Using evidence to inform sustainability action

As the fossil fuel industry faces mounting pressure, the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) has been monitoring the efforts of major oil and gas (O&G) producers in decarbonisation and just transition performance. The results paint a down-beat picture with significant room for improvement but also important examples of leading practices.

With its ability to sink carbon, sustain marine biodiversity, employ women, and unlock value chains, seaweed farming demonstrates how development, climate, and nature work together to generate value and uplift communities. Seaweed farming can help build a world free of poverty on a livable planet and has enormous growth potential. This report has identified ten global seaweed markets with the potential to grow by an additional USD 11.8 billion by 2030. Yet, much of the seaweed sector’s value remains untapped - it has clear growth potential beyond its current markets. Today, most farmed seaweed is used for direct human consumption, as fresh feed in aquaculture, or as hydrocolloids. However, seaweed-farmed products may be able to displace fossil fuels in sectors such as fabrics and plastics; can provide ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration and nitrogen cycling; and can generate socioeconomic benefits in fragile coastal communities. Further, the market is currently dominated by a handful of Asian countries, which produce 98 percent of farmed seaweed by volume globally. Opportunities for growth in new regions and applications are high.

The transition toward a more sustainable agricultural production has become an essential step in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs), launched by the United Nations in 2015. Voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) have been proposed as a useful governance tool for guiding this transition. Thus, this article uses a case study from the coffee sector in Costa Rica to assess the contribution of VSSs to the achievement of the SDGs. We rely on panel data from coffee producers captured between 2017 and 2019 to carry out this assessment. Results of the statistical analysis suggest that VSSs alone are not enough to promote a transition to a more sustainable coffee production, as trade-offs between the contributions of VSSs to the different SDGs emerge. If the VSSs are to promote sustainable practices among producers while ensuring socioeconomic benefits for producers, workers, and their families, implementation modifications are required.

This report explores why and how downstream and midstream companies are engaging at landscape scale to achieve sustainable land use in pulp, paper and packaging (PPP) production areas. The study identified 32 landscape initiatives in pulp production areas in nine countries, including Brazil, Canada, Indonesia and Portugal, and at least 26 downstream and midstream companies supporting them. The findings and recommendations in the report are drawn upon data collected through interviews with key PPP stakeholders, including companies and landscape initiative implementers, as well as through an analysis of company responses to CDP’s forest questionnaire in 2022. The report recommends companies improve their understanding of landscape approaches and their components in order to benefit more from multi-stakeholder collaborations; invest in PPP landscapes to tackle systemic issues; increase collaboration with other companies and within the same PPP landscapes; and actively engage more stakeholder groups. The report also contains additional recommendations targeted at other stakeholders in PPP landscapes looking to mobilize more private sector action.

In this podcast Vidya Rangan (Senior Manager for Impacts and Evidence, ISEAL) talks to Ruth Nussbaum (Co-founder and Director, ProForest) and Patrick Mallet (Innovations Director, ISEAL) about the newly released 'Effective Company Actions Guiding Practices' and how they can help companies address sustainability challenges. You can find the guiding practices here: https://www.isealalliance.org/get-involved/resources/effective-company-actions-landscapes-and-jurisdictions-guiding-practices

