ISO 26000 - A guiding standard for social responsibility

By Dr. Lalith Senaweera

Social responsibility is one of the important areas that any country has to take into consideration to ensure that organisations are concerned not only with the products or services that they provide but also consider the impact on the environment and carry out the work in a socially accepted manner.

In this regard the International Organization for Standardisation (ISO) has set up a technical committee comprising experts to prepare a standard covering best practices in this area. The committee considered developing a guide covering seven core values: * Human Rights, * Labour Practices, * The Environment, * Fair Operating Practices, * Consumer Issues, * Community Involvement and Development and * Organisation Governance.

The international standard ISO 26000, guidance on social responsibility, provides harmonised, globally relevant guidance for private and public sector organisations of all types based on international consensus among expert representatives of the main stakeholder groups, and encourages the implementation of best practices in social responsibility worldwide.

What is ISO 26000?

ISO 26000 adds value to existing work on Social Responsibility (SR) and extends the understanding and implementation of SR by: Developing an international consensus on what SR means and the SR issues that organisation need to address, Providing guidance on translating principles into effective actions, Refining best practices that have already evolved and disseminating that information worldwide for the good of the international community.

ISO 26000 is an ISO international standard giving guidance on SR. It is intended for use by organisations of all types, in the public and private sectors, in developed and developing countries, and in economies in a responsible manner that society increasingly demands.

ISO 26000 contains voluntary guidance, not requirements, and, therefore, is not for use as a certification standard like ISO 9001;2008 and ISO 14001:2004.

The importance of ISO 26000

Sustainable business for organisations means not only providing products and services that satisfy the customer, and doing so without jeopardising the environment, but also operating in a socially responsible manner.

Pressure comes from customers, consumers, governments, associations and the public at large. At the same time, far-sighted organisational leaders recognise that lasting success must be built on credible business practices and the prevention of such activities as fraudulent accounting and labour exploitation.

The challenge is the manner of including the principles into practice and implementing SR effectively and efficiently when even the understanding of what 'social responsibility' means may vary from one program to another.

In addition, previous initiatives have tended to focus on 'corporate social responsibility', while ISO 26000 will provide SR guidance not only for business organisations, but also for various types of public sector organisations.

The membership of the ISO and WG SR was the largest and most broadbased in terms of stakeholder representation to develop ISO standard. Six main stakeholder groups were represented: industry, government, labour, consumers, Non-Governmental Organisations: service, support, research and others and a geographical and gender-based balance of participants.

Under the joint leadership of the ISO member for Brazil (ABNT) and Sweden (SIS), it was made up of experts from ISO member (National Standard Bodies - NSBs) and from liaison organisations, associations, representative business, consumers or labour, or inter-governmental or inter-government or Non-Governmental Organisations) membership was limited to a maximum of six experts per NSB and two experts per liaison organisation.

ISO's expertise is in developing harmonised international agreements based on double levels of consensus among the principal categories of stakeholders and among countries (ISO) is a network of the national standards bodies of 163 countries.

ISO 26000 instills a globally relevant understanding of what social responsibility is and what organisations need to do to operate in a socially responsible way.

ISO 26000 and organisations

ISO 26000 will help all types of organisations - regardless of their size, activity or location - to operate in a socially responsible manner by providing guidance on: Concepts, terms and definitions related to social responsibility, Background, trends and characteristics of social responsibility, Principles and practices relating social responsibility, Core subjects and issues of social responsibility, Integrating, implementing and promoting socially responsible behaviour throughout the organisation and, through its policies and practices, within its sphere of influence, Identification and engaging with stakeholders, Communicating commitments, performance and other information related to social responsibility.

The guidance in ISO 26000 draws on best practices developed by public and private sector SR initiatives. It is consistent with and complements relevant declarations and conventions by the United Nations and its constituents notably the International Labour Organization (ILO), with which ISO has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to ensure consistency with ILO Labour Standards.

ISO has also signed MoUs with the United Nations Global Compact Office (UNGCO) and with the Organization for Economic co-operation and Development (OECD) to enhance their cooperation on the development of ISO 26000. ISO 26000 will integrate international expertise on social responsibility - what it means, what issues an organisation needs to address to operate in a socially responsible manner, and what is best practice in implementing SR.

ISO 26000 will be a powerful SR tool in assisting organisations to move from good intentions to good actions.

The writer is the Director General of the Sri Lanka Standards Institution.