A comparison of stakeholder engagement practices in voluntary sustainability standards

Practices of stakeholder engagement vary widely across voluntary sustainability standard setters. This study examines how the sponsorship structure of standard setters affects the diversity of stakeholders included in consultations and the influence of stakeholder input on standards. I compare six sustainability standard setters through an original dataset of 7945 stakeholder comments submitted during public comment periods between 2012 and 2019 to answer two research questions. First, are some standard setters better at balancing stakeholder representation than others? And second, does stakeholder influence vary across standard setters? I find that industry-sponsored standards tend to attract more industry input than multistakeholder initiatives, but both tend to over-represent legacy stakeholders. I also find that sponsorship is a poor predictor of which comments will be influential. Comments that seek to weaken or clarify the rules in voluntary sustainability standards are more likely to exert influence irrespective of the sponsorship of the standard setter.

Automated summary

This study examines the influence of sponsorship structure on stakeholder engagement in voluntary sustainability standard setters. Analysis of stakeholder comments from six standard setters reveals that industry-sponsored standards attract more industry input, while multistakeholder initiatives tend to over-represent legacy stakeholders. The study also finds that sponsorship is not a good predictor of influential comments, as comments seeking to weaken or clarify standards are more likely to exert influence regardless of the sponsorship.