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

ISEAL is seeking a consultant to put together a summary of the main critiques and recommendations for improvement that NGOs/civil society organisations have made about sustainability standards and certification schemes (or similar multistakeholder initiatives that are using market-based approaches to drive sustainability impacts). This research will serve as an input to ISEAL’s revision and integration of our Codes of Good Practice, helping us to better reflect the priorities of this stakeholder group.

 

This paper explores how Voluntary Sustainability Initiatives (VSIs) for the mining sector can be used to demonstrate that companies have appropriate due diligence systems and processes in place, to ensure that due diligence has been carried out, and to verify due diligence. While VSIs and related verification processes are not a substitute for rule of law and the role of government in establishing requirements and oversight, they can serve as a complementary tool for due diligence.

This research briefing to inform practice is based on primary research by ISEAL over the last two years and is part of ISEAL’s project with IDH on strengthening sustainability standards to advance living wage goals. This report has been written by Kate Robinson of The Outcome Gap, with editorial support from Vidya Rangan, ISEAL

This Guidance supports sustainability systems to design and implement good practice greenhouse gas emissions accounting, reporting and disclosure strategies for users of their schemes. This approach affords several opportunities for the ISEAL community. The intended users of this Guidance are ISEAL member schemes that are involved in the certification of commodities. The guidance may also be of interest to their communities (certificate holders, applicants, assurance providers, oversight bodies, buyers, governments, civil society and the public).

The M3 Partnership Integrated Assessment Protocol (M3 IAP) is a tool designed to allow mine sites to be assessed against multiple site-level standards in a single audit, supporting identification of alignment across standards, and promoting demonstration of conformity with multiple standards with greater efficiency and reduced cost. This document describes the M3 IAP.

This Guidance document has been developed to facilitate the use of the Integrated Assessment Protocol (IAP). This macro-enabled Excel Workbook was created to assist the Mining Organization and Operation with an integrated approach to assessing conformity to select responsible mining initiatives. This workbook includes a combined protocol that represents the following standards: Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) Responsible Jewelry Council (RJC)

The Mining, Minerals, and Metals Partnership (M3 Partnership) is a collaboration of the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA), Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), ResponsibleSteel, and Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM). The M3 Partnership, made possible by the ISEAL Innovations Fund with support by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, aims to identify opportunities for alignment and collective action to drive improvement in social and environmental performance.

Sustainability systems represent and support complex supply chains, with a wide variety of commodities, producers and geographies included. Emissions reporting is a complex and fast-moving space. Thus, these systems and their communities may face challenges keeping pace with developments and developing consistent and appropriate good practices that can benefit their communities and climate security.

This guide supports sustainability systems and their assurance partners make decisions about when remote auditing practices are appropriate and desirable, and how to use new technology and data to both inform and then operationalize that choice. It aims to give practical advice based on experiences to date, both on the types of tools and data sources available, as well as some key considerations for successful integration of remote audit technology into assurance processes.

This document provides instruction to aid users in using the ODK tool. The function of the ODK tool within the Blueprint project has been to provide offline data collection capabilities and data that can be stored in SAN’s technology platform the iHub which provides a secure, agile, and scalable backend for the mobile app.

This document represents a short ‘start here’ level introduction to the ‘Accounting & Reporting the Emissions of Certified Commodities’ suite of guidance documents. This document is specifically aimed at Certificate Holders and potential applicants for certification (henceforth ‘CH/A’) with ISEAL member schemes or other sustainability systems that have or are commencing on a process to align their certification of commodities and chains of custody models with emissions reporting good practices. The CH/A community for each scheme will reflect the nature of the work entailed.

This document is specifically aimed at Oversight and Assurance Providers to ISEAL member schemes or other sustainability systems that have or are commencing on a process to align their certification of commodities and chains of custody models with emissions reporting good practices.

Information about grants to conduct remote auditing pilots

A compilation of the lessons learned from four pilot projects in remote auditing from Responsible Jewellery Council, LEAF Marque, Beter Cotton Initiative, and Fairtrade USA. LEAF Marque and the Responsible Jewellery Council looked at the extent to which remote auditing could provide an alternative to in-person on-site visits, while the two other pilot projects used a remote phone survey based on worker voice technology to carry out interviews with workers in factory settings (in the case of Fair Trade USA) and in an agricultural setting on cotton farms (Better Cotton Initiative – BCI).

This resource presents a summary of the one-on-one interviews with ISEAL members and select other sustainability initiatives as part of the project on remote auditing practices and assurance responses to COVID-19.

The ISEAL-funded research project Integrating new data to improve risk assessments and detection of forced labour in agricultural supply chains (2017 – 18) is an attempt to build the evidence base around monitoring and remediating forced labour in agricultural supply chains.

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. 

The Mining, Minerals, and Metals Partnership (M3 Partnership) is a collaboration of the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA), Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), ResponsibleSteel, and Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM). The M3 Partnership aims to identify opportunities for alignment and collective action to drive improvement in social and environmental performance. This report summarizes lessons learned across four key M3 Projects, including the Integrated Assessment Protocol (IAP) Tool, IAP Pilots, Greenhouse Gas (GHG), and Due Diligence Projects

There is now 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 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

This resource includes the recording, slides and agenda of the first learning workshop of the remote auditing project.

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