Governance & Safeguards

GOVERNANCE 

The Ecosystem Restoration Standard (ERS) comprises several Entities that play distinct roles in its activities. The broader ERS ecosystem includes Entities that advise ERS, namely the Technical Advisory Board (TAB) and the Fiduciary Board. The governance of ERS and the role of each Entity are detailed in the Governance document. 

CONFLICT OF INTEREST SAFEGUARDS 

To avoid any potential conflicts of interest, ERS has established a set of precise regulations and policies described in the following documents: 

1. A general Code of Ethics and Business Conduct and internal Rules of Procedure. 
2. A set of policies to prevent, detect and address fraud: 
   1. Anti-Fraud Policy 
   2. Anti-Fraud Inquiry
   3. Declaration of Interest
3. A set of policies to ensure the independent oversight of the Standard: 
   1. Technical Advisory Board
   2. Fiduciary Board
   3. Standard Setting and Methodology Development Procedure 

PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT

1. Long-Term Administration 

The Long-Term Administration Plan provides details on:

1. Policies to ensure long-term administration of multi-decadal programme elements.
2. Provisions for the unexpected and uncontrollable dissolution of the Programme.

2. Corporate Social Responsibility 
3. Quality Management System 
   1. ERS commits to continuously improving the overall performance and delivering high-quality services to its stakeholders. As such, ERS has developed a Quality Management System, following ISO 9001 guidelines, to enforce procedures. Refer to the Quality Management System for more details. 
4. Annual Reporting 
   1. ERS must report annually on: 
      1. Mission, vision and values; 
      2. Financials, including revenues, expenses, and net assets; 
      3. Governance; 
      4. Progress and observance of the CSR Policy;
      5. Progress and observance of the Quality Management System;
      6. Programme activities. 
   2. ERS Annual Reports must be published on the ERS website before the end of the first quarter of the successive year. 

5. Annual Third-Party Audits

ERS is audited annually by an external and independent auditing firm. Audits shall specifically include: 

1. Quality Management System. Review of the implementation of ERS quality management practices. 
2. Anti-Fraud Policy. Evaluation of ERS' anti-fraud processes based on its three lines of defence:
   1. Prevention: Ensuring the effectiveness of internal training, assessment of Third Parties, and adherence to the Code of Ethics and Business Conduct and the Rules of Procedure.
   2. Detection: Assessing the timeliness and efficiency of internal and accounting controls, and of the Grievance Mechanism.
   3. Remediation: Assessing the timeliness and effectiveness of corrective measures and disciplinary sanctions implemented in response to non-compliance.
3. Certification Procedures: Evaluation of the application of Certification Procedures and verification of the Certification team's independence from commercial activities.   
4. Governance. Evaluation of ERS Entities' compliance with their roles and responsibilities and verification of the independence of the Technical Advisory and Fiduciary Boards. 
5. Registry. Evaluation of the timely upload of Projects’ documentation on the ERS Registry, and verification of the issuance and conversion of Restoration Units. 
6. Data Security & Privacy. Review of ERS's systems and processes to ensure they adequately protect Stakeholders’ personal information and data, in line with ERS’s Privacy Policy.
7. CSR Policy. Evaluation of ERS’s CSR objectives and policy, ensuring they are met and reported truthfully, as established in the ERS CSR Policy.