The buying and selling of timber, coffee, and other goods relies on a mutual language of trade – shared terminology, standards, and data that make it possible for the various parties to communicate and reach agreement on the terms of a deal. The sustainability movement, which operates within this global marketplace, adds complexity and richness to the trading process. In theory, the data from assurance processes could automatically inform external facing audiences through interactive dashboards or similar tools. However, all too often this type of critical information is not utilised to its full extent because these resources are not using a common approach that is understandable across the digital (and human) ecosystem of sustainability systems. Consequently, most of the data and information held by sustainability systems is inaccessible, siloed and not effectively informing decisions by key stakeholders. A lack of shared terminologies prevents many potential new allies from fully understanding and supporting the movement’s powerful goals.
A shared vocabulary: building a common language of sustainability
Introduction
About the project
Project title: Information and Data Standard for Sustainability (IDSS)
Lead organisation: Forest Stewardship Council
Partners: ISEAL Alliance
Duration: April 2019 - March 2022
Contact: Julie Smith - j.smith@fsc.org; Elizabeth Kennedy - elizabeth@isealalliance.org
Lead organisation: Forest Stewardship Council
Partners: ISEAL Alliance
Duration: April 2019 - March 2022
Contact: Julie Smith - j.smith@fsc.org; Elizabeth Kennedy - elizabeth@isealalliance.org
The challenge
The objective
This project sought to codify a shared language for the sustainability community. All certification schemes or sustainability initiatives are based on similar data concepts: certificate holders, certified sites, location coordinates, dates for audits, indicators for compliance, publications, normative frameworks, etc. When data and information are standardised, they can inform multiple purposes (e.g., using monitoring and evaluation data to inform compliance assessment, or combining multiple organisations’ compliance results to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of risk for a specific region), making them more valuable. This standardisation will enable standards to better align the ways they communicate and demonstrate their performance in the sustainability landscape—maximizing the data’s ability to generate cross-sector business insights and reach less-informed external audiences.
The development process
Over three years, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and ISEAL worked together to agree on set of data definitions that builds on existing international metadata standards and includes new fields and controlled vocabularies to meet the context-specific needs of the ISEAL Community and broader sustainability movement. A wide range of stakeholders were engaged during that period to ensure that the metadata set being created delivers high value not just to individual ISEAL members and the ISEAL Community but also across the wider sustainability constituency. Various pilots were carried out to support the development of the set and to refine its value proposition. The pilots informed the structure of the set, grouping the different metadata elements by modules under three primary clusters. The first iteration of the set was finalised in March 2022 and named the ‘ISEAL Core Metadata Set’. ISEAL will be the custodian of this community resource moving forward.
Download project outputs
ISEAL Core Metadata Set - Information Pack
ISEAL Core Metadata Set - Information Pack | FSC, ISEAL
This information pack introduces the ISEAL Core Metadata Set - it is for people interested in increasing the value and integrity of the data and information their organisation curates and manages. The ISEAL Core Metadata Set was developed through the Information and Data Standard for Sustainability project, led by the Forest Stewardship Council in partnership with ISEAL.
ISEAL Core Metadata Set - FSC use case | FSC, ISEAL
ISEAL Core Metadata Set - FSC use case | FSC, ISEAL
This document summarises a use case piloted as part of the Information and Data Standard for Sustainability project. It is for people interested in increasing the value and integrity of the data and information their organisation curates and manages. The ISEAL Core Metadata Set was developed through the Information and Data Standard for Sustainability project, led by the Forest Stewardship Council in partnership with ISEAL.
ISEAL Core Metadata Set - Evidensia use case
ISEAL Core Metadata Set - Evidensia use case | FSC, ISEAL
This document summarises a use case piloted as part of the Information and Data Standard for Sustainability project. It is for people interested in increasing the value and integrity of the data and information their organisation curates and manages. The ISEAL Core Metadata Set was developed through the Information and Data Standard for Sustainability project, led by the Forest Stewardship Council in partnership with ISEAL.
ISEAL Core Metadata Set - Multi-system compliance dashboard use case
ISEAL Core Metadata Set - Multi-system compliance dashboard use case | FSC, ISEAL
This document summarises a use case piloted as part of the Information and Data Standard for Sustainability project. It is for people interested in increasing the value and integrity of the data and information their organisation curates and manages. The ISEAL Core Metadata Set was developed through the Information and Data Standard for Sustainability project, led by the Forest Stewardship Council in partnership with ISEAL.
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