Beyond Regulatory Governance? On the Evolutionary Trajectory of Transnational Private Sustainability Governance

Three narratives predominate about what drives change in the governance of private sustainability-standards in global supply chains. All three narratives present a pathway of change in which standard-setting as a form of regulatory governance is likely to remain relevant for the politics of sustainable production. This commentary proposes a fourth narrative of change. It argues that in some prominent sectors firms develop new policy instruments that strip sustainability interventions in supply chains from their regulatory governance qualities. Standard-setting organizations themselves meanwhile expand functions that are not of a regulatory governance nature. In this pathway, standard-setting organizations move in a different direction than the other three: away from certification and regulatory governance as core business.