A presentation of the background and current use of ISO 26000 Giuidance on Social responsibility: post publication ffacts and figures based on the 2012 international survey. Feel free to contact me if you have questions or ideas.

1. ISO 26000
Guidance on Social
Responsibility
Status December 2012
By Staffan Söderberg December 6, 2012
staffan.soderberg@amap.se www.amap.se
Vice Chair Post Publication Organization ISO 26000
Former Vice Chair of ISO Working Group on Social Responsibility
3 years with WWF Sweden (corporate partnerships, market transformation)
10 years with Skanska (manager environment/sustainability)
M.Sc Biology, M.A Human Ecology

2. A few words on
the context in which ISO
26000 was developed

3. ISO ?
• ISO (International Organization for Standardization, www.iso.org) in
Geneva develops voluntary international standards to facilitate trade
and communication, since 1947
• ISO and its 163 member bodies has developed approximately
19 000 standards, mainly technical
• ISO has also been successful in management related standards
such as
– ISO 14001 Environmental Management System
(some 100,000 third party certified companies/organizations?)
– ISO 9001 Quality Management System
(some 1,000,000 third party certified companies/organizations?)
3

4. ISO 26000 ?
• 2001: Consumer part of ISO initiates the idea of a
new ”CSR” standard
• 2002: ISO launch a consultation
• 2005: Stakeholder based working group on social
responsbility (”SR”) is established
www.iso.org/wgsr (the former working group)
• 2010 October: ISO 26000 is published
www.iso.org/sr (the current ISO-site)
4

5. The process
April 2001 ISO Council requests ISO Committee on Consumer Policy (COPOLCO)
to deliberate on the development of CSR standard
May 2001 ISO/COPOLCO Plenary – CSR Feasibility Study
June 2002 ISO/COPOLCO workshop, on Corporate Social Responsibility
Sept. 2002 ISO Council adopts COPOLCO Report and establishes Strategic
Advisory Group (SAG) on Social Responsibility
April 2004 Final Report and recommendation from SAG to ISO Technical
Management Board (TMB)
June 2004 Stockholm Conference & pre-Conference for Developing Countries
June 2004 ISO TMB decision to proceed with development of ISO SR Guidance
Standard
5

6. The process – cont’d
Sept. 2004 ISO TMB assigns leadership responsibilities to ISO member bodies SIS
(Sweden) & ABNT (Brazil) – (Twinning)
Oct. 2004 New Work Item Proposal (NP) circulated among ISO MBs
Jan. 2005 Votes : Yes - 29; No – 4
On starting the development of a ISO standard (guidance) for SR
Mar. 2005 ISO concludes Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with International
Labour Organization (ILO), later UN Global Compact and OECD.
Mar. 2005 1st. Plenary Meeting, Salvador, Brazil: issues papers, CAG, Draft
structure
Sept. 2005 2nd. Plenary Meeting, Bangkok, Thailand (co-hosted by Japan): design
Specification, 1000 comments on structure, Task Groups 1,2,3,4,5,6 and
Editing Committee
May 2006 3rd Plenary Meeting, Lisbon, Portugal: WD1 + 2140 expert comments,
TGs4,5,6 Key Topics, Liaison Task Force (LTF) formed
6

7. The process – cont’d (2)
Jan. 2007 4th Plenary Meeting, Sydney, Australia: WD1 + 5176 expert comments,
TGs4,5,6 Key Topics, Liaison Key Topics between TG’s4,5,6
Nov. 2007 5th Plenary Meeting, Vienna, Austria: WD3.2 + 7250 expert comments,
TG 4,5,6 Key Topics and Liaison Key Topics, LTF closed and to
Integrated Drafting Task Force (IDTF)
Sept. 2008 6th Plenary Meeting, Santiago, Chile: WD4.2 + 5225 expert comments
May 2009 7th Plenary Meeting, Québec, Canada: CD + 3411 expert comments
May 2010 8th Plenary Meeting , Copenhagen, Denmark: DIS + 2482 consensus
comments
October 2010 ISO 26000 published. Working Group SR disbanded and PPO (post
Publication Organization) launched.
7

8. The scope of the ISO 26000
(According to the ISO New Work Item Proposal)
• To assist organizations in addressing their social responsibility;
• To provide practical guidance related to operationalizing social responsibility,
identifying and engaging with stakeholders, and enhancing credibility of
reports and claims made about social responsibility;
• To emphasize performance results and improvement;
• To increase confidence and satisfaction in organizations among their
customers and other stakeholders;
• To 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;
• To promote common terminology in SR field and broaden awareness of
social responsibility.
8

