governance & stewardship of the OBP program

ZPO developed the standard using simple, non-technical language so that it is easy to understand, implement and audit against. All program documentation is public, free and accessible on our website. Evidence required for demonstrating compliance with our requirements is concrete, and does not require external consultancy. All these makes the OBP certification program as accessible as possible to a wide range of actors and organizations.

ZPO does not discriminate either by gender, ethnicity, age, abilities, marital status, sexual identity, religion, political orientation or physical appearance. ZPO’s team acts accordingly with any certification applicant and stakeholder, internally and externally. Any organization that is eligible to apply to the OBP certification standards and can comply with standard requirements and successfully pass an audit can get certified.

Since the launch of the OBP program, ZPO as standard setter, has not been involved in the certification process against its own standards. There has always been a separation of roles by having independent certification bodies (rather than independent auditors) perform the certification process. ZPO was never and is not involved in any activities related to plastic collection, recycling, or plastic treatment for credit issuance, nor does it interfere with the auditing and certification process carried out by third-party certification bodies. This separation helps protect credibility and avoids conflicts of interest.

ZPO is composed of independent professionals from sustainable development, waste management and environmental certification backgrounds. ZPO was independently and self-funded, we have not received funding from individual companies, governments or other interested parties, therefore avoiding any possible conflict interest.

All information related to the program development and management, and its stakeholders (approved third party certification bodies, certified organizations and authorized credits traders) is publicly available on our website including:

• All program documentation (standards, guidelines, policies)
• List of Organizations holding a valid certificate
• List of certification bodies approved to carry out auditing and certification activities.
• OBP credit issuance and retirement registry
• List of authorized ed OBP credits trader organizations
• Complaints or appeals and contact form

ZPO treats all information received through Certification Bodies or by the Organization directly as confidential and ensures that the certification process and its necessary disclosure is not a business risk for the Organizations. ZPO holds confidentiality agreements with the Certification Bodies and Authorized traders.

ZPO shall be accountable for following their own governance rules and explaining significant decisions.

Similar issues shall be treated according to the same principals and procedures regardless of the company, country or stakeholder involved.

ZPO shall ensure that it is possible to understand how a significant requirement or decision was reached, including the evidence and stakeholder input considered.

ZPO’s OBP Program has been developed through the following sequence:

1. Initial standard development by ZPO’s team, including eventually inputs from selected stakeholders providing a specific expertise.
2. Sharing of the draft to a selected stakeholder group (technical committee, ad-hoc committee, certification bodies…)
3. Integration of comments and publication for public consultation
4. Integration of comments after eventual one to one discussion with the contributors of the public consultation
5. Publication of the revised documents with a grace period for compulsory compliance (usually 3 months for minor changes and 1 year for more important changes).

The OBP Program standards and documents are updated on annual basis on the anniversary of the first major revision of the standard (published on 8^th September 2021). Most of the annual revisions are additions, precisions and clarifications deemed necessary as per the feedback received from the Organizations or Certification Bodies or required by evolving regulations. Public consultations or stakeholders’ surveys are held as part of the revision process when planned changes are significant.

The development and maintenance of the initial certification program include feedback from relevant stakeholder groups including industry, NGOs, experts, and waste picker communities. The following organizations have collaborated in the process of setting the first standards: SUEZ, CONTROL UNION, JAN&OSCAR FOUNDATION, OCEANWORKS, ALCANE CONSEIL, ECOFIL, HHI, MAREA VERDE, ANCON, RACE FOR WATER FOUNDATION, TONTOTON.

For the development of the OBP Social + component, an ad-hoc working group was specifically created integrated by the following members:

Berit Gleixner, Sustainability Development Leader, IKEA, Capucine Paour, Project Manager, TIDE OCEAN (Thailand), Giacomo Cassinese, Sustainability Strategy Director, THE GOOD IDEA, Hu Zhaohui, General Manager, OCEANCLOUD, Jeanne Lucas, Duty of Vigilance – Responsible sourcing, GROUPE ROCHER, Maria Accioly, Circular Economy Specialist, BVRIO, Nithin Thorat, Program Manager, CONTROL UNION, Oliver Kade, Head of Sustainability, SEVEN CLEAN SEAS, Saurav Rath, Marketing Support Specialist, ECOBLUE, Xiao Liu, Project Manager, GIZ CHINA.

ZPO seeks continuous feedback to improve the OBP program and make sure it is well adapted to the stakeholders needs. Direct feedback is solicited from stakeholders through email campaigns, reserved or public surveys and public consultations.

Non solicited communications are received through the contact form, or the complaints and appeals form available on the www.obpcert.org website.

ZPO also uses a Linkedin page to communicate news from the program and official communications like public consultations, standard revision, addition of new documents to the program.