The ISEAL Alliance is the global association for social and environmental standards. Working with established and emerging voluntary standard systems ISEAL develops guidance and helps strengthen the effectiveness and impact of these standards. We also work with companies, non-profits and governments to support their referencing and use of voluntary standards.
ISEAL members are leaders in their fields, committed to creating solid and credible standard systems that give business, governments and consumers the ability to choose goods and services that have been ethically sourced but most of all help the environment and guarantee producers a decent living.
At the end of the 1990s, four certification organisations – Forest Stewardship Council, the International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements, Fairtrade and Marine Stewardship Council – came together to discuss the feasibility and benefits of working in closer collaboration. Although these organisations dealt with different goods – timber, fish, organic, socially responsible production – they were quick to recognise the high level of overlap in their systems and in 1999 signed an Agreement in Principle which led to them meeting regularly to learn about each other’s programs and to find ways to collaborate.
In 2000, Social Accountability International, Rainforest Alliance and the International Organic Accreditation Service joined the above organisations to discuss the idea of a formal organisation that could coordinate the peer review of members and represent their common interests in governmental and inter-governmental forums. After a series of formative meetings between these founding members, ISEAL was registered in the UK in 2002 as a not for profit company.
One of the outcomes of these early meetings was the development of a Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards which was launched in 2004. It has become the global reference for good social and environmental standard-setting processes.
By adhering to this code, standard setting organisations help to ensure that when they create or apply their standard it will result in measurable progress towards their social and environmental objectives, without creating unnecessary hurdles to international trade. The code builds on World Trade Organisation disciplines of openness, transparency and participation.
ISEAL has also developed a Code of Good Practice for Assessing the Impacts of Standards Systems (Impacts Code). The Code was launched in 2010 and it sets out the process by which standards systems can provide evidence of their contributions to social and environmental impacts as well as learning about and improving the effectiveness of their system. Find out more here.
We are also in the process of developing the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Assuring Compliance with Social and Environmental Standards. This Code will define good operating practices in terms of accreditation, certification and auditing to social and environmental standards. A key focus of the Code will be the balance between ensuring that certification to social and environmental standards is both rigorous in terms of meeting the needs of consumers but also accessible in terms of making sure that small scale enterprises can afford to enter into certification programmes see them as market enablers. Find out more here.