Understanding whether sustainability standards make a difference on the ground is an ongoing concern for sustainability standards and for the many businesses and governments that rely on them to operationalize sustainability in supply chains and landscapes.
The shift in recent years towards a more sustainable global economy has seen an increasing focus on how businesses address human rights and potential labour exploitation in their supply chains. Companies are now expected to go beyond public commitments, and face the task of operationalising human rights policies in a transparent fashion. Credible standards organisations have proven to be important tools to bridge the implementation gap of these policies, raising the question of how standards systems are equipped to identify forced labour and what happens when cases are detected.
Sustainability systems are market-based tools designed to address the most pressing social and environmental challenges of our time. They define responsible practices, assess the implementation of these practices, and measure and communicate results. Sustainability systems are used in most sectors worldwide to improve social and environmental performance.
Download this one page, full description of a sustainability system.
This document sets out what our Code Compliant status recognises for our Community Members and outlines the structure of the ISEAL membership.
A working paper for the project “New data to detect forced labour in agriculture”.
ISEAL works to improve the credibility and impacts of sustainability standards and understanding impacts is an important strategic goal. This paper is the first attempt to draw on internal performance monitoring data of schemes and external research to analyse the reach and characteristics of smallholder farmers within ISEAL member agriculture schemes. This is the third in a series of collective reporting briefing papers researched by ISEAL as part of the ‘Demonstrating and Improving Poverty Impacts’ (DIPI) project.
This 2017 report by WWF and ISEAL explores how businesses can use credible voluntary sustainability standards to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Spanish translation of 2017 report summary by Aidenvironment and commissioned by ISEAL on the business benefits that using sustainability standards can deliver to various business entities along the length of the supply chain.
Guide to standard setting in Spanish.
Description of ISEALs benchmarking consultation in Spanish.
¿Trabajas o interactúas con normas de sostenibilidad o sistemas similares? Ayúdanos a dar forma a su desempeño futuro enviándonos tus comentarios sobre el Código Revisado de Buenas Prácticas de ISEAL.
What is a sustainability standard? Video in Spanish.
Summary of the Business Benefits of Standards Report in Spanish
Webinar on how to establish strong credible standards in Spanish.
This animated video introduces the concept of FPIC and the insights gained from the workshops we conducted with Indigenous Peoples' leaders in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Equitable Origin has conducted a 10 month research project to explore how voluntary sustainability standards can better verify and monitor Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) processes.
Você trabalha ou interage com normas de sustentabilidade e sistemas semelhantes? Ajude a moldar seu desempenho futuro dando-nos sua opinião sobre o Código de Boas Práticas revisado da ISEAL.
Nosso Código de Boas Práticas servirá de referência internacional sobre como as normas de sustentabilidade e sistemas similares devem funcionar. Queremos garantir que o Código atenda às suas necessidades e continue sendo adequado para o futuro, permitindo que os sistemas de sustentabilidade ofereçam soluções eficazes para os desafios de sustentabilidade mais urgentes.
Trends in sustainability standards and sustainable production and consumption in Brazil.
可持续标准体系须符合哪些原则才能产生积极影响?
The latest version (version 2, published in December 2014) of the Impacts Code of Good Practice, for Assessing the Impacts of Social and Environmental Systems in Chinese.