The Solar Stewardship Initiative (SSI) is pleased to announce the successful completion of its first Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) assessments, with additional ones already ongoing. These independent, third-party assessments, conducted by auditors at key solar production sites, mark a significant step forward in the SSI mission to promote transparency, accountability, and responsible practices across the solar value chain.
To maintain high transparency standards, the SSI will regularly be publishing the summary results of the ESG certifications here, offering stakeholders valuable insights into the performance and progress of the solar sector.
The ESG assessments evaluate production sites against the SSI ESG Standard, which addresses areas such as labour practices, environmental stewardship, and supply chain governance. Additional assessments are planned for January and February 2025, with more expected to be scheduled on a rolling basis throughout 2025 and beyond as more companies join the SSI. The planned ESG assessments from Q4 2024 through Q1 2025 collectively represent an annual module production capacity of 100 GW and an annual cell production capacity of 20 GW, reflecting the significant scale of the initiative’s impact on the solar value chain.
Alongside the ESG Standard, the SSI has also developed its Supply Chain Traceability Standard, which focuses on tracing materials across the solar value chain. The first traceability assessments are scheduled to begin in 2025, further enhancing accountability within the sector.
The SSI is working with members and stakeholders to extend both ESG and Traceability assessments to upstream sites, including polysilicon production and beyond, to enable a fully certified Chain of Custody for solar modules in the future.