Sustainability Standards & Certification
Sustainability standards and certificates have been developed to address issues of environmental quality, social equity and economic prosperity of (global) production and trade practices, especially in agricultural and food value chains. They can be an instrument for businesses to minimise risks and to assure customers of practices used to produce goods. Sustainability standards can also serve as a tool for NGOs and governments to promote sustainable impacts. However, the multitude of sustainability standards shows significant differences in terms of their goals, target group, geographic diffusion and procedures.
Fair and Sustainable Consulting supports businesses and governments to understand these differences and the credibility of different standards and certifications, together with their impact. We support and give advice on certification trajectories and the related costs and benefits. Fair & Sustainable Consulting supports NGOs to incorporate certification in value chain development programmes of multi-stakeholder initiatives.
Examples
Benchmarking the new farm standard with other sustainability standards – Rainforest Alliance, 2020
Consultant: Marjoleine Motz, Annelien Meerts
Coordination of field tests in Africa, Asia and Latin America of the new farm standard – Rainforest Alliance, 2019
Consultant: Marjoleine Motz
Coordinating of a living wage pilot in the young plants sector – Fairtrade International, 2018/2019
Consultant: Marjoleine Motz
Advice on implementing a living wage strategy with all suppliers including field test – EOSTA, 2018 & 2020
Consultant: Marjoleine Motz
Perform WFTO audits – of small to medium size fair trade importing companies (food and non-food/crafts) – Various clients, 2013-2020
Consultant: Marjoleine Motz