Third-Party Certifications and the Role of Auditing Policies in Sustainability: The Time and Space of Materiality Within Combined Audits

In the European context, the proliferation of private agrienvironmental certifications leads many farmers to become subject to increasing controls by either independent, private third-party certifying bodies or public authorities. The aim of this study is thus to explore the potential benefits of and the organizational limits to the use of combined audits when farmers are involved in multiple private certifications. Our analysis especially emphasizes the role of time structuring during the audit process, the transition from checklist toward risk-based auditing and the role of knowledge artefacts for the reliability of the audit process and the certification. Our study offers insights on the possible transformative role of auditing policies in the governance of agrienvironmental certified schemes toward more sustainability in agriculture.