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OVERVIEW
The International Standard ISO 26000:2010, Guidance on social responsibility, provides harmonized, globally
relevant guidance for private and public sector organizations of all types based on international consensus
among expert representatives of the main stakeholder groups, and so encourage the implementation of best
practice in social responsibility worldwide.
ISO 26000 both adds value to existing work on social responsibility (SR) and extends the
understanding and implementation of SR by:
* Developing an international consensus on what SR means and the SR issues that organizations
need to address
* Providing guidance on translating principles into effective actions
* Refining best practices that have already evolved and disseminating the information worldwide
for the good of the international community.
Importance of Social Responsibility:
* Sustainable business for organizations means not only providing products and services that satisfy
the customer, and doing so without jeopardizing the environment, but also operating in a socially
responsible manner.
* Pressure to do so comes from customers, consumers, governments, associations and the public at large.
At the same time, far-sighted organizational leaders recognize that lasting success must be built on
credible business practices and the prevention of such activities as fraudulent accounting and labour
exploitation.
* On the one hand, there has been a number of high-level declarations of principle related to SR and,
on the other, there are many individual SR programmes and initiatives. The challenge is how to put
the principles into practice and how to implement SR effectively and efficiently when even the
understanding of what “social responsibility” means may vary from one programme to another. In
addition, previous initiatives have tended to focus on “corporate social responsibility”, while
ISO 26000 will provide SR guidance not only for business organizations, but also for public sector
organizations of all types.