The role of intermediaries in the implementation of sustainability standards. A case study of buyer-driven Rainforest Alliance certification in the Indonesian cocoa sector

• Buyer companies driving group certification act as key intermediaries in VSS implementation as they convey VSS rules to producers. • These intermediaries expose producers to enforcement, incentives and capacity-building to ensure producers’ compliance with VSS rules. • Intermediaries vary in capacities as well as structures (e.g. through engaging sub-intermediaries). • Stronger capacities and shorter structures in intermediation enhance producers’ exposure to enforcement, incentives and capacity-building. • Intermediation in VSS implementation offers avenues to better understand producers’ compliance with VSS rules. Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) are private governance instruments that promote sustainable development in global production systems. In smallholder-dominated agricultural sectors such as cocoa, VSS often operate through group certification driven by buyers (companies or cooperatives). These buyers act as intermediaries that implement VSS through enforcement, incentives provision, and capacity-building pathways to ensure producers’ compliance with VSS rules related to sustainable production practices. Despite growing recognition of their importance, the role of these intermediaries has largely remained underexplored. This paper investigates how buyers driving certification implement VSS, how they differ in doing so, and how these differences matter for implementation performance, i.e. the extent to which producers are exposed to implementation pathways. Applying the regulatory intermediation (RIT) framework, we conduct a comparative case study of the implementation of the Rainforest Alliance by three distinct buyer companies driving group certificates in the Indonesian cocoa sector, based on 43 interviews, three focus group discussions, field observations, and survey data from 228 certified farmers. We find that buyers driving certification are crucial intermediaries in VSS implementation and engage an array of sub-intermediaries to perform different implementation functions. The resulting structures of intermediation and the capacities of (sub-)intermediaries vary and matter for implementation performance: in particular, structures with fewer intermediaries that hold operational capacities, independence, expertise, and legitimacy enhance performance. This might bring us closer to understanding why some producers might alter their behavior more than others towards compliance with VSS rules. By unpacking the “black box” of buyers driving group certification in VSS implementation, our research informs both scholarship and policy efforts aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of VSS in achieving sustainability goals, and contributes to a better understanding of the role of buyers in global sustainability governance.