A second meeting of sustainability standards practitioners and civil society organizations was then convened to take place in London, England in June 2011, with four specific aims:
- To reach a shared understanding of the key trends affecting the sustainability challenges (e.g., poverty alleviation, fair labor practices, sustainable resource management) that standard systems have been created to address,
- To formulate a “shared vision” for where standards systems should position themselves and the role they should play in the medium and long-term future,
- To explore strategies and possible collective actions to help achieve this shared vision,
- To examine and refine key messages around the role international standards/certification can play in addressing global sustainability challenges.
The meeting resulted in the articulation of eight major themes for effective collective action, ranging from points of fundamental agreement and agreed strategies, through to challenges still to be overcome. Two specific areas of work were identified in order to complete the framing project:
- Firstly, to commission a specific report and seek recommendations on the management of the interface between private sustainability standards and public governance. The intent of this work would be to better understand the relationship, but also if possible to develop guidelines that could ensure that the standards movements reinforces and does not undermine good governance, and so build confidence of civil society in ‘legitimate’ sustainability standards.
- Secondly, to develop a ‘meta-narrative’ document that would articulate a shared vision, explain how sustainability standards contribute to achieving this vision, and map out a collective understanding of the way the movement should address key challenges that lie ahead. The meta-narrative document would aim to identify the fundamental questions that the movement needs to answer to convince policy makers, civil society and the general public of the value of sustainability standards, and provide a basis for consistent responses. In some cases the responses would represent an agreed position, in others an acknowledgement of the importance of the issue and a commitment to seek solutions in partnership with other stakeholders.
These two documents would not lay claim to any kind of formal status, but would aim to exercise influence by the value of their content.
If successful, they would provide a point of reference for the sustainability standards movement, and a platform on which to build coordinated action and consistent communications.
