Any company that wants to emphasize the sustainability of its products is encouraged to take responsibility for its entire supply chain, right down to the raw materials. ISCC Plus is a fast-growing certification system that ensures raw materials are responsibly sourced and traceable to their origin. This includes not only plant-based materials, but also renewable raw materials such as circular plastics.
Increasing deforestation, dwindling biodiversity, human rights abuses and alarming reports of plastics in our oceans: the need to ensure responsible raw material extraction is greater than ever. Suppliers of plant-based products are under increasing pressure from their customers to take full responsibility for the sustainability impacts of their raw materials, such as soy, palm, grain, sugarcane, cotton and wood.
But what does it mean for a raw material to be sustainable? The ISCC Plus certification system requires compliance with the following six key principles:
All actors along the supply chain, from farms and plantations to processors and traders, can be certified as long as they have an effective system in place to track certified raw materials.
Corn-based sweeteners, bioplastics, certified cotton, milk cartons: the list of potential applications is long and varied. To give you an idea of the possibilities, here are some examples of ISCC PLUS certifications:
Constanze Illner
