Verification Overview
What Is It?
People and Planet First is a participatory verification and a global collective that’s helping accelerate the transition to an economy that puts people and the planet first.
There are millions of enterprises around the world that are choosing to prioritise people and the planet over profit maximisation. The scale of this movement can be hard to see because it emerged bottom-up and different terminology is used in different networks, regions, and sectors.
People and Planet First brings these networks together to increase the visibility of the broader movement. It was developed as an affordable verification that recognises all enterprises that meet five standards:
1. Purpose: Exists to solve a social and/or environmental problem.
2. Operations: Prioritises purpose, people and planet over profit in operational decisions.
3. Revenue: Has a self-sustaining revenue model.
4. Use of Surplus: Reinvests the majority of any surplus towards its purpose.
5. Structure: Chooses legal structures and financing that protect and lock-in purpose long-term.
The verification includes social enterprises, cooperatives, fair trade enterprises, mutualist organisations, post-growth enterprises, not-for-profit businesses, earned-income nonprofits, social businesses, regenerative businesses, steward-owned companies, benefit corporations, and any enterprise that meets the standards and puts people and planet first.
These enterprises are unlocking social and environmental solutions that are not possible within grant-dependent nonprofit structures or within profit-maximising business structures. They are co-creating an economy that puts people and planet first.
What Makes It Different?
Designed for Inclusion: Most business and product certifications cost hundreds or thousands of dollars and take many months to complete. People and Planet First verification was limited to 5 core standards to keep costs low and minimize admin burdens. It was developed to work across languages, currencies, registration types, sectors, and other divides and complement existing certifications.
Distributed Participatory Model: The verification is implemented through a global network of networks with a revenue-share model. If a network has a certification that meets or exceeds the 5 standards, their certified members receive the People and Planet First badge at no additional cost.
Shared Digital Infrastructure: The verification process uses shared software infrastructure provided by Good Market, a not-for-profit digital commons. Enterprises have control over their own data. They can enter their information once to create a free public profile and access services and opportunities from multiple networks. The digital commons makes it easy to integrate People and Planet First verification with other software tools and platforms.
Collective Benefits: Traditional third-party certifications do not come with direct benefits. People and Planet First is a participatory verification and a global collective. Participants pledge to purchase from verified enterprises. They are working together to open new opportunities, expand market access, and advocate for policy changes that benefit people and the planet.
Why Is Verification Needed?
Verification is critical when there is an opportunity attached to meeting a certain set of standards. For example, in some countries and context, being a social enterprise opens procurement opportunities, tax benefits, investment capital, or preferential trade access.
This increases the risk of greenwashing and socialwashing. Profit maximising businesses may claim they are a social enterprise to access these benefits. There are also businesses that focus on a social or environmental purpose at an early stage to build goodwill but take on extractive finance and later shift to profit-maximizing structures.
The People and Planet First verification focuses on enterprise design standards that protect purpose over time. The verification provides a clear boundary and a transparent process. It builds trust and makes it easier to find, support, and partner with enterprises that put people and planet first.
Design Principles
The People and Planet First verification was developed based on the following design principles.
1. Prevent Co-optation
The verification should provide a clear boundary that cannot be co-opted by profit-maximising companies and cannot be used for socialwashing or greenwashing. The focus should be on the purpose and core business model. This means enterprises must reinvest the majority of their surplus towards their purpose and have a structure that protects their purpose over time.
2. Accessible and Affordable
The verification should have a minimal number of standards and should serve as an affordable assessment of an enterprise’s purpose and business model. When more standards are included in a verification or certification system, it becomes more expensive to monitor and evaluate and is no longer accessible for low-margin enterprises. People and Planet First verification complements in-depth certifications that focus on policies, practices, processes, products, impact reporting, etc.
3. Value Global Diversity
The verification should not reinforce historic hierarchies, power dynamics, or linear development paradigms. There should not be any reference to countries being developed or developing, advanced or emerging. Every participant is an expert on their own context, and every region and community has valuable insights and experiences to share.
4. Support Local Action
The verification should have a distributed, revenue-sharing model that recognises existing certifications and expands opportunities for local networks and ecosystem builders. It should serve as minimum global standards to access specific global benefits. Network partners may have additional criteria, higher standards, and their own set of network benefits.
5. Allow for Emergence
The verification should take a systems approach to understanding the economy and social movements. We are in a period of instability and rapid change. The verification needs to be able to adapt to changing conditions, create space for young voices, and engage with emerging new initiatives.
