ASI Certification Survey: Drivers, Benefits and Challenges of ASI Certification
- Conducted annually by ASI Secretariat to understand the key drivers, benefits and challenges associated with achieving ASI Certification and to monitor key trends and shifts over time.
- Data collected through the survey sent to each Member when they achieve Certification or Re-Certification against either the Performance Standard or the CoC Standard.
- Aligns with ASI Strategies of Effective Governance, Driving Change and Robust Program by inviting Members to share their feedback on ASI Certification to support potential improvements.
Learnings & recommendations
During the annual analysis, a number of valuable areas of improvement are identified, which ASI commits to work on each year. Examples of actioned items mentioned in surveys in 2021 and 2022 include:
Survey published in 2023:
- periodic revisions and updates to ASI Performance Standard, ASI CoC Standard, ASI Standard Guidance documents, ASI Assurance Manual, ASI Claims Guide (e.g. 2022, 2023, 2024);
- regular Auditor Calibration Calls to discuss identified gaps or inconsistencies and promote Auditor learning;
- update to ASI’s Auditor Accreditation Procedure, with a new section on participation in audits in countries where there is currently insufficient local auditor capacity;
- building a new platform for ASI’s Assurance Platform elementAl 2.0;
- development of ASI CoC MAT (Chain of Custody Material Accounting Tool) to support Members in implementation of ASI CoC Standard and building their own CoC Material Accounting System;
- exploration of traceability topics in the aluminium value chain, and the role CoC Certification can play to support that;
- translations in learning videos on educational, subtitles during webinars or other live on-line events in various ASI languages;
Survey published in 2022:
- development of a ‘communications toolkit’ for ASI Members;
- development of training modules on how to complete the Self-Assessment, and ASI CoC Standard;
- ongoing improvements of elementAl 1.0;
- updates of the Standard Guidance documents to improve implementation.
One of the limitations of the survey is a relatively low response rate, which may not comprehensively reflect the views of all ASI Members.
ASI reflections
The limitations notwithstanding, the survey provides useful input to our understanding of Member needs, and the development of support resources to enable the Members’ implementation of the Certification requirements. Beyond the survey, the Secretariat has created other avenues for Members to provide feedback on their experience and discuss challenges with ASI. These include direct engagement with Members in one-to-one Member Story interviews, where Members can share further details of their sustainability journey as well as any particular issues around ASI Certification. This kind of feedback is helpful for further Guidance updates as well as the development of learning material and general communications.
Although for now, the key driver for ASI Certification remains the need to fulfil customer/supplier expectations, ASI Secretariat continues to communicate the broader value of Certification. We aim to encourage Members to have a more long-term perspective, particularly on how ASI Certification can help to build their internal capacity for sustainable change within their organisations.
Resources
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