ISEAL has revised its Chain of Custody (CoC) Definitions and Models Guidance to improve clarity and consistency for stakeholders across sectors, reflecting major shifts in supply chain management. The updated guidance is intended to address new regulatory demands (e.g., EUDR, CSRD), technological advancements like blockchain, and the inclusion of additional CoC models such as Controlled Blending and Controlled Mass Balance.

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.

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.

ISEAL has developed a good practice guide to help ensure that sustainability claims made by jurisdictions, landscape initiatives, and the companies that source from or support them, are credible. The guidance covers the structural and performance claims a jurisdictional entity may wish to make, along with the supporting action claims of other related stakeholders.

This document summarises the learning from Rainforest Alliance's Hybrid Community-Based Monitoring pilot project. The goal of this 3-year project was to design and develop a Hybrid Community-based Monitoring System (HCMS) that combines GPS and remote sensing with on-the-ground data from the key landscape stakeholders for data management and reporting at a landscape level.

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.

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:

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

We are excited to launch the revision of the ISEAL Chain of Custody (CoC) Definitions and Models Guidance. The revision process will include:

Improving the flow of sustainability information through a new standardised metadata set

This user manual has been created as part of the Tech4Communities: Hybrid Community-based Monitoring system (HCMS) project. The project seeks to create a hybrid “remote” and “on the ground” monitoring and evaluation programme to support data gathering and management at a landscape level.

International trade is often overlooked as a driver of global biodiversity loss and climate change. More than 80 industrial sectors in over 180 countries actively employ voluntary sustainability standards to protect biodiversity and food security. Global dialogue is needed to advance green commodity value chains, increase coordinated ecological practices, scale-up good practices and build consensus.

This blog outlines a set of key messages on due diligence and standards systems in the context of TFA letter to the European Commission.

With a shift towards outcome-focused sustainability standards and measurement, ISEAL commissioned 3Keel to review different metrics for monitoring sustainability performance.

ISEAL has produced a package of tools and guidance on the power of polygon data and how sustainability systems can collect it.

ISEAL and its members have worked closely with partners and policymakers to enhance understanding of the role of credible systems and certification within EU regulation, and how an effective policy can build on them. 

Funded by the Ford Foundation, the Demonstrating and Improving Poverty Impacts Project (DIPI) seeks to understand the contribution that certification systems can make to poverty alleviation and pro-poor development.