Comparing Voluntary Sustainability Standards

Abstract

Despite nearly two decades of comparative research on voluntary sustainability standards, a number of important questions remain unanswered. Chiefly, can they succeed in generating environmental outcomes? This chapter conducts a systematic review of articles that compare two or more voluntary sustainability standards to illuminate a number of blind spots and biases in the research to date. It finds a strongly interdisciplinary research community and a plurality of research methods. However, it also finds a number of weaknesses: namely, an inattention to research on environmental impacts and a tendency to draw broad lessons from a handful of sectors and certifications that are concentrated primarily in industrialized countries. These weaknesses suggest that considerable gaps remain in knowledge about voluntary sustainability standards and imply the need for rethinking this research agenda.