this new IP model. 

Poverty, low, unpredictable process and unequal trading relationships affect small-scale producers of cocoa, cotton, and seafood. These challenges are exacerbated by regulation and climate change. Despite the differences between sectors, a living income approach and strategies to close the income gap can enable a decent standard of living. Working towards a living income for small-scale producers can contribute to social, cultural, and environmental benefits and support wider efforts to tackle the underlying cause of poverty.

Small-scale producers are at the sharp end of supply chains. They can - and do - face significant challenges in achieving and maintain a decent standard of living. ISEAL has been engaging with stakeholders about equity and livelihoods in sustainable supply chains. We have opened up conversations on improved incomes for producers within supply chains and unpacked the approaches that work to address the inequities that underpin persistent poverty.

This report summarizes the key lessons learnt by each of the key stakeholder groups from participation in the ASC Improver Programme pilot. The ASC standards set principles, criteria, indicators, and measurable performance levels for environmentally and socially responsible aquaculture. However, producers carry the responsibility to implement these standards at their farms, where smaller operations may have financial or technical constraints.

This resource reviews the benefits and challenges of metrics alignment and data sharing for organisations, and provides a roadmap and considerations to help think through undertaking them. The guidance builds on learning's from a number of ISEAL, and ISEAL member projects that either focused on metrics alignment and or data sharing as an ultimate goal, or where metrics alignment and or data sharing were key activities within the project.

ISEAL’s 2019 Annual Report reflects on the year’s most significant developments and achievements to support credible practices. Download a pdf of the report.

ISEAL’s 2020 Annual Report reflects on the year’s most significant developments and achievements to support credible practices. Download a pdf of the report.

ISEAL’s 2021 Annual Report reflects on the year’s most significant developments and achievements to support credible practices. Download a pdf of the report.

ISEAL's Annual Report 2022 reflects on the year’s most significant developments and achievements to support credible practices, together with the financial statements for the year ended December 2022. ISEAL's Annual Review 2022 summarises key achievements from the Annual Report.

This assessment has been undertaken as part of the ISEAL Innovations Fund project: Streamlining the path towards sustainability in the aquaculture industry, Integration of seafood certification and jurisdictional assurance models. The collaborators in this case are the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP), and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch® program (SFW). This report presents an analysis of the data alignment and complimentary data aspects of the three schemes.  

As part of its 2030 Strategy, Better Cotton has committed to strengthen impacts at farm level across the countries where it works and is currently setting ambitious global targets in key impact areas. In parallel, Better Cotton is exploring whether a landscape approach can deliver better impacts and efficiencies, to facilitate an evaluation of the potential of landscape approaches in the context of the BCSS, Better Cotton developed the Adaptation to Landscape Approach (ATLA) project.

A collection of background materials explaining the basics about blockchain technology.

This document guides the incorporation of informed consent for the Delta Framework indicators data collection into existing organisational data strategy and policies.

The growth and integrity of the sustainable biofuels industry, as well as the interests it seeks to protect, are in jeopardy due to the vulnerabilities in methods it currently uses for tracking transaction claims and verifying their authenticity — as identified by recent biofuel fraud investigations in the Netherlands.

This briefing note captures broader insights from a project ISEAL implemented with support from the German International Development Agency GIZ in 2018-2019, in which we explored the implications and linkages between corporate due diligence processes and voluntary sustainability standards.

Report on ISEAL member collaboration on shared impact reporting.

This brochure presents a list of critical elements to ensure that comparisons and benchmarking between standards systems are credible

ISEAL has commissioned a systematic review being led by Carlos Oya and Dafni Skalidou on the effects of supply chain sustainability approaches on decent work outcomes in the agriculture, textile, and apparel sectors in low and middle income countries. The review aims at gaining a better understanding of what works to improve labour rights and conditions in these sectors, why, under what circumstances and for whom. For more information, please read the protocol for the review below.

The Modelling a Path to More Sustainable Landscapes project is a three-year effort to spatially analyze the baseline risk of commodity production and the role of sustainability policies to mitigate those risks. This document is for people interested in increasing the value and integrity of data and in assessing the potential impacts of policy decisions in terms of agriculture production and environmental outcomes.

The Modelling a Path to More Sustainable Landscapes project is a three-year effort to spatially analyse the baseline risk of commodity production and the role of sustainability policies to mitigate those risks. This document is for people interested in increasing the value and integrity of data and in assessing the potential impacts of policy decisions in terms of agriculture production and environmental outcomes.

The Modelling a Path to More Sustainable Landscapes project is a three-year effort to spatially analyse the baseline risk of commodity production and the role of sustainability policies to mitigate those risks.  This document is for people interested in increasing the value and integrity of data and in assessing the potential impacts of policy decisions in terms of agriculture production and environmental outcomes.

A description of the phase 4 pilots of the Certification Atlas project. The purpose of these pilots was to explore some geospatial analysis options. This is an effort to help develop GIS understanding and capacity, promote its use and think about the end-goal Certification Atlas. 

The context in which sustainability systems operate significantly influences the scale, depth and durability of their impacts. This is an important consideration when designing new strategies to improve sustainability performance. To provide support in this area, we have developed the following resources: