Companies might be forgiven for thinking that the world of sustainability certification is getting a bit too complicated for comfort. There is a fast-growing number of different standards and targets to consider, and every process and every certification body seems to have its own acronym and its own set of complex and time-consuming criteria.
But a good place to start is to distinguish between two very different sorts of sustainability measures. First, we have targets, which is all about what companies want to achieve in the future and how they will go about doing it. Then there is performance: how organisations are operating right now. And while there is a lot of talk about future sustainability goals, it should be remembered that present-day sustainability performance is at least as important.
This is where the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization (ISO) comes in. The organisation is well known for certifying all manner of products and processes, with more than 24,852 international standards covering areas such as quality, health and safety, energy, risk and information security. And it is becoming increasingly important in driving standards for sustainability. Unlike many of the certification programmes that companies adopt, ISO standards are about current performance, not future targets. While it is easy for organisations to make promises about the future, it is a lot harder to deliver real sustainability right now.
Where we are going
Of course, targets are important because they give direction and help form sustainability strategy. The most important source for sustainability targets remains the United Nations.
Most will already be familiar with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its 2015 Paris Agreement, which set baseline carbon-reduction goals that are reviewed whenever the so-called Conference of the Parties (or ‘COP') meets – the next occasion will be COP28 in Dubai in late 2023. This forms a key part of most corporate climate plans, because the UNFCCC sets global targets that are universally recognised.
Then there are the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which go much further than just carbon reduction. The SDGs set broad sustainability targets for organisations to follow covering issues such as equality, poverty, health and the environment, as well as climate. Like the UNFCCC, these are usually a foundational part of corporate strategy and most companies set performance targets that relate to the SDGs.
When it comes to meeting these goals there are many routes for companies to follow. Accepted practice is for businesses to use the methodology created by the UN-backed Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) which sets the standard on calculating environmental impacts in line with accepted scientific practice and creates a roadmap for meeting targets. For reporting on how they are progressing towards sustainability goals most organisations follow the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards. This is an independent sustainability reporting initiative which is often used as a framework for creating corporate sustainability reports and which, according to KPMG, is now used by four out of five of the world's 250 biggest companies. There is also a standard for financial reporting, known as the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) framework, an independent standard-setting body which works on the financial risks related to sustainability and is considered the gold standard on what companies should disclose to their investors.
How we are doing
Most of these sustainability initiatives look to the future. That is why the ISO performance standards are so important: they are about now. The standards created by ISO (including the most important sustainability standard known as ISO14000 family, which covers areas such as environmental auditing and life-cycle assessment) contain a huge amount of detail about exactly how companies should organise their environmental programmes – just as if they were planning a complex manufacturing system. Companies then employ third-party bodies to certify that they meet ISO standards – giving them a guarantee of credibility that protects against allegations of greenwashing.
The ISO is also working on new standards that fill some significant gaps in the sustainability domain, including standards for corporate action on biodiversity. This has been one of the weakest links in the global response to the sustainability challenge: of the 20 biodiversity targets agreed in 2010 under the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity, none had been fully achieved by the target date of 2020.
The ISO is also working on an ambitious plan to define and standardise circular economy practice in business, which it says is a “pillar of climate action” and requires faster action from governments, organisations and individuals. The ISO says the circular economy standard is designed to minimise waste of resources such as heat and water.
Perhaps it is inevitable that much of the debate around sustainability is about the future. Yet that is exactly why standards like ISO that shape business and society in the here and now are so important. If we want the future to look different to the past, we need to concentrate on the present – because it is what we do now that determines what comes next.
Illustration by Elisa Macellari
