The newly re-organized GDST will be launched on Monday, October 3rd, and our pre-launch partnership drive is underway as of 1 September. Become a partner of the new GDST!
Evolving from Strong to Stronger!
The GDST is already one of the largest and most influential seafood industry platforms, and the GDST standards have emerged as a game-changer since their publication in March 2020. We are on the road towards realizing our vision of a future for seafood traceability that is digital, interoperable, reliable, and affordable.
But the work of the GDST has just begun. Achieving industry-wide adherence to the GDST standards will require continuing our work to support business practices and government policies that facilitate GDST implementation and business-smart traceability. To meet this challenge, we are now transitioning from an NGO-convened platform into a permanent organization that is self-sustaining, rooted in industry, and open to broad stakeholder involvement. This newly re-organized GDST will deliver practical tools & services to support implementation, and will provide an ongoing place for industry dialogue and advocacy.
On Monday, October 3rd, 2022, the new GDST organization will be launched.
Much of what GDST has to offer will still remain free and open to the public, including the GDST standards themselves and access to supportive materials such as the GDST GitHub and Slack Channel, our Implementation Road Map Toolkit, our Supplier Onboarding materials, and more. But while these will all remain freely available in the GDST public Resource Library, other key benefits and services of GDST partnership will be available only to paying partners starting on October 3rd. From that date forward, active participation in the GDST will require signing up for one of the new paid participant/partner options.
Why Join the New GDST?
The GDST will continue to grow as the key platform for companies and stakeholders to advance their traceability practices, keep informed about relevant developments, connect with other companies and stakeholders on the traceability theme, and have an impact on the future. Importantly, as the GDST standards themselves are updated and continue to evolve, GDST partners will have a seat at the table to help influence the GDST normative system and the tools that are developed to support implementation. As the GDST increasingly engages governments, partners will also have the opportunity to be informed and active in shaping future regulations and policies.
Inclusive and Flexible Partnership Options
A key goal of the new GDST is to assemble a global community of traceability-minded companies, industry organizations, and interested stakeholders. Our new partnership structure will expand partnership beyond companies involved in the production and marketing of seafood to include new partnership categories for traceability solution providers, certification and benchmarking organizations, and non-industry stakeholders including NGOs, academics, and government agencies. There will now be four categories of partnership:
- Producer/Marketer Partners – companies directly involved in the production, trade, or marketing of seafood (along with associations exclusively representing small scale producers);
- Solution Provider Partners – companies involved in developing and selling IT software/technology and seafood traceability services;
- Facilitator Partners – organizations involved in seafood certification or benchmarking who are adopting the GDST standard and/or integrating it into their own tools that facilitate adoption;
- Stakeholder Partners – NGOs, academics, and government entities.
Within these inclusive partnership categories, we are offering a flexible approach based on multiple tiers of possible participation/partnership within each category. The tiers are designed to allow companies and organizations to determine their level of commitment. In all cases, the pricing of partnerships is relatively low – on a par with or less than the fees to join other important industry platforms.
Act Now to Join the Growing GDST!
The door is now open for all businesses and stakeholders involved in the seafood sector to join the new GDST. We strongly encourage you to reach out to us for more information, and we will put you into contact with one of our GDST regional points of contact. Companies and organizations signing up before September 28, 2022, will receive visibility for their leadership by being included on the list of initial partners to be released at the time of our October 3rd launch.
For more details and to start your new GDST journey, please email us at info@traceability-dialogue.org!