As sustainability comes under greater scrutiny across sectors, how organisations consult with their stakeholders and build trust has become a strategic priority. GlobeScan’s Sustainability at a Crossroads report highlights rising global uncertainty, deepening political polarisation, and declining confidence in institutions. At the same time, expectations for transparency and accountability are growing, and sustainability claims are under more scrutiny than ever. In this context, organisations are judged not just by what they do, but by how openly, consistently and meaningfully they engage their stakeholders.
It was through this lens that the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) partnered with GlobeScan to conduct its 2025 Stakeholder Consultation. This was not simply a research exercise. It was a structured way for the MSC to listen to the views of its global stakeholder community and understand the state of trust at a time when the organisation and the wider seafood system face increasing complexity.
The consultation provided the MSC with a credible, inclusive way to listen to a broad spectrum of partners, critics and collaborators, ensuring that the voices shaping its 2030 planning reflected the complexity and diversity of the global seafood system.
Why the MSC Ran This Stakeholder Consultation
The 2025 Stakeholder Consultation was the second global consultation delivered jointly by the MSC and GlobeScan, following an initial study in 2021. Against a backdrop of geopolitical change and increasingly contested sustainability narratives, the MSC wanted a clear, independent view of how its stakeholders perceived its work, standards and strategic direction.
The consultation served two linked purposes. First, it provided a credible and representative picture of stakeholder expectations across regions and sectors. Second, it allowed the MSC to examine trust more deeply – where it is strong, where it may be fragile and how it may be able to support the decisions taken for business decisions moving forward.
Participation was exceptionally high. More than 1,100 stakeholders contributed their views – a level of engagement that is unusual for a global, multi‑stakeholder consultation of this kind. This strong engagement reflects the relationships the MSC has built up over time, as well as stakeholder confidence that their input would be taken seriously. Many participants had seen how insights from 2021 informed the MSC’s decisions, and the independent role played by GlobeScan helped reinforce trust in the process.
What We Did Together: Using the Consultation as a Method to Explore Stakeholder Engagement and Trust
The 2025 Stakeholder Consultation was intentionally designed around principles that reflect best practice in stakeholder engagement and trust-building.
- Co‑creation to build relevance and ownership
GlobeScan worked closely with the MSC’s international and regional teams to shape the consultation. Together, we refined questions, identified regional priorities and ensured the survey reflected the realities faced by fisheries, processors, retailers, NGOs, governments and researchers. This co-creation approach mattered. Trust is strengthened when people recognise their own experience in the way engagement is designed, rather than feeling it has been imposed centrally. - Accessibility to support inclusive engagement
The consultation was designed to be as accessible as possible. It was delivered in ten languages and adapted locally to ensure cultural and sectoral relevance. This not only widened participation but reinforced an important point: accessibility is not just a technical detail. It is a signal of respect and a core pillar of trust. - Trusted networks to deepen participation and insight
The MSC’s longstanding relationships across the seafood sector played a critical role in driving participation, with local teams leveraging their networks to encouraging external stakeholders to take part. GlobeScan complemented this with independent outreach and support to help ensure diverse representation across regions and stakeholder groups. Another clear learning emerged: effective stakeholder engagement depends on relationships built over time, supported by transparent processes and credible independent facilitation.
How the MSC Is Using These Insights
With GlobeScan’s support, the MSC is now integrating the country-specific findings into its planning and strategic roadmap toward 2030. The results of the consultation have highlighted where stakeholders believe the MSC is performing strongly, where clarity or support could be improved, and where future priorities could lie. They show differences between different sectors and provide a comparison with the previous survey in 2021.
The findings are informing work to strengthen communications, improve understanding of the Standards, increase accessibility for fisheries and enhance transparency. They are also informing how the MSC designs future engagement with stakeholders, ensuring that the MSC continues to listen openly and act with integrity. The data, though anonymous, provided opportunities for follow-up discussions with different groups, which the survey indicated were knowledgeable or interested, to ensure clarity of message and to test future ways forward.
In a close partnership between GlobeScan and MSC, tailored feedback presentations were prepared for different groups within and external to MSC – from organisation leadership to all-staff, as well as customised presentations to different MSC teams. These highlighted the results of greatest interest but also provided overarching conclusions and potential uses for the information.
Chief Executive of the Marine Stewardship Council
What This Tells us about Building Trust through Effective Stakeholder Engagement
The MSC’s 2025 Stakeholder Consultation shows what effective stakeholder engagement looks like in a context shaped by uncertainty, increasing scrutiny and shifting expectations. These conditions echo the themes explored in Sustainability at a Crossroads, where listening consistently, engaging transparently and remaining closely connected to stakeholder realities are positioned as essential for building trust. The consultation reflects these principles in practice by giving the MSC a credible and inclusive way to understand how stakeholders across regions and sectors view its role, performance and priorities.
Several lessons are clear. Co‑creation improved relevance and strengthened ownership. Making the consultation accessible in multiple languages supported more legitimate and representative participation. Longstanding relationships between MSC teams and their networks encouraged engagement, and participation increased further because MSC staff actively encouraged stakeholders to contribute through tailored outreach and light inter‑team competition. Most importantly, the consultation shows that engagement becomes meaningful only when organisations act on what they learn. These lessons apply widely and are relevant well beyond the seafood sector.
What Leaders Can Take Forward
- Engage early to build ownership. Early involvement helps regional teams feel invested in the process and increases the likelihood that they will champion and amplify the work through their trusted networks.
- Design for inclusion and integrity. Approaches aligned with multilingual, ESOMAR/GDPR‑compliant standards broaden participation and strengthen trust across diverse stakeholder groups.
- Track trust over time, not just once. Running a second global consultation enabled the MSC to see how expectations and trust have shifted since 2021, helping leaders focus on the areas where stakeholder needs and perceptions are changing most.
- Convert insight into action. Engagement builds trust when organisations demonstrate that input shapes strategy and practice, exactly the shift Sustainability at a Crossroads calls for.
As the MSC advances toward 2030 and updated Standards, the consultation offers a grounded, practical example of how structured listening can strengthen trust and support decisions that matter for oceans and communities.
Find out more about GlobeScan’s Reputation & Trust Building service or contact us if you’re interested in partnering with us on similar work.