9. The initial scope of ISO 26000
in plain language
• Title: Guidance on Social Responsibility
• Designation: ISO 26000 (just an available number)
• Type of standard: ISO standard providing practical
guidance, not intended for third-party certification
• To be applied by all types of organizations, not only for
corporates ”C”SR
• Not a management system standard
• Not a substitute for legal and other requirements
• Process: to be developed through a stakeholder dialogue
9

10. The Working Group
• One national SR-expert from each of the six stakeholder categories:
– Industry, Government, Consumer, Labour, Non-governmental organization (NGO),
Service/Support/Research/Others
• 2 experts from each of the Liaison organizations
e.g. Consumers International, UN Global Compact, Global Reporting
Initiative, ICC, IOE, ILO, OECD, Social Accountability Int., UNIDO, WBCSD
• In the end the working group, that was set up directly under ISO
Technical Management Board, involved approximately 450 experts
and 200 observers from 99 countries and 40 international
organizations during 8 international plenary meetings handling close
to 25 000 written comments.
• Memorandum of Understanding with ILO, UN Global Compact,
OECD to structure and facilitate timely flow of information

11. Organization of the Working Group
CAG ISO/TMB/WG SR
Chairs Advisory Group
Language Task Forces e.g.
• Spanish TranslationTask Force (STTF)
• French speaking Task Force (FTF)
• Arabic Translation Task Force (ATTF)
• Russian Translation Task Force (RTTF)
TG 4
TG 1 TG 2 TG 3 Introduction, Scope, Editing
Funding and stake- Communication Operational SR context Committee
holder engagement procedures & SR principles
Integrated
Drafting
Task Force TG 5
Guidance on core
SR subjects/issues
TG 6
Guidance for
organization on
implementing SR
Strategic Task Groups Standard Setting Task Groups

12. ISO/TMB/WG on Social Responsibility
Leadership Secretariat
Chair : Jorge E.R. Cajazeira (Brazil) Vice-Chair : Staffan Söderberg (Sweden)
Secretary : Kristina Sandberg (Sweden) Co-Secretary : Eduardo Campos de São Thiago (Brazil)
More information on the invididual persons involved in the many sub-groups, please visit:
http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink/fetch/-8929321/8929339/8929348/3935096/06_contacts/contacts.html

13. All documents from the project:
www.iso.org/wgsr
1. Click and then go to ”SR Home” and ”home.html” to visit the old public website
Or click HERE
Here you will find all project documents!

14. Growth
500
450 435 450
426
400 395
350 355
315 Experts
300
270 Countries (NSBs)
250
200
225 D-Liaisons
150
100 78 84 91 99
64 73
50 43 53
30 32 34 37 40 42 42
24
0
09
10
06
07
05
05
07
08
ay
ay
ay
ch
ov
pt
g
n
Au
Ja
Se
ar
M
M
M
N
M

15. Stakeholder balance
120
100
Industry
80 SSRO
Government
60
NGO
40 Consumer
Labour
20
0
08
06
07
09
10
05
05
07
ug
ay
n
ay
ay
ep
ch
ov
Ja
ar
M
M
M
N
S
A
M

16. Gender Balance
80
67 66 65
70
62 60
60 61 63
58
50
% Male
42
40 39 37 Female
38 40
30 34 35
33
20
10
0
09
10
06
07
07
05
08
05
ov
ug
ay
ay
pt
ay
n
ch
Ja
Se
M
M
M
N
A
ar
M

17. Regional balance
80
70 69
63
60
50 42 48 Developing
38 countries
40
27 30
30 28 28 30 Developed
22 countries
20 21
28 28 28
22
10
0
08
07
09
10
05
06
07
05
g
v
ay
ch
ay
ay
n
pt
No
Ja
Au
ar
M
M
Se
M
M

18. Some keys to success when we
developed ISO 26000
• Spend enough time on developing process consensus around
representativeness, decision making, transparency, meeting rules
• Confirm consensus decisions in 177 resolutions through 8
international meetings and more than 100 000 hours of work
• Use regional workshops to engage for example developing countries,
and increase participation. Used twinned leadership: co-convene
between developed and developing countries
• Include representatives from other important initiatives: e.g. ILO, UN
Global Compact, OECD Guidelines, UN Guiding Principles on
Business and Human Rights, the Global Reporting Initiative.
• Resolve all 23 083 comments Final vote: 93% in favour

19. A few words on
the content of ISO 26000

20. ISO 26000, the structure
1. Scope
2. Terms and Definitions
3. Understanding SR
4. Principles of SR
5. Recognizing SR and engaging stakeholders
6. Guidance on SR core subjects
7. Guidance on integrating SR throughout and organization
Annex: Examples of voluntary initiatives and tools for SR
100 pages, 7 chapters, 27 definitions, 7 principles, 7 core
subjects with 37 issues, 7 steps to integrate
400+ recommendations

21. Definition of Social Responsibility
responsibility of an organization for the impacts of its decisions and
activities on society and the environment, through transparent and
ethical behaviour that
• contributes to sustainable development, including health and the
welfare of society;
• takes into account the expectations of stakeholders;
• is in compliance with applicable law and consistent with international
norms of behaviour; and
• is integrated throughout the organization and practised in its
relationships
NOTE 1 Activities include products, services and processes.
NOTE 2 Relationships refer to an organization's activities within its
sphere of influence (2.19).

