ISO 26000: International Standard providing guidelines for social responsibility

ISO has chosen SIS, Swedish Standards Institute and ABNT, Brazilian Association of Technical Standards to provide the joint leadership of the ISO Working Group on Social Responsibility (WG SR). The WG SR has been given the task of drafting an International Standard for social responsibility that will be published in 2008 as ISO 26000.

According to the new work item proposal the standard should:

• assist organizations in addressing their social responsibilities while respecting cultural, societal, environmental and legal differences and economic development conditions;
• provide practical guidance related to operationalizing social responsibility, identifying and engaging with stakeholders, and enhancing credibility of reports and claims made about social responsibility;
• emphasise performance results and improvement;
• increase confidence and satisfaction in organizations among their customers and other stakeholders;
• be consistent with and not in conflict with existing documents, international treaties and conventions and existing ISO standards;
• not be intended to reduce government's authority to address the social responsibility of organizations;
• promote common terminology in the social responsibility field; and
• broaden awareness of social responsibility.

Synergi Solution has already made Synergi compatible with the coming standard by being a tool for implementing ISO 26000 in any organisastion. Synergi will help taking action at any level, measure and provide reports and trends to show engagement - and last but not least involve all employees in this process. The final draft - presented by of the ISO Working Group - will be implemented in Synergi in 2008.