A preliminary ontology for tracking certification systems: a case study of fairtrade coffee certification

This poster proposes a preliminary ontology for tracking 3rd party certification processes to support information interoperability in sustainable supply-chain as elaborated under the I-Choose research project. Using the Fairtrade International (FLO) standard and Flo-cert certification criteria as an example, this study contributes a set of preliminary ontological vocabularies that describe the connection of certification criteria and standards, the compliance criteria, and the measurements and restrictions for each compliance criterion. These vocabularies are involved in the decision process to certify or not certify a particular entity. This ontological framework will be useful in developing a global, interoperable data architecture for supply-chain information in which certification plays a major role.