Standards underpin many of the systems people rely on every day. From digital connectivity and global payments to international trade and infrastructure, standards help create the shared frameworks and trust that allow economies and supply chains to function at scale.
In the sustainability context, these standards are often referred to as sustainability systems or certification schemes.
The World Development Report 2025 describes standards as part of the infrastructure that supports modern economies. Yet as sustainability expectations, due diligence requirements and reporting obligations continue to grow, the systems surrounding sustainability standards are becoming more complex.
Across global supply chains, businesses are being asked to navigate an expanding mix of voluntary standards, corporate commitments, reporting frameworks and regulation. Producers and SMEs are often expected to comply with overlapping requirements, audits and data requests in order to participate in international markets.
These themes were explored during a recent ISEAL dialogue on the World Development Report 2025: Standards for Development. The discussion brought together Xavier Giné, Director of the World Development Report 2025 at the World Bank; Lauren Shields, Sustainability Initiatives Lead at the OECD Centre for Responsible Business Conduct; and Sugumar Raman, Chief Programme Officer at Fair Trade USA, along with ISEAL’s Director of Policy and Engagement, Vidya Rangan.
Navigating a more complex sustainability landscape
Sustainability standards are deeply embedded within global markets and play a key role in integrating sustainability considerations into supply chains. They shape market access, support transparency and traceability, and enable businesses to respond to evolving stakeholder and regulatory expectations.
However, as sustainability expectations have expanded across global markets, standards, reporting frameworks and regulation have become more fragmented.
The World Development Report 2025 describes a growing “spaghetti bowl” of sustainability requirements, where businesses and producers often navigate multiple standards, audits and reporting expectations simultaneously.
For businesses operating across multiple markets and commodities, this can create duplication, inefficiency and rising implementation costs. SMEs and smallholders often have fewer resources to manage these additional demands.
Shifting requirements are also reshaping the role of sustainability systems themselves. The focus is moving beyond simply verifying compliance towards helping businesses and producers put sustainability commitments into practice, strengthen resilience, build capacity and improve over time.
Building more inclusive sustainability systems
Sustainability standards can support market access and drive sustainability improvements across supply chains. At the same time, compliance costs and increasingly complex requirements can create substantial barriers for producers and SMEs with more limited capacity.
As sustainability regulation accelerates, there is growing recognition that credible sustainability systems must combine ambition with practical support for implementation across supply chains.
This is particularly important where producers and SMEs face structural challenges, including limited technical assistance, constrained access to finance and rising reporting obligations. Without adequate guidance and support, increasingly demanding compliance processes can unintentionally exclude those with fewer resources from international markets.
Supporting progress, not perfection
Excluding producers who cannot immediately meet the highest thresholds may ultimately limit sustainability progress.
More progressive and tiered approaches that recognise different starting points and capacities across supply chains are therefore gaining attention. Rather than treating sustainability as a fixed threshold, these models create pathways for organisations and producers to improve over time as capacity develops.
The discussion around the World Development Report also reinforced a wider point: improving sustainability outcomes may depend less on creating new standards and more on connecting existing systems more effectively.
From spaghetti bowl to smart mix
Greater alignment, coordination and mutual recognition between systems could help reduce duplication, lower costs and improve participation across supply chains.
This is where voluntary sustainability systems continue to play an important role.
While regulation can establish baseline requirements and accountability, voluntary systems often provide the infrastructure needed to translate sustainability commitments into practice. Increasingly, the two are being viewed as complementary tools within a broader sustainability governance landscape, where regulation establishes minimum expectations and credible voluntary systems support implementation, innovation and continuous improvement.
As sustainability expectations evolve, credible sustainability systems can help businesses strengthen sustainability performance across value chains.
What comes next for sustainability systems
Sustainability systems are now expected not only to verify compliance, but also to enable participation and help drive more effective sustainability transitions.
Their future effectiveness may depend less on creating new requirements and more on ensuring existing systems work better together, particularly for those with the least capacity to participate.
Credible sustainability systems can help businesses strengthen resilience, build trust and translate sustainability commitments into practical and measurable action. Central to this is supporting meaningful participation across supply chains and ensuring systems remain workable and accessible for producers and SMEs, which has long been part of credible practice.
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Sustainable Brands Staff
Published Jun 17, 2026 10am EDT / 7am PDT / 3pm BST / 4pm CEST