Paul Hohnen Sustainability Strategies

This article was published in Ethical Corporation on September 22, 2008.

From Mr PAUL HOHNEN

Standards: ISO steps towards social responsibility

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is one step closer to launching a global standard for "social responsibility"

The ISO Social Responsibility Working Group took a small - but potentially historic - step forward at its recent meeting in Santiago de Chile on September 1-5, 2008.

Nearly 400 experts and observers from around the world agreed that sufficient progress had been made in developing the draft international standard on social responsibility for the "working draft" to be taken to "committee draft" level.

In the process of ISO standards' development, this takes the draft standard one stage closer to the wider consultation and voting phases that could see it available for public use globally in 2010.

Long road

Best known for its widely used technical and management standards, ISO embarked in 2005 on its first "soft" standard - on social responsibility.

As a new and controversial subject area for ISO, the mandate given to the working group was to develop a standard by late 2008 that would provide voluntary guidance to all organisations, public and private.

While there were proponents (especially from developing countries) who wanted a standard that could be used for certification purposes - to demonstrate their world class performance to increasingly picky northern consumers and investors - others argued that ethical issues were too soft and culture-defined for certification.

As a result, it was agreed that the standard would not be a management system standard (like the popular ISO 14001 standard), and could not be used for certification.

Since March 2005, there have been six negotiating sessions of the Working Group on Social Responsibility. Experts and observers from six groups - government, industry, labour, consumer organisations, NGOs, and a group of academic, consultant, standards and other bodies - have been working intensively on reaching consensus on what "social responsibility" means, and what should go in the world's first standard on the subject.

Arriving in Santiago, it was not clear to many negotiators whether their glass of Carmenera was half empty or half full. To many, the working draft before them (known as WD4.2) was over due, over long, and over done.

Kitchen sink

Difficulties in getting agreement on scope and content issues had already meant that the original 2008 deadline would not be met. Coming in at over 80 pages, excluding annexes, there was also hand-wringing about whether all but the largest organisations would be inclined to read the standard. Moreover, there was a sense that apart from not mentioning the kitchen sink, the draft seemed dauntingly comprehensive.

On the other hand, there was a sense that important and hard-won consensus had been achieved on a number of fronts. For all its length, the draft contained valuable and well-written guidance on core social responsibility subjects. These included organisational governance, human rights, labour practices, the environment, fair operating practices, consumer issues and community involvement.

Moreover, it was common ground that the definition of social responsibility - embracing such notions as the importance of sustainable development, stakeholder expectations, compliance with national and international law, and the need for organisation-wide integration - provided a much needed level of clarity.

While everyone could point to weaknesses in the text, there was a general sense that real progress had been made, and that it was time to take the draft to a wider audience. By agreeing to move the draft to "committee draft" status, following further amendments recommended at the Santiago meeting, the draft standard will now be opened to comments from ISO's 84 participating (and thus voting) national standards bodies for comment.

How quickly ISO can complete this process remains to be seen. However, as the recent release of a (certifiable) Portuguese social responsibility management system has shown, there are some at the national level who cannot wait any longer.

Amsterdam-based, Paul Hohnen consults, speaks and writes on sustainability and CSR issues. Hohnen is a member of Ethical Corporation's Advisory Board.www.hohnen.net.