The biggest problem with Independent Third Party audit is that, oh dear, it’s not actually independent at all. I pay you to verify me and your business model depends fundamentally on your telling me I’m OK, on issuing those certificates. No certificate, no payment, no salary, no business, no job. Voila. Look up “Tragic conflict of interest” in the dictionary and there’s a picture of certification. Certificates get issued, costs get cut, joyous claims of sustainability are made and yet exposés continue, experts visit certified operations and scratch their heads. The world races toward climate change, species disappear, blah, blah, blah. It’s all a mess really.

The technology I mentioned a moment ago is going to disrupt this whole auditing system and blow it away. Yes, blow it completely out of the water. Auditors are threatened species. It’s just around the corner.

Anyone heard of blockchain?