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3 ISO 26000: background, characteristics and structure

3.1 Introduction

The previous chapter provided a first look at ISO 26000, what it is and what it is about. The main focus so far has been on the ISO 26000 view on (C)SR and the target audience of the guideline. In this chapter, the guideline will be dis- cussed in more detail and its background, features and characteristics will be described and explained in order to obtain a better and more detailed idea of what ISO 26000 comprises and aims for. This chapter starts with the reasons why ISO 26000 was developed in the first place and continues with the observation that in recent years a veritable labyrinth of SR guidelines, norms and standards has come into existence. An organisation has to be very well equipped in order to find its way through this labyrinth and can easily develop a certain degree of scepticism for such guidelines and standards. Still, such standards and guidelines are important. This chapter stresses that importance and makes several distinctions between

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Moratis, Lars, and Timo Cochius. ISO 26000 : The Business Guide to the New Standard on Social Responsibility, Taylor & Francis Group, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/apus/detail.action?docID=1741663. Created from apus on 2023-03-23 02:00:37.

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34 ISO 26000

these standards and guidelines. Subsequently, ISO 26000 is categorised by means of a typology and the scope and aims of the guideline are discussed. There is special attention for the opportunity ISO 26000 offers for an organi- sation-specific interpretation of SR in this chapter. ISO 26000, it is argued, is a guideline that is suitable for next-generation SR—SR 2.0. The final part of this chapter deals with the outline and structure of the guideline itself and explains the anatomy of ISO 26000 in a nutshell.

3.2 Why ISO 26000 was developed

The development of ISO 26000 started in 2005. In previous years, many dis- cussions had taken place and preparations were made to reach a decision on whether or not it was desirable to develop this guideline at all and, if so, in which direction its development should take place. The need to develop a SR guideline was first raised in 2001 by the Com- mittee on Consumer Policy of ISO (ISO/COPOLCO), after which the Ad Hoc Group on CSR was founded in 2003. This Ad Hoc Group took stock of all known worldwide SR initiatives and issues. After positive advice from a multi- stakeholder conference in 2004, the decision to develop ISO 26000 by means of both a democratic process and input from developing countries was finally made in January 2005. As is clear from previous chapters, ISO 26000 has multiple objectives. One objective, for example, is to support organisations in defining their social responsibilities and acting in accordance with these responsibilities in order to contribute to sustainable development. Another objective is to increase the credibility of SR claims. Such objectives are already good motivations for the development of ISO 26000 in themselves, but more specific reasons for the development of a global SR guideline exist as well. First, despite many initiatives in the field of SR, such as the development of standards, codes, norms and guidelines, an international, broadly ori- ented, comprehensive, and overarching SR guideline issued by a well-known authority was not yet available. The guidelines of the Sustainability Integrated Guidelines for Management (SIGMA) project,1 launched in 1999, could have been an interesting competitor for ISO 26000, but these never received broad recognition, let alone application. Many standards, of course, focus on a

1 SIGMA was a UK initiative. In 2003 the guidelines were updated for the last time. More information can be found at www.projectsigma.co.uk.

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3 ISO 26000: background, characteristics and structure 35

specific area of SR, such as SA8000 and labour standards and the ISO 14001 on environmental management. ISO 26000 has the ambition to be a compre- hensive SR guideline that will enable all organisations to define their social responsibilities. The guideline aims to find a combination of—and build a bridge between—compliance with laws and rules by organisations on the one hand, and, on the other hand, an open, idiosyncratic approach to defining corporate responsibilities based on many well-known reference documents, without frustrating creativity and development.2 Moreover, ISO 26000 tries to make the connection with existing and familiar systems, and aims to offer a framework for the (practical) translation of international treaties, agreements and conventions in the field of SR. ISO 26000 probably makes the conundrum many organisations have about SR a little easier to solve, because the guide- line contributes to obtaining a comprehensive overview, and hence makes it easier for organisations to engage in SR.3

