ISEAL Alliance – an alliance of many of the world’s leading sustainability standards systems – is creating a set of “Credibility Principles” for voluntary standards. Ecolabel Index is participating in this process, and our colleague Anastasia O’Rourke is honored to be on the Credibility Principles Steering Committee.

This video gives an overview of ISEAL’s objectives with the Principles:

Credibility Principles Consultation from ISEAL Alliance on Vimeo.

Some of the topics under consideration include the degree to which a standard and or ecolabel should insist on 3rd party verification, and whether or not stakeholders have the ability to participate in the setting of the standard. The draft Credibility Principles are open for consultation through December 7 2012.

A global consultation process has been launched, and the next meeting is in Washington, DC on October 9 2012. Broad participation from the standards community is welcome, with future consultations planned for São Paulo, London, Beijing and Delhi.