The birth of a new ISO standard on socially responsible business

In late August, I blogged about the impending release of a new ISO standard providing guidance on conducting business in a socially responsible manner.

Unfortunately, safety is only a small part of the standard. This lack of emphasis should concern safety professionals and is all-the-more reason to make sure that safety is integrated into your organization’s strategic efforts. When boards and senior executives become aware of new initiatives, it is sometimes the trigger to get on board, and social responsibility is certainly getting a lot of attention, particularly in Europe.

Coming-out parties for the international social responsibility standard ISO 26000 are all the rage in Europe. The French standards body Afnor sponsored roll-out events around the country in November, and The British Standards Institute hosted a meeting in London on November 24. The Netherlands Standardization Institute (Nederlands Normalisatie-instituut —NEN) is staging a high profile launch on December 9. Along with presentations of case studies of corporations and government organizations that have used the guidance standard, NEN will introduce a framework for a self declaration to the standard. The self declaration statement has not been finalized, and no further information has been made public.

If the issue of using ISO 26000 is raised in your company, you should have a fundamental understanding of what the standard is and is not.

ISO 26000 is not a management system standard, but opportunities to earn private, third-party accreditation have cropped up. Some view such activity as a breach of faith. The text of ISO 26000 strictly forbids using the guidance standard itself for third-party certification. A clause states:

“This international standard is not a management system standard. It is not intended or appropriate for certification purposes or regulatory or contractual use. Any offer to certify, or claims to be certified to ISO 26000 would be a misrepresentation of the intent and purpose and a misuse of this international standard.”

To underline the ban, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recently published a statement jointly with International Accreditation Forum. IAF is the worldwide association of conformity assessment accreditation bodies. The two institutions say they will report anyone providing certification to the ISO Central Secretariat and their own members “who will be requested to communicate within their own countries to regulators, stakeholders, and industry.”

A task force within the ISO Working Group on Social Responsibility produced a note on the proper way for companies and others to communicate their use of ISO 26000. An organization can say it used the note as a reference document.

A proper self declaration should give companies and organizations an acceptable procedure to announce their application of the social responsibility standard. If you have questions on the standard or self declaration, feel free to contact me at mtaubitz@fdrsafety.com.