ISO 26000 - Social Responsibility

Part 2: ISO 26000
I got few questions through email and the blog this week on ISO 26000. Many of you must be thinking – one more standard?
Let us have a panoramic view on this issue.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has decided to launch the development of an international standard providing guidelines for social responsibility.
ISO 26000 contains guidance, not requirements, and therefore will not be for use as a certification standard like ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004.
There are many stakeholders for this standard – industry, government, labour, consumers, nongovernmental organizations and Service, support, research & others. Actually, when a standard is published from the ISO stable, there is lot of expectations among the stakeholders. Present days, an ISO standard is almost synonymous with:
Use of best practice developed by existing public and private sector initiatives and effort to harmonize most of the available standards on Social Responsibility.
Global recognition
Designed to be implemented worldwide.
To substantiate these expectations, ISO 26000 will represent terms and conditions which will imply global recognition and a common basis for all actors engaged in these issues. It will be consistent with and complement relevant declarations and conventions by the United Nations and its constituents, notably the International Labour Organization (ILO), with whom ISO has established a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to ensure consistency with ILO labour standards. ISO has also signed an MoU with the United Nations Global Compact Office (UNGCO) to enhance their cooperation on the development of ISO 26000 and with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to ensure consistency with OECD guidelines.
The guidance standard is expected to be published in 2010 as ISO 26000 and be voluntary to use. It will neither be a certifiable standard, nor a management system standard, but a guiding standard applicable to all organisations – companies, non-governmental organisation, government bodies, and more.
The key topics in the document are:
Environment
Human rights and labour practices
Organisational governance and fair operating practices, and
Consumer issues and community involvement/society development.

The detailed content of ISO 26000 will evolve throughout its development process. The current (1st July 2008) working document covers the following :
Foreword
Introduction
1 Scope
2 Terms and definitions
3 Understanding social responsibility
4 Principles of social responsibility
5 Recognizing social responsibility and engaging stakeholders
6 Guidance on social responsibility core subjects
7 Guidance on implementing practices of social responsibility
Annex A – Social responsibility initiatives
Bibliography
Index

ISO 26000 will add value to existing initiatives for social responsibility by providing harmonized, globally relevant guidance based on international consensus among expert representatives of the main stakeholder groups and so encourage the implementation of best practice in social responsibility worldwide.

For more information on ISO 26000 and the ISO Working Group on Social Responsibility: www.iso.org/sr