Guidance for companies
Credibility guidance
We support companies in understanding what credible sustainability practice is, how to build credible sustainability systems and how to incorporate credible sustainability systems into their sustainability strategy.
The ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Sustainability Systems defines good practices across core areas of a sustainability system. It helps companies identify and evaluate trustworthy sustainability systems, while guiding them in developing their own sustainability programmes. Following these requirements, helps deliver meaningful sustainability outcomes while maintaining integrity and stakeholder trust.
Our guidance provides a comprehensive framework for organisations to develop and manage credible sustainability claims. This is particularly valuable for companies today as regulations around sustainability claims are becoming increasingly stringent, with authorities cracking down on greenwashing and unsubstantiated sustainability claims. Our guidance helps companies build credible communications while minimising legal and reputational risks.
ISEAL’s guidance on good practice for credible benchmarking provides a structured approach to company benchmarking of sustainability standards and similar systems. This helps companies systematically evaluate and compare different sustainability initiatives against clear criteria and identify those that are the best fit to support their sustainability actions.
Landscape and jurisdictional approaches drive sustainability at scale, beyond individual supply chains. Our guidance helps companies engage in these initiatives effectively, outlining criteria for legitimate landscape actions, progress monitoring and making credible claims about their contributions. Read our position papers to learn about navigating the complexities of landscape-level interventions, establishing clear prerequisites for engagement, defining monitoring responsibilities, and a structured approach for making different types of claims.
Our framework for making living wage claims provides essential guidance for companies navigating the complex landscape of wage-related communications. This guidance is particularly valuable given the significant challenges companies face in implementing and verifying living wage initiatives. The framework helps companies make credible claims while acknowledging these operational complexities, ensuring that communications about living wage progress are both meaningful and truthful.
Participation and engagement opportunities
We offer companies opportunities to engage in developing solutions for complex sustainability issues and defining good practice. ISEAL Community Membership is open to company sustainability programmes.
We organise online and in-person events on a wide range of topics – from discussing the credibility tools that we develop, to our work on specific sustainability issues, to how sustainability systems are adapting to support companies in complying with regulation.
Explore vacancies and consultancy opportunities at ISEAL Community Members and organisations signed up to ISEAL Insight.
ISEAL regularly reviews its credibility resources to ensure they remain relevant in the evolving sustainability landscape. Our consultations give individuals and companies the opportunity to share their perspectives, shape guidance, and provide valuable input on what works for them.
Sustainability systems, including company sustainability programmes, that meet our eligibility requirements and are committed to advancing sustainable development, can apply to become an ISEAL Community Member. Membership provides valuable opportunities for learning and collaboration among sustainability-focused organisations, allowing members to network, share experiences, and work together to advance better sustainability solutions.
An alliance for improving smallholder incomes founded by GIZ, Sustainable Food Lab and ISEAL.
Innovation and improvement
Companies can partner with ISEAL Community Members on Innovation Fund projects to develop solutions to sustainability challenges, create stakeholder value, and support governments, supply chains and smallholders. Explore past and current funding opportunities and projects.
The ISEAL Innovations Fund drives sustainability projects across global supply chains - from digital tools improving Mongolian herders’ economic resilience to Indigenous-led land rehabilitation. These projects show how companies can create impact by engaging stakeholders, leveraging technology, and scaling solutions. Discover how your organisation can help transform supply chains for a sustainable future.
Companies can partner with ISEAL Community Members through the Innovations Fund to develop and test solutions for pressing sustainability issues, create stakeholder value, and meet the evolving needs of governments, supply chains, and smallholders. Explore past and current projects, access key insights and discover new opportunities to get involved.
ISEAL helps sustainability systems become more efficient, effective and credible in driving market-based impacts. For companies, this means access to robust verification processes that build trust with buyers, reliable data on sustainability performance and supply chain risks, improved traceability of products from source to end buyer, and evidence-based sustainability claims. Companies can better monitor sustainability impacts,meet reporting and disclosure requirements, and track products and sustainability information across supply chains.
Practical knowledge for company action
Making informed decisions on sustainability, regulatory compliance and sustainability systems’ adoption requires understanding sustainability systems’ impacts and effectiveness. We provide a bridge between sustainability systems, research and practice to share valuable knowledge.
Credible sustainability systems must ultimately drive meaningful and relevant impact. How do we know they are achieving this? Policymakers need access to credible evidence of sustainability systems’ impact to write effective policies that reference such schemes, build public knowledge, respond to queries, and support their sustainability goals in public procurement. ISEAL helps sustainability systems establish robust performance monitoring and measurement frameworks to report on impacts.
In 2022, ISEAL commissioned AidEnvironment to update a 2017 study that reviewed the business benefits of sustainability standards. In this study, AidEnvironment analysed new evidence and trends from the previous six years, to synthesise findings and draw deeper learning about the business benefits of adopting sustainability standards.