This guidance document has been in the works for several years
and represents the efforts of 400 social responsibility experts
worldwide from 99 countries, of which 69 were from developing
nations.

The reason the standard is not called
“corporate” social responsibility, one of the most popularized
terms with sustainability practitioners, is because it was meant to
be inclusive of government and non-government
institutions.

There are a lot of different frameworks and principles for
certain aspects of social responsibility (i.e. Reporting GRI and
CDP, AA1000, ILO Labour Standards, UN Global Compact, Fair
Trade), but no overarching guidance for all types of
organizations (large, small, public, and private) in all parts of
the world (developing and developed).

This was the impetus for creating the standard. What href=”http://www.csr-in-commerce.eu/news.php/en/23/iso-launches-iso-26000-guidance-standard-on-social-responsibility”
target=”_blank”>differentiates this guidance document from
others is that it is a global consensus of what social
responsibility means and what core subjects need to be addressed in
order to implement it.

The document provides guidance on the following core areas:

• Concepts, terms and definitions related to social
  responsibility;



• Background, trends and characteristics of social
  responsibility;



• Principles and practices relating to social
  responsibility;



• Core subjects and issues related to social responsibility,
  specifically, human rights, labour practices, the environment, fair
  operating practices, consumer issues, and community involvement and
  development;



• Integrating, implementing and promoting socially responsible
  behaviour throughout the organization and, through its policies and
  practices, within its sphere of influence;



• Identifying and engaging with stakeholders; and,



• Communicating commitments, performance and other information
  related to social responsibility.

ISO 26000 only provides href=”http://www.26k-estimation.com/html/user_guide_iso_26000.html”
target=”_blank”>voluntary guidance on social responsibility
principles, practices, and strategy. It is not a standard-such as
ISO 9001 or ISO 14001-in which there is requirements and can
therefore not be used as the basis for certification, measurement
or a conformity assessment.

It is also important to note that voluntary commitments can give
rise to real obligations and therefore, these should not be made
until your organization fully understands how they are implemented
and what liabilities, risks, and opportunities exist.

Some critiques of the ISO 26000 guidance standard say that it is
too high level and therefore difficult to implement and that social
responsibility may be too complex to be communicated in a guidance
document.

It is still too soon to tell if ISO 26000 will become the
dominating guidance standard on social responsibility and how much
work-with the associated costs-it would take to implement it.
However, it is now a part of the sustainability lexicon and it must
be investigated further.

The Delphi Group will monitor public and private responses to
this guidance document and keep our readers up-to-date on any
developments.