ISO 26000 was developed as an in­ter­na­tion­al standard that provides companies with concrete guide­lines for de­vel­op­ment across a variety of cat­e­gories in the area of social re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. We’ll explain the main contents of the standard.

For a long time, corporate social re­spon­si­bil­i­ty (CSR) was a term that many companies included in annual reports. In the meantime, more and more over­ar­ch­ing standards on a European level and new reg­u­la­to­ry re­quire­ments for companies with regard to practices at home and abroad have been in­tro­duced.

The focus is no longer just on more sus­tain­able business practices. Areas such as diversity and inclusion and lead­er­ship are also gaining in sig­nif­i­cance. En­vi­ron­men­tal Social Gov­er­nance (ESG), has also become a very important standard for sus­tain­able in­vest­ment. These are all standards by which companies are also measured in the public eye. What does the ISO 26000 standard do in this context?

What does the ISO 26000 standard regulate?

The DIN standard of­fi­cial­ly named DIN ISO 26000 is an in­ter­na­tion­al­ly co­or­di­nat­ed set of guide­lines defining the social re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of a company on the basis of specified standards and is intended to serve as a guide. The standard is divided into seven sub­cat­e­gories, for example, “Or­ga­ni­za­tion­al Gov­er­nance”, “En­vi­ron­ment” or “Human Rights”.

The standard gives an overview of the re­spec­tive category and describes actions companies can take in this area. The en­vi­ron­ment category, for example, includes actions relating to reducing en­vi­ron­men­tal pollution and using natural resources.

Fact

When it comes to the stan­dard­iza­tion of guide­lines, the In­ter­na­tion­al Or­ga­ni­za­tion for Stan­dard­iza­tion (ISO) is one of the world’s centers of ex­cel­lence. The or­ga­ni­za­tion sets over­ar­ch­ing standards and de­ter­mines which are developed. Read more in our article “What is ISO?”.

What is the objective of the ISO 26000 standard?

Es­tab­lished in 2010, the standard known as ISO 26000 is intended as a guide that provides an overview of various social re­spon­si­bil­i­ty prin­ci­ples and practices. It pursues the goal that companies con­tin­u­ous­ly align their ac­tiv­i­ties with con­sid­er­a­tion to their social re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. The standard is intended to support companies and or­ga­ni­za­tions in im­ple­ment­ing concrete measures for sus­tain­able, social de­vel­op­ment. Nearly 100 countries have adopted ISO 26000 as a National Standard.

The standard shows examples of social re­spon­si­bil­i­ty that companies can use as a guide, re­gard­less of their size, industry or location.

ISO 26000 is not a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, as is the case with other ISO standards. More than 500 experts from various fields, such as NGOs, trade unions, gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives and consumer groups worldwide, were involved in drawing up the standard.

What does the ISO 26000 standard include?

The standard is divided into different cat­e­gories, all of which have an impact on a company’s social re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. The breakdown is as follows:

  • Or­ga­ni­za­tion­al gov­er­nance
  • En­vi­ron­ment
  • Human rights
  • Labor practices
  • Fair operating practices
  • Consumer issues
  • Community in­volve­ment and de­vel­op­ment

Each topic is in­tro­duced within the standard and an overview is given of the action areas within the re­spec­tive topic. Af­ter­wards, the action areas are addressed in­di­vid­u­al­ly, for example “anti-cor­rup­tion” and “fair com­pe­ti­tion” under the topic “fair operating practices”. This means the issue of com­pli­ance is also taken into account.

One part that the standard par­tic­u­lar­ly em­pha­sizes are core rec­om­men­da­tions. These are intended to make it clear straight away which criteria are most important in an action area and what companies should focus on in par­tic­u­lar. An example of one of these core rec­om­men­da­tions is the “use of recycled materials”.

The action areas include detailed reg­u­la­tions that have a direct influence on the topic in question. These include, for example, laws that affect the in­di­vid­ual points in an action area. In addition, ISO 26000 lists further standards that specify the re­spec­tive action areas. These standards il­lu­mi­nate partial aspects in detail and sometimes also enable companies to obtain cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in a specific aspect. These include, for example, ISO 45001 for oc­cu­pa­tion­al health and safety or ISO 14001 for the de­vel­op­ment and expansion of an en­vi­ron­men­tal man­age­ment system.

Moreover, the standard lists common man­age­ment and audit systems with which companies can determine and change their in­di­vid­ual status in an action area. In addition to mech­a­nisms that con­tribute to the man­age­ment and control of social re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, it also covers value ori­en­ta­tion, thought patterns and behaviors.

This enables companies to target the areas of action where there’s an acute need and to integrate measures and processes step by step into their corporate man­age­ment.

Summary of ISO 26000

In practice, companies often use a com­bi­na­tion of different cer­ti­fi­ca­tions in the area of corporate re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to make their social com­mit­ment visible and to determine it according to defined standards. This is where the ISO 26000 standard comes in. Although it does not enable cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, it’s in­creas­ing­ly used by companies as an important foun­da­tion, for example, in corporate social re­spon­si­bil­i­ty (CSR) reports.

ISO 26000 provides companies that want to use an in­ter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized standard for their social efforts and sus­tain­abil­i­ty ac­tiv­i­ties with a guide that covers the essential aspects of corporate social re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

Reviewer

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