3.2.1 Why ISO? An interesting question is why ISO—of all organisations—would be the right body to develop this international guideline. Is ISO actually the proper organ- isation to do so? It can be argued that ISO is not—and in the past years sev- eral critics have made that case (as well as why it is a bad idea to develop a global SR standard in the first place). ISO’s experience with the topic of SR is very limited and the SR guideline could easily be mistakenly linked with a norm for a management system. There is clearly confusion here. Further- more, it has been argued that a SR guideline should not be associated with the ISO label, because this would not benefit the adoption of it. ISO 26000 would, analagous with OHSAS 18001 (which has not been developed within the ISO context), for example, perhaps be better off if it carried an indica- tion such as ‘SR 26000’ as ISO does not always has a positive connotation. On the other hand, the ISO organisation offers several important advantages for the development of a global SR guideline, from the perspective of the organi- sation’s objectives. For instance, ISO is one of the few organisations that is broadly acknowledged internationally—it is known all around the world and the organisation’s activities are of importance to every single individual in the world. It can also be expected that ISO 26000 will receive visibility in many organisations that already work with other ISO management systems but which have not yet engaged meaningfully with SR. The previously mentioned

2 See also www.iso.org/sr. 3 More aims and functions of ISO 26000 can be found in §3.4.2.

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36 ISO 26000

research by Brandsma et al. (2009) confirms this: between 55% and 60% of the respondents that work with an ISO-certified or related management system standards are considering applying ISO 26000 in their organisations. In addi- tion, ISO has extensive experience with the development and dissemination of standards and has the organisational capacity to do this. Significantly, the development of ISO 26000 has been based on the largest multi-stakeholder process that has ever been organised. Hundreds of experts from numerous countries have cooperated in the process. The amount of work, research and discussion that this stakeholder diversity of opinions and insights has gener- ated is truly unparalleled. The aim has been to strive for mutual and universal basic definitions, principles, working methods and guidelines—an interna- tional standard, written in (relatively) straightforward language. People who are not SR specialists can also understand and work with the guideline. In addition, the guideline is applicable to all organisations, in all countries, in all stages of development, all sectors and does not conflict with other SR stand- ards or demands—it has no intention of replacing these.4

3.3 The SR jungle: a labyrinth of codes, norms, standards and guidelines

With the developments in the field of social responsibility of organisations— and the increasing importance of accountability and transparency in report- ing an organisation’s own SR achievements—numerous guidelines, standards and codes have been developed. Some of these have been developed by inde- pendent organisations, others by NGOs or by companies and yet others by standardisation organisations such as ISO. SR has also been growing in terms of the number of topics it covers. For example, privacy protection, informa- tion protection and dealing with (personal) information in a responsible way has become an important SR theme for companies operating in the IT sec- tor and the banking sector. With this, the ISO 27000 series about information security has become a relevant standard within the context of SR for many companies. Hundreds of SR-related codes, guidelines, standards and man- agement systems have been developed. We might refer to this as the SR jun- gle. Because of this jungle and because of the fact that there are often not clear

4 ‘[This International Standard] is intended to promote common understanding in the field of social responsibility, and to complement other instruments and initia- tives for social responsibility and not to replace them’ (ISO 2010: 1).

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3 ISO 26000: background, characteristics and structure 37

boundaries between where one code ends and another starts, duplication of requirements, red tape and information overload, a certain weariness has developed among (potential) users. Clearly, this is an unusual jungle—one that the world is better off without.