Participatory Verification
Third-party certification of social and environmental standards became popular in the late 1980s and 1990s to assess product and process claims across long distances and complex supply chains. The International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling (ISEAL) Alliance maintains codes of good practice for standard setting, assurance, and assessing social and environmental impacts under third-party certification.
Credible third-party certification systems involve a central standards owner, an independent certification agency that conducts audits, and an accreditation body that oversees the certification agencies. The process is resource-intensive and requires extensive documentation and a regular schedule of expensive audits. This approach is necessary for profit-maximising businesses that are under pressure to cut costs in ways that might harm people and the planet.
Participatory verification systems, also known as guarantee systems, are alternative assurance systems that require active social networks, knowledge exchange, stakeholder participation, and transparency. Eligible stakeholders actively participate in defining the standards, developing and implementing the verification process, monitoring claims, and improving the system over time. Participatory verification systems use crowdsourced monitoring to reduce costs, build trust, and increase community ownership.
Credible participatory verification systems tend to align with Elinor Ostrom’s Nobel-prize-winning research on governing shared resources sustainably and equitably. In this case, the shared resources are the verification standards, processes, systems, badges, and credibility. There are eight design principles:
1. Clearly defined boundaries: The shared resources and the criteria for participation are clearly defined.
2. Congruence between appropriation and provision rules and local conditions: Participants develop rules based on their specific context. The rules for accessing and using the resources align with the rules for maintaining and sustaining them.
3. Collective choice arrangements: The participants affected by the rules can participate in changing the rules.
4. Monitoring: Systems are in place to ensure transparency and active monitoring of the agreed rules. Monitors are drawn from or accountable to the participants.
5. Graduated sanctions: The consequences for violating the rules depend on the seriousness and context of the offense. Consequences are determined by the participants or people accountable to the participants.
6. Conflict resolution mechanisms: The rules are upheld in a way that is consistent and fair. If issues arise, they are resolved quickly and internally through open communication, mediation, or other low-cost channels, rather than relying on formal, costly, and potentially adversarial legal processes.
7. Minimal recognition of rights to organize: Participants have autonomy. They are able to organize, create their own rules, and conduct their own affairs without the infringement of an outside authority.
8. Nested enterprises: For larger systems, activities are coordinated at the appropriate scale through multiple, independent decision-making centers (polycentric governance).
Verification Partners
The People and Planet First verification is implemented through a global network of verification partners. You can see them all in the Partner Directory.
Partner Types
There are three types of verification partners:
Referral Partners share the verification opportunity with enterprises in their networks and receive 10% of the verification fee for any enterprise they invite that becomes verified. They are not involved in the review process.
Review Partners share the verification opportunity with enterprises in their networks, assist with the verification review process, and receive 60% of the verification fee for any enterprise they invite and review. They provide local language support and understand the local legal context.
Double Badge Partners have an existing certification, verification, or due diligence process that matches or exceeds the 5 standards of the People and Planet First verification. They are able to offer their enterprises the global verification badge at no additional cost and with no additional document review.
Double Badge Partners have the option of also serving as a Referral Partner or Review Partner. This provides an additional source of revenue and helps create a pipeline of enterprises for future certification.
Partner Criteria
Partners must have an active agreement and meet the following criteria:
People and Planet First: Partners include member organisations, certifiers, and other service providers that are committed to the enterprise model and work with a network of enterprises that meet the five standards.
Global View: Partners should be open to learning from diverse experiences and should recognise that this enterprise model exists under many names and legal structures around the world and has deep roots in Indigenous and traditional communities.
Collaborative Approach: Partners should be open to working across traditional divides and should recognise that the current challenge is too big for any one organisation or network to address alone.
The People and Planet First verification focuses on five core standards to keep assessment costs low. Partners often have additional criteria for their communities and networks (e.g. democratic governance, community ownership, stakeholder diversity, fair trade supply chains, impact measurement). Enterprises are encouraged to meet these additional standards and join partner networks to access partner services.
Standards and Points
The verification has five standards.
1. Purpose: Exists to solve a social and/or environmental problem
2. Operations: Prioritises purpose, people, and planet over profit in operational decisions
3. Revenue: Has a self-sustaining revenue model
4. Use of Surplus: Reinvests the majority of any surplus towards its purpose
5. Structure: Chooses legal structures and financing that protect and lock-in purpose long term.
An internal point system was developed to support the review process, help enterprises identify opportunities for potential improvement, and help partners identify areas for support.