Tropical peatland stores a large amount of carbon. In the last 20 years, drainage of Asian peat soil has increased to satisfy the demand of land for plantation agricultures. Industrial oil palm plantations occupy large areas of peatland in Indonesia and Malaysia, with associated GHG emissions and biodiversity loss, here referred to as nature occupation impact. This study performs a detailed Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of 1 kg of palm oil for two case studies: PT SMART's Hanau and Sungai Rungau facilities in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. The objective is to quantify the reduction in GHG emissions and nature occupation that has been achieved by implementing the following industry-driven measures: reducing the area of cultivated peat soil, reducing the peat drainage depth, and setting aside part of the land-bank for nature conservation. The results show that 1 kg of palm oil causes 2.72 and 2.25 kg CO2-eq./kg palm oil from Hanau and Sungai Rungau facilities respectively. These are 20%-34% lower than average RSPO certified palm oil and 49%-58% lower than average non-certified palm oil. Sungai Rungau achieves the reduction mainly due to a completely peat soil-free supply base. Hanau's peat emissions are instead 0.28 kg, compared to the 0.77 and 2.36 kg CO2-eq for RSPO certified and non-certified palm oil respectively, due to a very low drainage depth (18-25 cm compared to 57-73 cm in average of RSPO certified and non-certified respectively) and an overall lower share of oil palms on peat land. The impact on nature occupation is 24%-43% lower in Hanau and Sungai Rungau compared to non-certified oil and 4%-29% lower compared to RPSO certified respectively. About 8% of the total land bank of the Hanau supply-base has been set aside for nature conservation, reducing GHG emissions by 2% and nature occupation by 9%. Both Hanau and Sungai Rungau could also significantly reduce GHG emissions in the palm oil milling stage, by implementing biogas capture in palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment.

This report presents the findings of a study by the Tropical Forest Alliance and Daemeter, aimed at assessing progress made in the past decade regarding the reduction of deforestation driven by commodities (palm oil and pulp and paper) in Indonesia and Malaysia. The study underscores the collaborative efforts made by the public and private sectors to drive positive change and establish conducive conditions for societal sectors to contribute to sustainability. Carried out between May and December 2020, the study utilized interviews, online surveys, virtual meetings, literature reviews, and geospatial data analysis. The study is split into three parts; highlights areas of progress; assessing the drivers of progress and finally marking priorities for future action.

This brief summarizes findings from a rapid evidence assessment of studies on women's empowerment interventions and their effects on nutritional outcomes. 10 studies were used, which were included in 3ie’s Food Systems and Nutrition evidence gap map (EGM). The map includes studies identified through a systematic literature search of key academic databases and grey literature sources performed for the regular maintenance of the EGM.

The report highlights emerging lessons and experiences of the Good Growth Partnership, which is advancing an integrated supply chain approach for three major commodities that account for more than 70% of tropical deforestation: beef, oil palm, and soy. These lessons range from building multi-stakeholder coalitions for dialogue and actions on supply chain sustainability, to promoting innovative tools and practices for deforestation-free production of the commodities.

As multiple global crises put women’s roles in the labor market in flux, attention to women’s economic empowerment (WEE) has never been more urgent. A recent report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) underscores the role that women play in international trade and agriculture, and highlights how the trade tools, specifically voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) can help advance WEE in the agriculture sector. This blog provides some key takeaways from the report.

This infographic presents the key results and insights from ISEAL's 2022 systematic review refresh of the business benefits of sustainability standards. The study looks at research and evidence published in the last six years and sets out to analyse trends in the evidence and draw deeper learning on the benefits that adopting standards can drive for businesses.

Poverty, food insecurity, biodiversity and habitat loss are persistent global challenges that are further exacerbated by the impacts of climate change. These challenges are particularly hard felt in the tropical landscapes of the global South where tensions between local socio-economic and international environmental commitments are pervasive. Integrated landscape approaches have been widely endorsed in the international and national policy arena, within academia, and in the discourse surrounding conservation and development funding. However, despite strong scientific theories and concepts, the implementation, and particularly evaluation and reporting, of integrated landscape approaches in the tropics remains poorly developed. This book details the experiences of researchers engaged in these landscape-scale initiatives across the first two years of implementation. It has dedicated chapters on current progress, biodiversity, methods and evaluation the book provides useful tools and resources for research and implementation. This book explores the techniques and strategies that can be deployed to improve the governance and management of land and natural resources and better reconcile conservation and development objectives in tropical landscapes undergoing rapid change.

This article examines the ways in which small-scale tea producers are brought into Fairtrade certification schemes in Tanzania, looking in particular at the challenges and opportunities associated with different ownership relations of processing factories.