This document presents the set of 15 indicators, the rationale for their selection, definitions, methodological notes, and main references for each indicator. It also includes the learnings from pilot testing the indicators in different countries and settings.

Overview of the 15 Delta indicators on a 1-page graph.

Short presentation outlining the Delta project background, objectives, and activities.

This slide deck outlines a presentation of the Delta Project for the ICAC plenary in December 2019, entitled 'Building consensus on sustainability goals and measurements across agricultural commodities: the case of cotton and coffee'.

This document supports the implementation of common data models to facilitate future data aggregation and collective reporting.

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.

The Good Practice, Better Finance project is an ISEAL Alliance (ISEAL) funded project that aims to develop and test methodologies, as well as improve monitoring tools, which would allow for improved access to affordable finance for farmers. This improved access would be through reward systems based on the integration of farmers’ risk management and sustainability strategies with financial institutions’ own risk assessment frameworks.

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 only way to solve the sustainability challenges that we face today – from deforestation to biodiversity loss to inequality and poverty – is through greater collaboration, collective action, and innovation. We believe that sustainability systems are an important part of this solution by driving the sustainable transformation of complex commodity sectors and global supply chains. But to remain effective and add value, sustainability systems need to constantly push boundaries.

The Fund is open until 14 April to receive project ideas responding to the theme: Future proofing sustainability systems An overview of this grant funding opportunity is available to download below. Applications must be submitted by ISEAL Community Members, but external organisations interested in getting involved can reach out to our members to explore the potential for collaboration – as a project lead or partner.

This paper presents the findings of a structured review of the GHG aspects of the standards of the four members of the M3 Standards Partnership1—the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA), Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), ResponsibleSteel and Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM)—as well as a variety of other organizations in the mining, minerals and metals sector. It also reports on the responses to a detailed survey of leading mining companies drawn from the M3 Partnership’s memberships.

This document provides a system for replicating the land use cover monitoring and analysis system developed by the Blueprint Project. The document aims to summarize the steps to replicate the land cover analysis in the same pilot area (Zona Bananera municipality, Magdalena, Colombia) as general guidance to apply it in other productive agricultural regions in tropical or subtropical zones, and facilitate the development of a land use cover monitoring system in accordance with the objective, scale, and level of local studies to be implemented over time.

In 2019, the ISEAL Innovations Fund awarded a grant to Bonsucro to collaboratively develop and test methodologies to help financial service providers improve how they assess their agricultural clients’ sustainability performance, to enable access to better financing opportunities for farmers who produce sustainably. Project partners included the Better Cotton Initiative, and the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS).

This slide deck provides an overview of the Good Practice, Better Finance project. 

Bonsucro and Responsible Jewellery Council engaged Business & Human Rights consultancy twentyfifty to conduct a research project into Grievance Mechanisms within Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS). The research investigated how grievance mechanisms have been set up and how grievances are managed and remediated within their memberships.

This methodology aims to support national commodity associations and other relevant public bodies to aggregate producer-level data using the Delta indicators to assess and report on the sustainability performance of the commodity’s production at country level.

This report presents pilot activities conducted in two separate sites in Söke in 2021, as part of the WWF-Turkey Regenerative Cotton Project.

This document describes the process that the project team of the Blueprint Landscape Sustainability Assessment system has engaged in from 2020-2022 to select meaningful secondary sustainability data at local level (communities, municipalities, or similar local jurisdictions) and how Blueprint envisions the role of secondary data for future replicas in other tropical regions dominated by agriculture land uses.

Bonsucro and Responsible Jewellery Council engaged Business & Human Rights consultancy twentyfifty Ltd to conduct a research project on learning and good practice from the experience of ISEAL Community Members in implementing Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). This briefing note is intended to give a summary of the key findings from this.

The Impact Alliance is a voluntary collaboration between sustainability initiatives sharing similar goals to provide oversight of and support in the development, maintenance, promotion and claiming of Impact Incentives and Impact Partnerships. The purpose of this policy is to outline the Impact Alliance’s governance structure and mechanisms and can be made available to interested parties upon request.

This document outlines the approach taken by the LIA Impact Partnership Pilot project, exploring Impact Partnership Incentives. While Impact Incentives work in a similar way to existing book & claim systems by rewarding already certified producers, Impact Partnership Incentives allow brands and retailers to support on-the-ground Program Partners to help producers transition towards best practices and certification.

The Impact Alliance project was designed to test the feasibility of “Impact Incentives” and “Impact Partnership Incentives” as innovative market-driven working models to scale and improve sustainability performance at landscape levels. The aim was to have a validated model that can be scaled up and offered for use with other commodities and other ISEAL standards, becoming an important sustainability impact accelerator for the sourcing areas of a growing number of industries. This document provides lessons learnt and insights gained over the course of the project. 

This document provides a brief summary of the Soy Impact Incentives Pilot from June 2022.

This document provides an introduction to the Impact Alliance: Making Impact Happen project, followed by: Background on commodities and the need for impact incentives Outreach and promotional material Surveys, interviews and engagement Insights from surveys, interviews and engagement Translating interest into pilots