This report first examines how standards systems are being applied to landscapes and jurisdictions. It then explores factors that are important to the effective application of sustainability strategies at a landscape level and identifies opportunities to strengthen the role that standards systems can play in implementing those strategies.

This methodological paper from ISEAL shares insights and lessons learned from three ongoing impact evaluations that completed their baseline in 2016 and are due for end line evaluation in 2019.

Moving towards an outcome-based standard creates the opportunity for LEAF to communicate more closely on the impacts of implementing the LEAF Marque Standard, measuring outcomes directly rather than proxying them with practices.

This 2014 report, prepared by Centre for Responsible Business with the support of ISEAL, analyses the landscape for the import and use of sustainable palm oil in India, looking at major drivers for and gaps in domestic demand.

This report explores the relevance of current trends in technology to sustainability standards – from mobile data collection and the internet of things, to open data and blockchains – and proposes a roadmap for development. 

This report documents ideas for how certifiers can leverage blockchain technology to reduce audit inefficiency, create a single source of truth for chain of custody (CoC) tracking and support sustainability data reporting. 

This ISEAL commissioned report, carried out by 3keel and the University of Oxford, aims to understand the effectiveness of sustainability standards and certification tools in driving the adoption of more sustainable practices in certified entities, thereby contributing to the achievement of key sustainability outcomes

This report has been developed to support voluntary sustainability standard setting organizations (VSS organizations), businesses, or industry groups that operate, or are seeking to partner with local third-party organizations to develop company or multistakeholder grievance mechanisms in accordance with the principles set out in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP).This document will illustrate how third-party partners can support these organizations in the design and implementation of grievance mechanisms, and provide a practical framework for selectin

Presentations and videos from the Global Sustainability Standards Conference that took place in May 2018.

In 2019, we launched a review of the principles to find out how they have been used and adopted. The outcome of the review will decide whether the principles need to be revised to adapt to new international frameworks and norms, changing stakeholder expectations or innovations in sustainability tools, and, if so, the scope of the revision. This document contains information about the review objectives, process and opportunities for involvement.

This report will  discuss the challenges the M3 Partnership faced developing a shared approach to stakeholder engagement, explore the extent to which the higher-level objective of reducing duplicative or competitive communications and reducing stakeholder confusion and fatigue has been achieved throughout the project, and outline lessons learned.