Summary
Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) are tools increasingly used by value chain actors and governments looking to improve sustainable production, consumption, and producer’s well-being. As they gain importance and recognition, it is critical to understand how they can best be designed and governed to achieve their intended impacts on-the-ground.
In this learning event, hosted in partnership with IISD, we explored two key themes – what research reveals about VSS design and what these insights means for VSS in practice. We address the following questions, and more:
- Which VSS governance and design attributes contribute to creating impact at producer-level?
- How does VSS design of pricing and premium mechanisms impact producer’s well-being?
- What are the practical implications of these findings for VSS?
Moderation:
- Matthew Stancliffe Bird | Associate Manager, Impacts and Evidence | ISEAL
Speakers:
- Charline Depoorter | PhD researcher | KU Leuven
- Eva Boonaert | PhD researcher | KU Leuven
- Sara Elder | Senior Policy Advisor | IISD
- Steffany Bermudez | Policy Advisor | IISD
- Sheila Senathirjah | Senior Manager, Innovations | ISEAL
- Emma Dennis | Senior Manager: Global Impact | Better Cotton