In September and October 2021, we co-hosted a webinar series with Evidensia to take a deep dive into how and why the new Credibility Principles are important.

Read our blog, Deforestation-free supply chains: The role of declaration in excess.

ISEAL has developed a draft good practice framework to support sustainability systems to strengthen the effectiveness of improvement strategies.

This guidance developed by ISEAL on Chain of Custody (CoC) System is a reference document for sustainability standards systems that complements ISEAL's Sustainability Claims Good Practice Guide.

The Impacts Code of Good Practice, for Assessing the Impacts of Social and Environmental Systems.

ISEAL Insight terms and conditions

This document describes how ISEAL will use, process and share information collected from members in the course validating that members meet the ISEAL Community Member Requirements, ISEAL Accreditation Member Requirements and ISEAL Code Compliant Requirements.

This policy is intended to support ISEAL and its governing bodies in applying a sufficient degree of due diligence when reviewing ISEAL Community Member applications, ensuring that organisations approved as ISEAL Community Members meet the eligibility criteria and are committed to improving their systems, building trust and demonstrating transparency.

On 17 November 2021, the European Commission published its Proposal for a Regulation on Deforestation-free Products
(hereafter “the Proposal”). This position paper outlines how ISEAL believes this draft legislation should be adjusted to have a deeper impact on preventing deforestation.

ISEAL welcomes the EU Commission's proposal for a Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (CSDDD) as a necessary and pivotal step towards mainstreaming sustainability in corporate practices and fostering corporate accountability. Within the proposal, certification and verification schemes, as well as industry and multi-stakeholder initiatives play a key role in organising compliance with the proposed CSDDD.

In 2021, ISEAL worked with seven different sustainability schemes to conduct ten field-based pilot audits in different country-sector combinations around the world. The objectives of these pilot audits were two-fold: to provide participating schemes the opportunity to test the use of the Salary Matrix and accompanying IDH Verification Guidelines with certified entities and to provide IDH learnings and recommendations for these pilots to improve these Roadmap’s tools.

ISEAL seeks an experienced consultant or research team to map and analyse the current European and global landscape for corporate sustainability reporting and disclosure, including regulatory and market-based approaches, to inform ISEAL's strategy and on implications for voluntary sustainability systems and similar systems. Deadline for proposals: Thursday, 2 January 2025 COB.

ISEAL has been analysing the EUDR text, relevant guidance, and the latest version of the FAQs. Based on this review, in January, ISEAL shared a list of unanswered questions, including many raised by Community Members, with the European Commission in the hopes of their clarification in the next iteration of the FAQs. ISEAL expressed again our willingness to collaborate with the Commission on EUDR implementation over the course of the year to ensure credible sustainability systems are rightly considered and leveraged as a support to companies.

Interpretation of the clause 6.4.3 on recognition of existing standards.

The latest version (version 6, revised in December 2014) of the ISEAL Standard-Setting Code of Good Practice, for Setting Social and Environmental Standards.

ISEAL welcomes the Commission's Proposal for a Directive as regards empowering consumers for the green transition through better protection against unfair practices and better information. We share the objective that sustainability or green claims in the EU marketplace should be clear, relevant, and substantiated to enable consumers to make more informed and sustainable purchasing decisions.

In response to the EU proposal for a Green Claims Directive, this statement intends to go further in establishing robust credibility criteria, by promoting multistakeholder participation, and supporting clear pre-approval and verification processes for sustainability schemes. 

This checklist distils key steps in the guidance for setting up and implementing a sustainability benchmarking exercise or programme.

ISEAL has revised its Sustainability Claims Good Practice Guide to improve clarity and reflect the changing context in which sustainability systems now operate.Below are two resources to support our public consultation on the revised Sustainability Claims Good Practice Guide:1. Sustainability Claims Good Practice Guide Revision - Consultation Draft. This is the full text revision for review.

Going further in establishing robust credibility criteria, promoting multistakeholder participation, and supporting clear pre-approval and verification processes for sustainability schemes. This paper reiterates our longstanding support for the Commission’s efforts to introduce more stringent regulations to tackle greenwashing, enabling consumers to make informed purchasing decisions. We would also like to share our views on the proposal and suggest some amendments to make it even more effective.

This guidance document offers suggestions as input for consideration for the recent EUDR guidelines on the use of certification. ISEAL has built a broad-based consensus around what constitutes credible operating practices for sustainability certification schemes. Our Code of Good Practice captures this consensus in a publicly available normative document against which all ISEAL Code compliant members have been evaluated.

Please use this form to submit comments and suggestions on sections of the revised ISEAL Chain of Custody Definitions and Models Guidance. Completed forms should be emailed to Josh Taylor, Traceability Manager – Josh@isealalliance.org by 11 January 2025.

Please use this form to submit comments and suggestions on particular sections of the revised guide for benchmarking sustainability systems.  Completed forms should be emailed to Maira Devisscher, Innovations Manager – maira@isealalliance.org by 15 December 2024.  

Please use this form to submit comments and suggestions on sections of the revised ISEAL Sustainability Claims Good Practice Guide.