TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY: the ROLES and LIMITATIONS of CERTIFICATION Appendix M: Timeline of the Assessment
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The Roles and Toward Limitations Sustainability of Certification APPENDICES June 2012 To accompany the Final Report of the State-of-Knowledge Assessment of Standards and Certification Table of Contents Appendix A: Introduction to the Appendices . A-1 Appendix B: Toward More Sustainable Production and Consumption, by Kai Lee and Ruth Norris . .A-6 Appendix C: How Certifi cation Matters: Examining Mechanisms of Infl uence, by Tim Bartley . A-13 Appendix D: An Early Assessment of the Effectiveness of Aquaculture Certifi cation and Standards, by Claude E. Boyd and Aaron A. McNevin . .A-35 Appendix E: A Literature and State-of-Knowledge Review of Fisheries Certifi cation and Standards, by California Environmental Associates . .A-70 Appendix F: Forestry Review, by Ben Cashore and Graeme Auld . .A-88 Appendix G: Agricultural Standards and Certifi cation Systems, by Louis Lebel . .A-125 Appendix H: Testing a BMP-Based Approach for Assessing Gaps in Certifi cation Impacts Research, by Deanna Newsom, Elizabeth Kennedy, Joshua Miller, Volker Bahn, and Shishir Adhikari . .A-146 Appendix I: Recommendations for Improving Research on Certifi cation Impacts, by William Crosse, Deanna Newsom, and Elizabeth Kennedy . A-169 Appendix J: Addendum to the Business Section: The Drivers and Barriers that Shape Business Engagement in Certifi cation . A-181 Appendix K: Why Do Firms Voluntarily Comply with Sustainability Standards? The Drivers and Enabling Conditions of Voluntary Certifi cation, by Bogdan Prokopovych . .A-194 Appendix L: Innovations in Governance: A Functional Typology of Private Governance Institutions, by Tracey M. Roberts . .A-209 TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY: THE ROLES AND LIMITATIONS OF CERTIFICATION Appendix M: Timeline of the Assessment . .A-256 Appendix N: Steering Committee Selection Process, Expectations, and Biographies . .A-259 Appendix O: Peer Review Process . .A-267 Appendix P: Works Cited . .A-270 Appendix Q: Abbreviations . .A-292 TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY: THE ROLES AND LIMITATIONS OF CERTIFICATION APPENDIX A Introduction to the Appendices1 Between July 2009 and December 2011, the Assessment funders and Steering Committee commissioned signifi cant research to assist in scoping and gathering information on the Assessment’s core questions: 1. What is known about the impacts and performance of voluntary standards and certifi cation systems; and 2. How is it known? This research provided an important baseline for Steering Committee deliberations and content for the fi nal report. This introduction to the appendices provides background information on the purpose and content of each of the research papers, which can be found in Appendices B–L. This introduction also describes briefl y the content of Appendices M–Q. Please note that Steering Committee members did not seek consensus agreement on the content of these Appendices. While all materials were prepared at the request of the Steering Committee or the funders, each appendix should be understood as refl ect- ing the views of the author(s) and not necessarily the views of the full Steering Committee, even where the author is a Steering Committee member, a funder, or the Secretariat. Papers Commissioned for the Assessment Convening In preparation for the September 2009 Assessment convening meeting, the Assessment funders prepared a white paper and also commissioned two papers to provoke and support meeting discussions. • Appendix B: Toward More Sustainable Production and Consumption, Kai Lee (David and Lucile Packard Foundation) and Ruth Norris (Resources Legacy Fund). This paper proposed an assessment of scientifi c and institutional knowledge about environmental standards and certifi cation systems and related approaches to more sustainable production and consumption systems. Its purpose was to help frame and explore the current state of knowledge and the objectives, feasibility, and design of the proposed study. • Appendix C: How Certifi cation Matters: Examining Mechanisms of Infl uence, Tim Bartley (Indiana University). This paper was commissioned by the Resources Legacy Fund and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to explore various processes through which certifi cation might impact conditions at the point of production. Through a synthesis of previous literature, the author identifi es six mechanisms of infl uence and suggests research strategies to further discover the power and limits of these mechanisms. • Eff ective Eco-labeling: Lessons from the Past and Questions for the Future in Fisheries, Amy Mathews Amos (Turnstone Consulting). This paper was commissioned by the Resources Legacy Fund and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to survey fi ndings published in the