Applicants need at least one point for each of the five standards to be eligible for verification. (See the Verification Review Guide for more details.) If an enterprise receives zero points for any standard, they are encouraged to make improvements and reapply in the future.
Points are not shared publicly to prevent comparison across enterprises that operate in highly diverse contexts and legal frameworks. Enterprises are either People and Planet First Verified or they are not.
Process
The People and Planet First verification system uses Good Market software to minimise administration costs, enable integrations with other software tools and platforms, and provide additional benefits to enterprises and networks.
Good Market is a digital commons that operates under a not-for-profit social enterprise structure. It includes a free curation process and crowdsourced monitoring system that works across sectors, regions, and languages. The site was designed for inclusion and was beta-tested on mobile phones by rural entrepreneurs with limited connectivity and no access to computers or English language support.
The first step for all applicants is to submit the online form to create a free public profile. The form serves as a common application for other verification systems and services.
If an applicant is already approved by a double badge partner, no additional payment or document review is required. The applicant will receive a welcome pack, the global badge, and a certificate. The verification remains valid for as long as the enterprise maintains their status with the double badge partner.
For all other applicants, the next step is to pay the initial verification fee. The verification fee was set at the lowest possible level to contribute to costs and ensure the service is self-sustaining. Good Market provides back-end support services and can handle payments from any country.
The final step is to open the verification form, select points for each of the five standards, provide an explanation, and add financial documents, governing documents, or other evidence to support any claims.
The People and Planet First support team and review partners review the submitted form and evidence. The support team provides training and support and helps ensure consistency across regions and partners. If the application meets the five standards, the applicant will receive a welcome pack, the global badge, and a certificate. An annual renewal is required.
All verified enterprises are automatically displayed in the People and Planet First directory and in their network directory and marketplace. An API has been developed to share verification status with other platforms.
The digital commons has a built-in crowdsourced monitoring system. If any stakeholder has evidence of a false claim, they are able to flag the enterprise, provide their evidence, and start a review process.
Badges
Verified
The People and Planet First Verified badge is for all enterprises that complete the verification process or qualify for a double badge.
Verified Social Enterprise
Enterprises can choose to use the People and Planet First Verified Social Enterprise badge if they operate in a context that uses the term social enterprise.
Verified Fair Trade Enterprise
Only enterprises that receive a double badge through Fair Trade Federation are eligible to use the People and Planet First Verified Fair Trade Enterprise badge.
Fair trade enterprises meet all of the social enterprise standards, but they also require a detailed assessment of workers, suppliers, trade practices, and other fair trade principles. The Fair Trade Federation fair trade enterprise community has existed since the 1970s and has experienced significant co-optation challenges in the United States. They are trying to make a distinction between fair trade enterprises that put people and planet first and fair trade products from profit-maximising corporations.
Only enterprises included in the Verified Directory are eligible to use a verified badge. If an enterprise is no longer eligible, they will be removed from the directory, and will no longer have access to integrations and benefits related to People and Planet First. If they continue to use the badge publicly, they will be flagged on the Good Market platform and may lose their public profile and access to all opportunities and services on the digital commons.
Partner
The People and Planet First Partner badge is for Referral Partners, Review Partners, and Double Badge Partners who have signed an agreement and are actively engaged in outreach and verification. Only partners included in the Partner Directory are eligible to use the partner badge
Supporter
The People and Planet First Supporter badge is for organisations that (1) provide pro bono or discounted services to verified enterprises, (2) preferentially purchase from verified enterprises, (3) provide unrestricted funds to verified enterprises, or (4) support the People and Planet First verification or local partner initiatives. Only supporters included in the Supporter Directory are eligible to use the supporter badge.
Communications
Participants, including all verified enterprises, partners, and supporters, are encouraged to actively communicate about People and Planet First and develop their own locally adapted campaigns to encourage people to support verified enterprises and co-create an economy that puts people and planet first.
Communications should be aligned with the verification design principles and standards and avoid misrepresentation. For example, People and Planet First is a verification, not an accreditation or third-party certification.
People and Planet First communication channels will only be used to highlight participants and amplify their content. Content will be shared from verified enterprises, partners, supporters, communities of practice, campaigns, and collaborations. People and Planet First is a collective initiative that belongs to all participants.
