Build Quality: ecosystem stewardship, impactful investment
Equitable Earth: A Revolutionary Shift in the Voluntary Carbon Market
Jessi is proud to be an in-house consultant, as part of the seed team for Equitable Earth , which is working to bring climate finance directly to Indigenous Peoples and local communities. EqE focuses on ending deforestation and raises the bar for the voluntary carbon market with a new standard, best practices and platform based on quality, equity and radical transparency.
ISEAL Alliance: Guiding Landscape-scale Sustainability Initiatives
Heartwood worked with ISEAL Alliance to develop a primer on Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) that goes beyond mere consent, and produced impact assessment guidance for landscape-scale initiatives, to help sustainability standards and their partners bring greater equity, transparency and credibility to claims.
Sustainable Food Lab: Sustainable Livelihoods for Sustainable Farmers
Heartwood has worked on several initiatives with Sustainable Food Lab (SFL) and global food and beverage companies towards ambitious sustainable agriculture goals, including improving returns on investment (ROI), resiliency, premiums, and worker wages for farmers that are applying sustainable and regenerative agriculture practices.
Everland LLC: REDD+ Due Diligence
Heartwood worked with Everland - a company which strives to help people prosper from conserving their forests and wildlife through the sale of Verified Emission Reductions (VRRs) credits - to create a due diligence (DD) framework linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and conducted due diligence for a project in their portfolio.
Living Income Community of Practice (LICoP): Assessing Economic Equity
Heartwood Principal, Jessica Grillo, served on the Technical Advisory Committee of the Living Income Community of Practice (LICoP) from 2017-2024 and wrote several papers and guidance on measuring gaps in economic equity among farmers certified to sustainable agriculture standards.
Assure Credibility: sustainability standards, due diligence
Textile Exchange: Sustainability Standards
Textile Exchange: Sustainability Standards
Textile Exchange: Sustainability Standards
Heartwood supported the revision of this leading sustainability standard, based on a systems approach that emphasizes risk managements and a vision for more humane, environmentally responsible and socially just textile supply chains.
IDH: Roadmap on Living Wage
Textile Exchange: Sustainability Standards
Textile Exchange: Sustainability Standards
From 2019-2023, Heartwood worked with IDH on a multi-stakeholder initiative to galvanize businesses and certification systems to advance on living wages across supply chains, including new tools to enable wage transparency and action.
Aldi: Worker-led Verficiation
Textile Exchange: Sustainability Standards
AIM Progress: Living Wage Playbook
In 2022 and 2023, Aldi piloted an innovative living wage verification process on banana farms. As a core partner, Heartwood built capacity among all actors and facilitated dialogs between worker representatives and farm management.
AIM Progress: Living Wage Playbook
AIM Progress: Living Wage Playbook
AIM Progress: Living Wage Playbook
Heartwood wrote the Living Wage Playbook for AIM-Progress and its 48 member companies. The “how to guide” aims to help members build and implement living wage strategies for their employees and across their supply chains.
GIZ: Worker Compensation
AIM Progress: Living Wage Playbook
Impact Buying: Auditor Training
Heartwood worked with GIZ and corporate partners to better understand employment and compensation systems across supply chains, in order to make informed and meaningful investments to improve worker wages.
Impact Buying: Auditor Training
AIM Progress: Living Wage Playbook
Impact Buying: Auditor Training
Heartwood developed and delivered auditor training programs for Impact Buying Academy, to build skills around wage auditing and the IDH living wage platform, thereby strengthening accountability and trust in results.
Burton: Civil Society Engagement
Grocery retailers: Worker compensation
Grocery retailers: Worker compensation
Heartwood worked with Burton to develop policy on engaging civil society, as part of their alignment and membership with the Fair Labor Association (FLA)
Grocery retailers: Worker compensation
Grocery retailers: Worker compensation
Grocery retailers: Worker compensation
Heartwood worked with over dozen European grocery retailers to validate fruit suppliers' reporting on worker wages and estimate living wage gaps.
Living Wage for US: Board of Directors
Grocery retailers: Worker compensation
Living Wage for US: Board of Directors
Jessi co-led the early-stage development of the first living wage certification system for the US, and is now a proud member of the Living Wage for US Board of Directors.
