ISEAL Codes of Good Practice

We help sustainability systems to achieve their sustainability goals.

ISEAL’s Codes of Good Practice provide a globally recognised framework, defining practices for effective and credible sustainability systems.

ISEAL’s Code Compliant members meet all three of our Codes of Good Practice, which focus on the core elements of a sustainability system:

The ISEAL Standard-setting Code defines how a standard should be developed, structured and improved over time. The Code addresses multi-stakeholder consultation and decision-making, and ensures the standard contains clear requirements that can be measured and assessed.
The ISEAL Assurance Code provides a framework for assessing compliance with standards, so that consumers, supply chain partners, investors and other stakeholders know they can trust the results of assessments. It encourages assurance that is rigorous and accessible, providing accurate and transparent results.
The ISEAL Impacts Code supports robust monitoring and evaluation that helps systems to understand how effective their standards are in achieving what they set out to do. It provides standards with a roadmap to measure progress against sustainability goals and to improve practices over time.

Consultation on ISEAL Code of Good Practice

The draft ISEAL Code of Good Practice revises and integrates the ISEAL Impacts, Standard-Setting, and Assurance Codes of Good Practice, and also incorporates essential practices from the ISEAL Sustainability Claims Good Practice Guide.

The consultation on the second draft of the ISEAL Code of Good Practice ran from 30 May to 30 July 2023. To learn more, visit the consultation page.

If you have any feedback or questions, please contact consultation@isealalliance.org.

Please note that until the completion of the revision, information in the Codes' forewords on ISEAL membership is out of date since the introduction of our new membership structure.

Additionally, in the Impacts and Standard-Setting Codes, Appendix A: Compliance Criteria is also outdated as, in line with our new membership structure, ISEAL Code Compliant members must demonstrate adherence to the baseline and improvement criteria of all three of ISEAL’s Codes of Good Practice.