3 Questions for
Dr. Sönke Fischer | Assurance Services International
Sönke Fischer is responsible for the Strategic Development of ASI. This includes the concept, development and implementation of Partnerships, such as the cooperation between ASI and the German National Accreditation Body (DAkkS). Previously, he was the Operations Director where he gained deep insights into sustainability certification labels for a wide variety of industries. Since 2019, he has been providing advisory support to the Green Button integrity program. Dr Fischer holds a PhD in Marine Ecology from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, and a Master of Science in Tropical Aquatic Ecology from the University of Bremen.
1) What is an Integrity Program and why is it relevant for the Green Button?
There are countless sustainability certification labels currently on the market, each with varying levels of rigor and monitoring mechanisms. This leads to a jungle of certification labels and environmental promises that can confuse and mislead consumers. The EU Directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition (Empowering Consumers Directive) was published in early 2024 to introduce stricter rules for sustainability labels. A good sustainability standard builds on relevant ISO standards and supplements them where necessary to adapt them to the specific sector and its environmental challenges. These supplementary rules and measures constitute the "integrity program." The German National Accreditation Body (DAkkS) has reviewed and confirmed that the additions made by the Green Button are comprehensible and effective. Furthermore, DAkkS confirms the competence and impartiality of the Green Button certification bodies.
An integrity program thus complements accreditation. Integrity programs can vary considerably in their structure. They often include auditor training, shadowing audits, and reviewing audit reports. Through these measures, certification scheme owners aim to ensure that their standards are correctly understood and applied, and that their established procedures are followed.
2) What sets a sustainability label with an Integrity Program apart from other labels?
Integrity programs are designed to ensure the trustworthiness of the respective certification labels. It is often insufficient to simply publish a standard and an audit procedure and then have certification bodies and their auditors implement them. Typical problems that arise in such cases include misunderstandings in the interpretation of the standard, certification decisions that are not transparent, or a lack of professional competence on the part of the auditing personnel. If certification scheme owners do not supervise their certification bodies and their auditors, or only supervise them minimally, they are unaware of potential problems and cannot address them.
3) What does Assurance Services International take from its work with the Green Button to other Sustainability Certification Labels?
Supply chain due diligence is increasingly being incorporated into sustainability labels across various industries and into legislative processes. Thanks to the Green Button, ASI can further deepen its technical expertise in due diligence. Furthermore, we supported the Green Button in obtaining accreditation from DAkkS. The resulting understanding of the processes and criteria used by authorities like DAkkS proves valuable for our work with other labels.