Howard E. Woodin ES Colloquium Series

“The Evolution of Private Governance Across Sectors” by Graeme Auld, Associate Professor, School of Public Policy and Administration, Carleton University.

Certification programs – a prominent form of private governance – now set standards for sustainable and ethical practices across the global economy. Businesses voluntarily adopt these standards and receive access to potential market and reputation benefits once they have passed an external compliance assessment. Prominent examples include seafood certification run by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) or fairtrade certification run by Fairtrade International. This talk analyzes the rise and evolution of this form of private governance using empirical examples from the forest, coffee, fisheries and climate change issue areas.