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.

This document summarises the findings from ASC's pilot project exploring remote monitoring within aquaculture certification programmes, over in-person monitoring.  Most aquaculture certification programs are reliant on in-person audits Audits occur just once a year due to cost and have been difficult to conduct because of COVID-19. Tracking improvements is time-consuming and costly with only in-person methods. Emerging technologies can address data gaps in smallholder shrimp farms and help grow farmer participation in ASC.

Discussion paper and webinar on landscape and jurisdictional assurance and claims.

In this report ISEAL offers insights from three baselines of evaluations that it commissioned in 2015 and were published in June 2016

Report produced for the ISEAL Alliance Innovations Fund project “Integrating new data to improve risk assessments and detection of forced labour vulnerability in agricultural supply chains”.

A Report produced for the ISEAL Alliance Innovations Fund project “Integrating new data to improve risk assessments and detection of forced labour vulnerability in agricultural supply chains”.

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.

A report of a series of field tests conducted by ASI regarding the usage of GIS during audits in Germany, Russia and Malaysia. Result of the report is a self-starter kit, exploring and explaining different tools aiming to help auditors integrate GIS into their audit routine.

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.

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 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 is a research report published by ISEAL and authored by Dr Emma Wilson. The report was developed as part of a collaboration between ISEAL and GIZ to support the work of sustainability standards in the metals, mining and minerals sector.

Evidensia and ISEAL are looking for an experienced research team to conduct a systematic evidence review refresh on the effects of supply chain led sustainability approaches of smallholder livelihoods, and a smaller, complementary follow-on review of literature that incorporates conservation outcomes. Deadline for submitting proposals: Friday 29th November 2024.

ISEAL is seeking a consultant to support our work on the effective implementation of corporate deforestation-free commitments and EUDR. This research project will focus on identifying tools and initiatives that help meet EUDR’s legal production requirements, particularly in land-use rights and Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). The selected consultant will conduct desktop research and targeted engagement to:

This research briefing explores the growing use of voluntary sustainability standards (VSSs) in free trade agreements (FTAs), and the challenges and opportunities for scaling the use of VSS in trade more generally. Based on a partnership between ISEAL and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), we explore the use of voluntary market based instruments in promoting sustainable trade, production and consumption.

In this webinar, the results at the mid-point of a 5-year mixed methods study that considers the impacts and perceptions of certification-linked sustainability programs and market access in smallholder coffee value chains in the southern regions of Sumatra, Indonesia are presented.

In this webinar, Mark Oorschot (PBL) presents the findings of the report ‘The Impact of International Cooperative Initiatives on Biodiversity’.

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.