3.3.1 Why they exist—and why they are important However, there are good reasons for organisations to develop and adopt such codes, standards and guidelines. They have been developed with the aim of creating some order in the existing chaos—organisations like to have clarity about the SR themes they should be considering and what is expected from them. The contents of codes, standards and guidelines are often a reflection of generally accepted and desirable behaviour, and they contain both mini- mum requirements and best practices. One of the other aims is to make SR practical, easy-to-use and to offer key points—sometimes in the form of principles that organisations should follow or adopt, but also in the form of actions and initiatives that an organisation could undertake. They translate the expectations of society, minimum requirements and best practices into so-called action perspectives. They are instruments to create a sustainable way of doing business. In addition, codes, standards and guidelines are good instruments for organisations to demonstrate that they comply with certain requirements and that they account for their social responsibilities. There- fore, they can build confidence or enhance the credibility of the statements and the SR performance of an organisation. Also, those organisations that use codes, standards and guidelines can make employees (more) aware of SR and the attempts of their employers to be a good citizen. ISO 26000 is the next (and definitely not the last) addition to these codes, standards and guidelines. The difference may be in its potential. It could become the leading authoritative, integral standard for SR.

3.3.2 Distinguishing between types of standards It is not always clear what the distinction is between codes, guidelines, stand- ards and management systems, and the terms are regularly used interchange- ably. The usage of terms such as marks, labels and certificates does not help in making a clear distinction between these different instruments. No matter what the exact differences are, the SR jungle hides a lot of species that, at least for a large part, have many things in common or even refer to the same top-

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38 ISO 26000

ics or requirements.5 What they have in common, is that they have developed themselves into acknowledged standards that help organisations engage in (often in sub-areas of) SR. A second thing that they all have in common is that they are all voluntary, meaning that there is no legal entity that requires their use or application. A third common characteristic is that they offer starting points (and to a certain degree function as practical guides) for repeatable good practice. In The Corporate Responsibility Code Book Deborah Leipziger (2003) describes a standard as a set of principles, codes of conduct or process sys- tems, developed by a third party. Its implementation should result in a certain level of performance that is established beforehand—either by the standard itself or by the organisation that implements or audits the standard. Gener- ally, a distinction is made between process standards, performance stand- ards, principle standards and basic standards. Process standards describe the procedures that should be present within an organisation in order to execute certain activities. This can mean organising a stakeholder dialogue or publishing a sustainability report. A good example of a process standard is AA1000SES, which is aimed at creating excellent stakeholder engagement. Performance standards, on the other hand, describe what an organisation should or should not do, such as paying a certain level of wages or prevent- ing discrimination at work. These are more or less minimum standards for socially responsible behaviour. Examples of this are the OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises and the working condition conventions of the ILO (International Labour Organisation). Process standards and perform- ance standards are, however, not mutually exclusive categories. There are several ‘hybrid standards’ which combine both process and performance, of which SA8000 (with a focus on labour conditions in the supply chain) is an example. Principle standards describe principles that should be at the core of organisations’ activities, although they do not specify how those principles can be achieved or how acting in accordance with those principles can be evaluated. Examples of these include the UN Global Compact (see Annex 5) and the Global Sullivan Principles. Basic standards aim to lay the foundation for a new focus area, and describe what the best practice in a certain area is. Besides these kinds of standards, sometimes even a fifth kind of standard is distinguished, namely a certification standard. These are standards for which certificates can be obtained for operating in accordance with them, as deter- mined by an independent third party, such as an auditor. Examples of these

5 For this reason, from now on, the term ‘standard’ will be used.

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3 ISO 26000: background, characteristics and structure 39

kinds of standards are management system standards such as ISO 14001 for environmental management. Making a distinction between standards on the basis of these criteria can be useful in terms of comparison, for understanding how they can be com- plementary to each other and in assessing how they compete with each other. Standards can be classified according to:6

Their focus or goal (whether they focus on process, performance • and/or principles)

The way in which they have been developed (unilateral, bilateral or • multilateral)

Their scope (whether they deal with human rights, labour condi- • tions, the environment, etc.)