peer-reviewed and gray literature on the performance, impacts, and potential of eco-labeled products from certifi ed fi sheries, with the purpose of proposing themes for future inquiry. This paper is not included as an appendix, as its content was covered and expanded upon by later commissioned research, described below. Sector Reviews The Steering Committee’s charge was to produce an assessment of knowledge summarizing what is known and how it is known regarding standards and certifi cation systems that focus on achieving greater sustainability in production and consump- tion. The Steering Committee recognized that the task of conducting this Assessment would require a scope broad enough 1 This Appendix, as well as Appendices M–Q, were prepared by RESOLVE, the Secretariat for the Steering Committee. TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY: THE ROLES AND LIMITATIONS OF CERTIFICATION – APPENDICES A-1 APPENDIX A A-2 to capture a signifi cant and substantial foundation of information, but with suffi cient focus and depth to allow for meaningful analysis. Furthermore, the scope needed to refl ect the available time and resources—namely, 18–24 months of the Steering Committee’s time, and limited fi nancial resources. The Steering Committee thus decided to commission state-of-knowledge reviews of four sectors. To choose among the many possible sectors of interest—ranging from energy and carbon to food systems—the Steering Committee established a set of criteria for narrowing their options: • Chosen sectors must have a meaningful set of existing knowledge and literature from which reviewers could draw. • Chosen sectors must have additional, nonpublished or nonpublic sources of knowledge that funders, Steering Committee members, or review authors could potentially access. • Knowledge gathered on chosen sectors must allow for some comparison across sectors, and should apply to sectors not chosen for a review. • Chosen sectors should have some natural resource component. • As a package of reviews, the chosen sectors should represent a cross-section of standards and certifi cation systems with the following characteristics: • Coverage of a range of environmental, social, and economic factors; • Examples of sectors with a single, dominant system and others with multiple, competing systems; and • Sectors at different stages of development and operation. As discussed in more detail in the report Introduction, the Steering Committee ultimately chose four sectors: agriculture production and farming systems, forest products, wild-caught fi sheries, and aquaculture. This decision took into account the Assessment funders’ common interest in systems related to wild-caught fi sheries, as well as other systems that met the above criteria and that the Steering Committee agreed would allow for a rich exploration of existing literature and other information resources. Designing and Conducting the Sector Reviews The Steering Committee formed subcommittees to determine how best to organize and commission research within a limited budget and timeline and coordinated across the reviews so that the results would be somewhat comparable. Each review used the following outline as a starting point for the scope of work: 1. What is known about the market demand for certifi ed products in this sector (e.g., the role of retailers, consum- ers, infl uencers of their behavior, market shares)? 2. What is known about the market supply of certifi ed products in this sector (e.g., drivers of corporate decisions to become part of sustainability certifi cation, the business case for sustainability performance improvements)? 3. What indicators have been used to assess environmental, social, and economic impacts (e.g., physical, biologi- cal, or social measures; predictive models assessing the likely impact of practices if adopted)? 4. What is known about the interactions between voluntary certifi cation and standards, and regulatory standards, in this sector (e.g., the infl uence of prospective regulation in the uptake of voluntary standards, the infl uence of voluntary standards on regulatory practice, synergies or confl icts, etc.)? 5. What is known about the interactions between voluntary certifi cation and standards and other voluntary approaches to increasing sustainability in this sector (e.g., infl uence on encouraging fi sheries improvement partnerships)? TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY: THE ROLES AND LIMITATIONS OF CERTIFICATION – APPENDICES APPENDIX A A-3 6. What factors have enabled or constrained the certifi cation and standards systems in this sector (e.g., the role of civil society organizations and campaigns, producer capacity to meet standards, integrated vs. fragmented supply chains, proliferation of labels and standards, industry leadership, nature of the product or resource, etc.)? Each subcommittee jointly chose a reviewer (or team of reviewers), and then worked with the author(s) to refi ne the