Businesses embracing standards and certification

In a new report from the ISEAL Alliance, interviews with 100 leaders of business, government and NGOs show that certification has become an increasingly popular tool to address sustainability issues across all types of organisations, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to MSC.

The ISEAL Alliance asked 100 organisations where they engage, will engage and want to engage with certification. The survey revealed the opinions of 80 business and 20 government and NGO thought leaders.

Four out of five respondents said that standards help to increase operational efficiency. Other uses of standards systems include marketing and assessing and improving sustainability performance. Credible verification, multi-stakeholder standard-setting and good governance increase trust in standards systems and promote their use.

All respondents increasingly demand assurance that their suppliers apply best practice production processes for quality and sustainability. And certification systems with their auditing, transparency and geographic spread are an attractive and flexible instrument with which to achieve this assurance.