Impartiality Committee

 As a certification body dedicated to sustainability certification and verification, we recognize that impartiality is fundamental to the credibility and trustworthiness of our services. In line with the requirements of ISO/IEC 17065, we have established an Impartiality Committee to ensure that our activities are conducted with the highest standards of integrity, objectivity, and transparency.

 Purpose

 The Impartiality Committee serves as an independent oversight body that safeguards the impartiality of our certification and verification activities. It helps us identify and manage risks that could compromise the neutrality of our decisions—especially important in the complex and often value-driven field of sustainability.

 Responsibilities

  

  • Monitoring impartiality across all sustainability certification and verification services.

  • Advising on potential conflicts of interest, including those related to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) pressures or stakeholder influence.

  • Reviewing our risk assessments related to impartiality and ensuring robust controls are in place.

  • Providing guidance to maintain fairness, credibility, and stakeholder trust in our certification decisions.

 Committee Composition

 Our Impartiality Committee currently includes a balanced mix of stakeholders, including representatives from environmental organizations, certified entities and industry experts. This diverse representation ensures that no single interest prevails and that the committee can provide independent and informed oversight.

Current committee members include:

  • Paul Green

  • Josephine Chapman

  • Nick Leaney

 Independence and Integrity

 The Impartiality Committee operates independently of our operational management. It has direct access to top leadership and the authority to raise concerns that could impact the impartiality of our sustainability certification processes. This structure ensures that our commitment to neutrality is not only stated, but actively upheld in practice.

 Our mission is to support sustainable development through credible, transparent, and impartial certification. The Impartiality Committee is a key part of this mission, providing continuous assurance that our processes remain fair, balanced, and aligned with international best practices.

We actively invite new members to join our Impartiality Committee. Should you want to find out more about the committee with a view to joining, please use our contact form on the ‘Get in touch’ button at the top of this page and a member of our management team will make contact.