Their stakeholder orientation (whether they concentrate on, for exam- • ple, employees, investors, consumers or on multiple stakeholders)

Even though SR standards can be categorised and distinguished from each other, they often do not stand alone—there is a clear relationship between them. Several standards refer to each other, sometimes because each indi- vidual standard only covers one element of the range of SR themes, and the same stakeholder groups have participated in developing several standards. Because the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) for example, has been adopted and supported by the UN, there is a clear link between the GRI guidelines and the UN’s Global Compact. Although GRI does not offer monitoring instru- ments or indications on how companies can act according to the principles of the Global Compact, the GRI guidelines can be used to advise companies on how they can illustrate their compliance with the Global Compact in their annual reports. SA 8000 has been developed with the idea of being able to be integrated into ISO systems. Leipziger (2003: 19) states:

There is no single code or standard, no panacea that will lead to corporate responsibility. Each company is different, with its own challenges, corporate culture, unique set of stakeholders and man- agement systems. Corporate responsibility is a journey for which there is no single map but hundreds of guides, codes and standards: maps that can be combined in new ways for different journeys.

The idea of a journey is also applicable to the evolution of standards, as witnessed by the many revisions and versions of some standards, such as ISO

6 Ibid.

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40 ISO 26000

9001 and AA1000. The process of standard development is at least as impor- tant as the standards themselves. It is a mechanism to involve different stake- holder perspectives. The ambition of ISO 26000, as a generic, overarching SR guideline, is to ena- ble its integration with any existing SR or CSR standard. The next paragraph will deal with the background and aims of ISO 26000 in more detail.

3.4 A closer look at ISO 26000

The prefix ‘ISO’ may distort people’s perceptions about ISO 26000. ISO’s asso- ciation with norms, obligations, procedures, rules and handbooks is almost inescapable. And not withstanding their usefulness or necessity, they are not the most inspiring or attractive aspects of the organisation’s reputation. Moreover, ‘ISO’ creates an association with certifiable management systems, especially due to the prominence of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. The problem- atic thought of ‘certifying for certification purposes’ and the effort it takes an organisation to get everything in order to successfully go through an external audit to receive a certificate, has determined ISO’s image to a large extent. ISO 26000 is, however, neither a norm nor is it certifiable. Earlier in this book we explained how SR is defined within ISO 26000. It has become clear that ISO 26000 has a moral orientation, even though the guideline does not ignore the possible financial value of SR. The guideline is characterised by its level of ambition. Over 400 experts in the field of SR and in sub-areas such as CSR from dozens of countries have worked on the guideline. These people reflected six stakeholder groups: consumers; gov- ernment; industry; trade unions; NGOs; and service, support, research and other organisations (SSROs, which also include consultants and universities). The development process started in 2005 and has been led by the Brazilian and the Swedish standardisation institutes. The most important ambition: to develop the overarching, global SR guideline. But what kind of a guideline is ISO 26000 exactly? And what guidance does it provide? These questions will be answered in the coming paragraphs. For additional information on ISO 26000, and some of the key myths and misun- derstandings about it, the reader is referred to Interludes II and III.

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3 ISO 26000: background, characteristics and structure 41

3.4.1 What type of guideline is ISO 26000 and what is its scope?

As has been stated several times before in this book: ISO 26000 is a guideline. As such, within the ISO terminology, it finds itself in the category of ‘Interna- tional Standards’. Within this category, ISO 26000 is a special kind of standard, a so-called ‘Guidance Standard’. A Guidance Standard can be used by organi- sations on a voluntary basis. Such a guideline offers recommendations and advice about activities that organisations can undertake in a certain field. By characterising ISO 26000 based on the distinctions that have been dis- cussed above, it is clear that this is an extensive guideline with the aim of becoming an overarching and universally applicable guideline. ISO 26000 includes background and developments in the field of SR and sustain- able development, underlying SR principles, advice on creating stakeholder engagement, numerous SR core subjects and SR issues, offers suggestions for the implementation of SR in existing strategies, systems, ways of working and processes of organisations, including communication about and enhanc- ing the credibility of SR commitments and achievements, and refers to other standards that organisations can use in concordance with it. ISO 26000 aims to be a guideline that outlines all an organisation’s social responsibilities and addresses many SR themes. ISO 26000 hence wants to be useful for all types of organisations, irrespective of their size, sector, geographic location and irre- spective of their stage of SR implementation.7

