New Training Manuals Set the Bar for Credible Voluntary Standards
The ISEAL Alliance has published comprehensive guidance for good practice in voluntary social and environmental standard-setting and certification.
Business, governments and consumers all recognize the potential for voluntary standards and certification as effective market-based tools to drive forward positive social and environmental change. However, the credibility of these schemes is reliant upon:
> standards that are developed in transparent, multi-stakeholder processes,
> certification schemes that consumers can trust, and
> relevant and high level performance criteria that achieve meaningful impacts.
Building on broad-based recognition of the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards[ii], the ISEAL Alliance is delivering a program of support to new and emerging voluntary initiatives across sectors that will ensure that the standards they develop are credible and result in meaningful impacts, with certification schemes and labels that consumers can trust.
Twenty-two new initiatives across a wide range of sectors including carbon offsetting, biofuels, cotton, tourism and mining have already formally expressed a desire to participate in the ongoing training and capacity building program, including The Carbon Trust, The Climate Group, BioTrade, the Better Cotton Initiative, the Sustainable Tourism Stewardship Council and the Association for Responsible Mining.
The manuals, published today, focus on setting standards, verification, governance and financial models. They provide practical information for setting up effective social and/or environmental standards in any sector and include examples from examples from established social and environmental certification schemes such as Fairtrade, Organic and the Forest Stewardship Council.
The five training manuals are available free of charge on the ISEAL Alliance website at www.isealalliance.org/emerginginitiatives.