Governing Spillovers Of Agricultural Land Use Through Voluntary Sustainability Standards: A Coverage Analysis Of Sustainability Requirements
February 25, 2023 - Sonderegger, Gabi; Heinimann, Andreas; Diogo, Vasco; Oberlack, Christoph
Print
EmailJournal or Book Title: EARTH SYSTEM GOVERNANCE
Volume/Issue: 14
Year Published: 2022
Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) are prominent governance instruments that define and verify sus-tainable agricultural land use at farm and supply chain levels. However, agricultural production can prompt spillover dynamics with implications for sustainability that go beyond these scales, e.g., through runoff of chemical inputs or long-distance migrant worker flows. Scientific evidence on the governance of spillovers through VSS is, however, limited. This study investigates the extent to which VSS regulate a set of 21 envi-ronmental and socio-economic spillovers of agricultural land use. To this end, we assessed the spillover coverage in 100 sustainability standards. We find that VSS have a clear tendency to cover environmental spillovers more extensively than socio-economic spillovers. Further, we show how spillover coverage differs across varying types of standard-setting organizations and VSS verification mechanisms. Finally, we discuss the role and limitations that VSS can have in addressing the revealed gaps.
DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2022.100158
Type of Publication: Article