The research that was conducted by Brandsma et al. in 2009 showed that most organisations that indicated an interest in ISO 26000 are still at an early stage in terms of SR implementation (see Fig. 3.1). For all of these organisa- tions ISO 26000 is an applicable source of guidance as an introduction into SR and SR subject areas and as a guideline to structure their SR activities. Organisations that have already developed SR strategies and initiatives are more likely to apply ISO 26000 to increase the credibility of the own SR claims, e.g. by referring to the guideline in their SR communications.

7 ‘Recognising that organisations are at various stages of understanding and inte- grating social responsibility, this International Standard is intended for use by those beginning to address social responsibility, as well as those more experienced with its implementation’ (ISO 2010: vi).

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42 ISO 26000

Figure 3 .1 Stages of SR implementation

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ISO 26000 emphasises the importance of results and the improvement of performance—continuous improvement, for instance, is one of the basic ten- ets of this guideline as well. Also ISO 26000’s origin as the work of a huge range of stakeholders has perhaps unsurprisingly resulted in a very strong empha- sis on stakeholder identification, dialogue and engagement. The guideline identifies the entire range of possible stakeholders of organisations. At the same time, organisations, guided by ISO 26000, are encouraged to define and describe their own social responsibilities and reduce the negative effects of their actions and decisions on people, planet, society and their stakeholders. Therefore, ISO 26000 can be defined as a hybrid standard: it contains ele- ments of a process standard, of a performance standard (even though, despite recommending compliance with certain minimum achievements in a select number of SR core subjects and an emphasis on continuous improvement, it does not specify concrete achievement levels), a principles standard and a basic standard. What it is clearly not is a certification standard.

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3 ISO 26000: background, characteristics and structure 43

3.4.2 Objectives of ISO 26000 The most important aim of ISO 26000 is helping organisations to contribute to sustainable development.8 Organisations are encouraged by the guideline to undertake activities that go beyond what is required by law. Compliance with laws and rules, however, is a fundamental aspect of the social responsi- bilities of any organisation. When looking at what the guideline asks organisations to aim for, in con- junction with what information is actually documented in ISO 26000, at least the following functions can be ascribed to it:

ISO 26000 advises: the guideline provides suggestions to organisations, • and offers guidance for determining their social responsibilities

ISO 26000 prescribes: the guidance specifies numerous guidelines, • specifies many actions that organisations should undertake and describes what expectations they should meet

ISO 26000 structures: the guideline offers organisations insight into • how they can structure their SR initiatives and how to deal with SR implementation step by step in a structured way

ISO 26000 explains: the guideline defines concepts and principles, • and explains these in background information

ISO 26000 harmonises: the guideline lays a foundation for a uniform • and universal conceptual framework and specifies SR building blocks by means of SR core subjects

ISO 26000 integrates: the guideline provides an umbrella for the • application of other, existing standards in the field of SR

ISO 26000 creates order: the guideline maps existing standards in the • field of SR and offers an overview based on the contents (the core subjects) and process (implementation) of SR

ISO 26000 reflects: the guideline offers consideration of and appraisal • frameworks for many SR subjects

ISO 26000 stimulates: the guideline encourages organisations to do • business in a more socially responsible way by using the guideline and by offering space for organisations to interpret the guideline according to their own context and spheres of influence

8 ‘This International Standard is intended to assist organisations in contributing to sustainable development’ (ISO 2010: 1).