Self-Sustaining Models
All participants are encouraged to develop self-sustaining revenue models and actively source from verified enterprises to help build an economy that puts people and planet first.
Self-sustaining revenue models enable participants to work beyond short-term project cycles, quickly adapt to change and access new opportunities, and move beyond the competitive mindsets associated with donor dependence.
Partners
Partners receive a share of the verification fee for all enterprises they invite and review. They are also using the People and Planet First verification to raise awareness, mobilize support, and develop other self-sustaining initiatives. Opportunities include:
- Local economic development partnerships
- Supporter engagement and recognition
- Enterprise training programs
- Professional development programs for procurement professionals
- Purchasing events and sourcing services
- Grant programs for verified enterprises
- Matchmaking support for bridge loans and other non-extractive financing
- Local online marketplaces and in-person marketplace events
- Shared retail shops and workspaces
- Shared warehousing and logistics for order aggregation and collective purchasing
- Branded merchandise made by verified enterprises
- Member cards to support local purchasing campaigns
Verification Infrastructure
The People and Planet First verification was developed with a self-sustaining revenue model to ensure the shared resources and services are maintained long-term. The core functions include:
- Verification Admin: help desk, funnel management, application processing, profile publishing, directory maintenance
- Verification Reviews: partner onboarding, review partner support, peer-to-peer facilitation, content and resource sharing
- Finance and Reporting: progress indicators, revenue share tracking, international payouts, financial reporting, legal and tax compliance
People and Planet First has prioritized affordable verification fees, revenue-share models, and free double badge partnerships, which means it will take time to fully cover costs. Once the verification reaches breakeven, any surplus will be reinvested.
Stewardship
Most partners are focused on developing the People and Planet First verification for their own members or for initiatives in their local area. Stewards have invested additional time and resources in developing and maintaining the participatory verification with a global focus on the visibility of the broader movement, enabling policy change, supporting procurement initiatives, engaging supporters, and opening new opportunities for enterprises that put people and planet first no matter where they are in the world.
As stewards, Social Enterprise World Forum, Purchasing with Purpose, and Good Market have worked for many years to build relationships with networks, develop and test standards and verification processes, and build software infrastructure and financial systems. This made it possible to pilot and quickly scale a global verification that works across regions, languages, legal structures, sectors, and income levels, recognizes existing certifications, and offers revenue-share payouts to partners around the world.
While all participants govern the verification standards and processes (see below), stewards are also working to ensure the core services and infrastructure are financially sustainable, technologically resilient, and legally compliant. This includes securing special trademark protections to cover the rights of all eligible participants to use the badges based on their inclusion in the Verified Enterprise Directory, Partner Directory, or Supporter Directory and donating staff time to maintain core functions until the verification reaches breakeven.
Governance
People and Planet First is a participatory verification that follows Elinor Ostrom’s eight design principles for governing and sustaining shared resources. Enterprises and partners have actively participated in developing and testing the standards and the verification process, monitoring claims, and improving systems over time.
Improvements
The global verification standards and processes will continue to evolve through the principle of subsidiarity. Decisions are made by the participants who have the most direct experience of an issue and are most directly impacted.
If participants have recommendations for improvements, they share a proposal. The discussion and level of decision making will be based on the participants impacted. For example, if a review partner suggests an improvement related to the verification review process, it will involve all review partners and the support team. If a participant suggests a change to the verification standards or the point system, it would need to involve all verified enterprises and active partners.
If a proposal is aligned with the design principles and deemed “safe enough to try,” then the default position is to proceed. If impacted participants have an objection to a proposal, or if other conflicts arise, a structured consent-based decision-making process will be used. This includes clearly defining the issue, asking clarifying questions, and integrating concerns into updated proposals until a solution is considered safe enough to try.
Participant Initiatives
The above governance process only applies to the global verification standards and processes. Participants have full autonomy to develop campaigns and local initiatives under their own budgets and organizational names based on the People and Planet First verification. This is an example of polycentric governance. There is no centralized approval process for participant initiatives, and participants are able to develop their own decision-making processes for their own initiatives.
Participants are also able to form their own communities of practice. For example, partners that have developed enterprise training programs or local purchasing projects may choose to have a community of practice to discuss innovations and challenges and develop additional shared resources or services.
Communities of practice may also form around languages or regions. In some places, partners have formed a local “network of networks” to expand outreach and engagement and support collective action.