{"id":164,"date":"2007-03-01T10:17:01","date_gmt":"2007-03-01T14:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.environmentalriskmanagers.com\/erm\/iso%e2%80%99s-developing-social-responsibility-standard\/"},"modified":"2007-03-01T10:17:01","modified_gmt":"2007-03-01T14:17:01","slug":"isos-developing-social-responsibility-standard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/isos-developing-social-responsibility-standard\/","title":{"rendered":"ISO&#8217;s developing social responsibility standard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font face=\"verdana\"><strong>environmental Strategist,  between the lines:  <\/strong>Back in the 90&#8217;s when ISO was preparing  for the release of their ISO 9000 and 14000 standards I strategized  how ISO would change the way business operates.  Since then major  corporations around the world have initiated the ISO standards and at  the same time required their vendors\/subs to also meet the ISO certification  in order to do business.  <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">ISO 26000 is different in that  it addresses social responsibility (SR) but will not include requirements  and will thus not be a certification standard.  ISO 26000 will  aim to encourage voluntary commitment to social responsibility and will  lead to common guidance on concepts, definitions and methods of evaluation.  <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">Transparency is impacting public  and private organizations, part of this generalized requirement of society  is to behave in a socially responsible way.  ISO 26000 will impact  industry, government, labor, consumers, nongovernmental organizations\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.,  in addition to geographical and gender-based balance.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">The ISO 26000 standard is being  designed to: <\/font><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li><font face=\"verdana\">assist organizations    in addressing their social responsibilities while respecting cultural,    societal, environmental and legal differences and economic development    conditions; <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"verdana\">provide practical    guidance related to operationalizing social responsibility, identifying    and engaging with stakeholders, and enhancing credibility of reports    and claims made about social responsibility; <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"verdana\">emphasise performance    results and improvement; <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"verdana\">increase confidence    and satisfaction in organizations among their customers and other stakeholders; <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"verdana\">be consistent with    and not in conflict with existing documents, international treaties    and conventions and existing ISO standards; <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"verdana\">not be intended    to reduce government&#8217;s authority to address the social responsibility    of organizations; <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"verdana\">promote common terminology    in the social responsibility field; and <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"verdana\">broaden awareness    of social responsibility.<\/font><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">I feel ISO 26000 will have  a greater impact than either ISO 9000 or 14000 based upon its primary  goal to assist to become sustainable.  ISO 26000 will again raise  the bar for organizations to compete.  To be sustainable a business  must develop and execute their environmental Management Strategy (eMS).  <strong> Note:  If you do not have the competitive environmental intelligence  on development and executions of an eMS let me know and I will forward  it to you.<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">As this competitive environmental  intelligence points out, ISO 26000 is on schedule to come out in 2008.   By assisting your client&#8217;s today for ISO 26000, you will assist them  in gaining a competitive advantage while being a strategic partner. <\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><font face=\"verdana\" size=\"5\"><strong>ISO&#8217;s developing  social responsibility standard<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">GLOBE-Net,  1 March 2007 &#8211; The International Organization for Standardization (ISO)  reports the core themes of the standard it is developing for social  responsibility have been agreed upon and that the standard is on track  to be published in 2008. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">The ISO 26000 standard on social  responsibility will be for use by organizations of all types, in both  public and private sectors, in all countries. The standard will contain  guidelines, not requirements, and will not be used as a management system  standard or a certification standard. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">However, the standard will  enhance social responsibility efforts, and add value to existing public  and private sector initiatives in the field, says ISO. Developing consistent  standards for companies and organizations to apply to their operations  is seen as an important way of encouraging social responsibility. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">The standard will be aligned  with the ten principles of the United Nation&#8217;s Global Compact, which  cover human rights, labour standards, the environment, and corruption  to encourage the private sector to support environmental and social  values. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">At the most recent meeting  of the ISO Working Group on Social Responsibility, which is developing  the standards, 275 people from 54 ISO member countries and 28 international  organizations gathered in Sydney to find consensus on the core issues  for ISO 26000. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">Attendees included representatives  from industry, government, labour, consumers, nongovernmental organizations,  research and others. The meeting included increase participation by  experts from developing countries and included a developing countries  workshop. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">Core issues were agreed upon  and grouped in the following four clusters, with each assigned a drafting  team: <\/font><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li><font face=\"verdana\">environment, <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"verdana\">human rights and    labour practices, <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"verdana\">organizational governance    and fair operating practices, and <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"verdana\">consumer issues    and community involvement\/society development. <\/font><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">The groups will now work to  produce a third working draft for circulation and comment before the  fifth Working Group meeting in November 2007. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">At this working draft stage,  ISO is aiming to build consensus among individual experts, while the  next stage will aim to build consensus among the national standards  bodies and international organizations participating. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">Canadian participation in the  process is by the Standards Council of Canada (SCC). <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">National ISO members are represented  in the Working Group, as are liaisons from a number of international  organizations, industry associations, and nongovernmental organizations. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">Developing common standards  for best practices in relation to environmental and social issues has  been an important goal for many corporate responsibility initiatives,  as companies and stakeholders seek clear guidance on how to implement,  track, and report on progress in these areas. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">Two such examples are the United  Nations Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), both  of which are involved in the ISO 26000 development process. The GRI  provides corporations and other organizations with a framework to report  on issues such as climate change, corporate governance, social concerns  and environmental impacts, and has become the preferred standard for  leading firms. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">More than 1000 global organizations  use the GRI guidelines, making them an important source of non-financial  information for investors, shareholders, and other stakeholders. Increasingly,  environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors are seen as relevant  to the financial performance of a company, and therefore improved disclosure  and better performance is needed. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">The development of ISO guidelines  will lend further standardization to corporate responsibility worldwide,  aiding efforts to improve the performance of companies in this area  and recognize those who enact best practices. For more, visit <\/font><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iso.org\/sr\" target=\"_blank\"><font face=\"verdana\"><u>www.iso.org\/sr <\/u><\/font><\/a><font face=\"verdana\">. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\"><em>This article  is reproduced with kind permission of <\/em><\/font><a href=\"http:\/\/www.globe-net.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\"><font face=\"verdana\"><em><u>GLOBE-Net<\/u><\/em><\/font><\/a><font face=\"verdana\"><em>,<\/p>\n<p>an initiative of the GLOBE Foundation of Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Visit GLOBE-Net for more news and articles and<\/p>\n<p>sign up to GLOBE-Net&#8217;s <\/em><\/font><a href=\"http:\/\/www.globe-net.ca\/forms\/signup.cfm\" target=\"_blank\"><font face=\"verdana\"><em><u>free weekly newsletter<\/u><\/em><\/font><\/a><font face=\"verdana\"><em>  <\/em><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>environmental Strategist, between the lines: Back in the 90&#8217;s when ISO was preparing for the release of their ISO 9000 and 14000 standards I strategized how ISO would change the way business operates. Since then major corporations around the world have initiated the ISO standards and at the same time required their vendors\/subs to also&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/isos-developing-social-responsibility-standard\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">ISO&#8217;s developing social responsibility standard<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}