B2G Collaboration for Standardization in Sustainable Global Trade

Overcoming Fragmentation

In today’s digitally interconnected trade environment, the fragmentation of sustainability standards and data formats poses a serious barrier to scalable, interoperable, and verifiable global supply chains. As sustainability reporting and environmental accountability become central to regulatory frameworks and consumer expectations, business and government collaboration is essential to overcoming this complexity.

One of the most significant drivers of fragmentation is the proliferation of overlapping—and sometimes conflicting—regional regulations and sector-specific standards. According to UN/CEFACT, a key challenge in sustainable trade is the absence of a universally accepted model for environmental data exchange. In response, UN/CEFACT has worked to establish a semantic framework for data interoperability across supply chains, with the aim of aligning sustainability declarations with existing electronic trade documents.

GS1 has also played a critical role in standardization efforts. Their Global Data Model and EPCIS 2.0 standard enable traceability and visibility across product life cycles, essential for carbon accounting and digital product passports (DPPs). These frameworks can serve as a foundation for interoperable data exchange, but adoption remains inconsistent. Governments must incentivize and support private-sector adoption through both policy frameworks and direct engagement in multilateral standards initiatives.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) and World Customs Organization (WCO) both advocate for regulatory cooperation to minimize non-tariff barriers associated with environmental regulations. The WTO’s Trade and Environmental Sustainability Structured Discussions (TESSD) have identified transparency in environmental regulations and technical standards as a priority for reducing trade frictions. The WCO, through its Data Model and the Revised Kyoto Convention, promotes the harmonization of customs procedures, which now increasingly include sustainability metrics as part of compliance documentation.

One successful example of collaboration is the European Union’s alignment of the Electronic Freight Transport Information (eFTI) regulation with global data exchange models promoted by GS1 and UN/CEFACT. This alignment allows businesses operating within and outside the EU to structure their compliance data in consistent formats, reducing costs and increasing data verifiability.

To deepen this progress, both business and government stakeholders must increase participation in cross-sector and cross-border working groups. Joint development of data models, open-source tooling for compliance integration, and pre-competitive pilots (such as those involving digital product passports or blockchain-based emissions tracking) can accelerate mutual understanding and solution scalability.

In conclusion, overcoming fragmentation requires a joint commitment: businesses must adopt and implement shared standards, and governments must enable this through coordinated regulation and international cooperation. Only through aligned objectives and collaborative implementation can we ensure that sustainability in global trade is not only mandated—but manageable.