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44 ISO 26000

ISO 26000 inspires: the guideline attempts to enthuse organisa- • tions in engaging with SR by emphasising the broader importance of organisations in realising a sustainable society

It is explicitly not an aim of ISO 26000 to replace codes already in exist- ence but, rather, to complement them. The guideline aims to be a framework in which already existing standards can be applied. It is also not an aim to replace laws and rules nor to change organisations’ legal obligations.9 ISO 26000 intends to give organisations the possibility to formulate an organisation-specific interpretation of SR, based on the SR foundation it pro- vides. ISO 26000 also crucially enables organisations to develop their own, unique SR profile. Because this idea of a SR profile plays an important role in ISO 26000, and because it characterises a new generation of SR, this idea will be discussed in the following sections.

3.5 SR 2.0: a new generation of SR

Probably the most important characteristic of ISO 26000 is that it offers the pos- sibility for an organisation-specific interpretation of SR. In fact, this is encour- aged by the guideline and seen as an organisation’s own responsibility.10 This idea can, in our view, best be characterised as a new generation of SR—SR 2.0.11 SR 2.0 is not about completing checklists in order for organisa- tions to determine or fulfil their social responsibility (‘you tell us what we are supposed to comply with’), but is about organisations developing their own

9 ‘[I]t is not intended to provide a basis for legal actions, complaints, defences or other claims in any international, domestic or other proceeding, nor is it intended to be cited as evidence of the evolution of customary international law’ (ISO 2010: 1).

10 ‘In applying this International Standard it is advisable that an organisation take into consideration societal, environmental, legal, cultural, political and organisational diversity, as well as differences in economic conditions, while being consistent with international norms of behaviour’ (ISO 2010: 1); ‘[I]t is an individual organisation’s responsibility to identify which issues are relevant and significant for the organisa- tion to address, through its own considerations and through dialogue with stake- holders’ (ISO 2010: vi).

11 The addition 2.0 is used here in analogy with an improved version of an IT appli- cation, such as the internet. Web 2.0 represents a new type of use of the internet, of which, among others, active involvement of users in the development of the internet, interaction between users and the use of social networks are defining elements.

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2.0: a new generation

There have been various authors who have construed new approaches to SR as new generations or 2.0 versions of SR. What 2.0 is depends on one’s starting point. In his recent book The Age of Responsibility: CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business SR expert Wayne Visser (2011) argues that the new-generation movement CSR 2.0 goes beyond philanthropy and public relations. CSR 2.0 is about a more interactive, stakeholder- centred model of SR. It departs from an old SR paradigm in which SR has never moved to the core of business operations, was seen as a bolt-on or plug-in by companies and in which there wasn’t a clear link between social responsibilities and business profitability. In Visser’s view, CSR 2.0 is based on the principles of creativity, scalability, responsiveness, glo- cality and circularity and forms the basis for a new DNA model of respon- sible enterprise, which is built around value creation, good governance, societal contribution and environmental integrity. In the book Sustainability 2.0: Networking Enterprises and Citizens to Face World Challenges by Ernesto Peborgh (2008), this new generation is explained from a more technological perspective which is built around the development of new, interactive internet applications such as social media. Behind this, there is a paradigm of participation, cooperation and transparency. Sustainability 2.0 profits from collaboration and collective intelligence empowered by new technologies and social networks to find balance in social and economic development through dynamic participa- tion of citizens and companies. In this book, we see ISO 26000 as a guidance for SR 2.0—a model of SR that is tailored to an organisation’s specific context. SR 2.0 allows (or, better, urges) organisations to build idiosyncratic interpretations of their social responsibilities and integrate these into their core operations and business strategies. SR 2.0 is an approach diametrically opposed to models of SR that are characterised by short-term, bolt-on and one- size-fits-all approaches towards SR that use generic instruments and checklists to define an organisation’s social responsibilities. SR 2.0 is about organisations constructing unique SR profiles. Building these interpretations, in our view (and recognised by ISO 26000), is an interac- tive exercise in which the organisation remains in continuous interac- tion with its stakeholders. Ambition about the role of business in society and the wish to leave a sustainable legacy are seen as a driver of social entrepreneurship.

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