Understanding Sustainability Initiatives

Foreword

Sustainability initiatives play an important role in a broader ecosystem of market-based and policy measures in supporting sustainable value chains. Developed over the last several decades by a wide range of stakeholders, sustainability initiatives today vary significantly in terms of their objective, scope, operations, and governance. Their diversity can generate confusion and uncertainty amongst users, also making it difficult to achieve effective synergies with the regulatory environment promoting sustainable value chains. Against this background, this joint ITC-OECD report presents a typology framework to promote a common language and a shared understanding of the complex landscape of sustainability initiatives with the aim to help policy makers, private sector operators, non-governmental organisations, and other stakeholders in facilitating and assessing sustainability performance, harmonising approaches, and integrating sustainability initiatives along value chains.

Conceived by the United Nations’ International Trade Centre (ITC) in consultation with the ITC-led Trade for Sustainable Development (T4SD) Technical Working Group, the typology framework of sustainability initiatives has been jointly developed by the ITC, the Centre for Responsible Business Conduct of the OECD, and the Trade and Agriculture Directorate of the OECD. This joint work reflects engagement by ITC to support a better use of sustainability initiatives, including by small businesses. By supporting a more harmonised approach between public policies and sustainability initiatives, it also aims to contribute to the OECD policy objective to promote sustainable supply chains and responsible business conduct.

Acknowledgements

This report was prepared by Mathieu Lamolle (ITC) and Aimee Russillo (LiSeed and ITC) from ITC; Emily Norton and Andrea Schill from the Centre for Responsible Business Conduct of the OECD Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs; Cemre Balaban and Matteo Fiorini from the Trade Policy Division of the Trade and Agriculture Directorate of the OECD. It has benefited from comments and inputs from Tihana Bule, Koen Deconinck, Annelies Deuss, John Drummond, Marion Jansen, Hannah Koep-Andrieu, Sébastien Miroudot, Irene Oliván García, Silvia Sorescu, Enxhi Tresa, and Elisabeth Van Lieshout from the OECD. Members of the ITC-led Trade for Sustainable Development (T4SD) technical working group also provided useful comments. The authors are grateful to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), ISEAL, and all other members of the T4SD technical working group for their engagement in support of this project. The authors also thank participants to the meeting of the T4SD Technical Working Group at the 2022 T4SD Forum in Geneva. This report also benefitted from discussions in the OECD Working Party of the Trade Committee, which agreed to make it available to the public. The authors thank Piotr Dubiel (OECD) for graphic design inputs and to Laëtitia Christophe, Derya Isir, and Michèle Patterson from the OECD for editorial support.