22. Table oc Contents

24. 7 main principles to be kept
in mind as a fundamental basis
1. Accountability
2. Transparency
3. Ethical Behaviour
4. Respect for stakeholder interests
5. Respect for the rule of law
6. Respect for international norms of behaviour
7. Respect for humans rights
+ some subject specific principles

25. 7 core subjects to be addressed to find
relevant or significant sub-issues
1. Organizational governance
2. Human rights
3. Labour practices
4. The environment
5. Fair operating practices
6. Consumer issues
7. Community involvement and development
37 underlying issues

29. ISO 26000 boilerplate?
ISO 26000 is an International Standard that can be
volontarily used by all types and sizes of
companies/organizations.
It helps you increase your understanding of social
responsibility through agreed definitions, principles, core
subjects, methods for integration, stakeholder
engagement and communication.
All organizations can behave more socially responsible
and use the guidance in ISO 26000 and contribute to
current sustainable development towards the future
sustainability of society.

30. A few words on
how ISO 26000 is handled
post publication

31. Post Publication Organization
• ISO 26000 was published in November 2010
• ISO 26000 Post Publication Organization was
established in 2010, by SIS (Sweden) and ABNT
(Brazil) upon request from ISO Technical
Management Board.
2012-12-13

32. ISO 26000 PPO Terms of Reference
Assess and advise ISO/TMB on any proposals to revise ISO 26000
Advise ISO/CS on requests for interpretation of ISO 26000 from NSBs
Advise ISO/CS on promotion, communication and training activities
Gather information to identify good and bad practices in using ISO
26000, and report to ISO/CS
Review and assess results of the systematic review and advise
ISO/TMB.

33. PPO Composition
1. PPO Secretariat
Secretariat: SIS, Kristina Sandberg
Co-secretariat: ABNT, Eduardo Campos de São Thiago
Chair: appointed by ABNT, Jorge Cajazeira
Vice Chair: appointed by SIS, Staffan Söderberg

34. PPO Composition (cont. )
2. PPO Stakeholder Advisory Group (PPO SAG)
Members: 38 delegates + 27 alternates+ 4 secretariat
3. PPO National Standards Body Information Network
(PPO NIN)
64 members (Chairs and Secretaries) from
36 National Standards Bodies
The PPO Secretariat may call upon other competences as
needed, including for example language resources.

35. PPO Way of working
1.PPO Secretariat gathers information from PPO SAG
and PPO NIN
2. Meetings and communications should be conducted
through electronic means as far as possible.
3. One physical meeting per year is often needed.

36. PPO SAG meetings
20 Dec. 2010 1st teleconference
06 April 2011 2nd teleconference
21-22 Nov. 2011 Rio de Janeiro
08 Feb. 2012 3rd teleconference
21 March 2012 4th teleconference
13 June 2012 5th teleconference
13 Sept. 2012 6th teleconference
09 Nov. 2012 Geneva

37. PPO activities
Surveys:
2011 and 2012 of post publication activities related to ISO 26000
Documents produced:
Operating guidelines for ISO 26000 PPO
ISO 26000 Communication protocol
How the ISO 26000 PPO identifies good examples of ISO 26000
usage and tools
Please contact me or anyone else in PPO or PPO SAG / NIN to
retrieve these documents

38. Issues discussed in the PPO, examples
Terms of reference, objectives and operational guidance for PPO
The issues of certification, verification, claims
ISO 26000 surveys, adoption in the world
Good and bad examples of how ISO 26000 has been used
Rio+20
International ISO 26000 Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, 2012

39. A few words on
how ISO 26000 is used by
ISO national member bodies
- survey 2012

40. Survey of ISO 26000 - background
• Developed by the ISO 26000 PPO Leadership in
consultation with PPO Stakeholder Advisory Group
(PPO SAG)
• Sent by ISO Central Secretariat to all ISO members
(163 members) 31 August – 1 October 2012
• Same questions as in the 2011 survey with two exceptions:
– Some additional questions to the developing countries were added by
DEVCO
– one additional question on the perceived demand for developing new
standard on certification was added
• 74 countries responded (66 in 2011), 64 % were
developing countries
2012-12-13

41. Survey 2012:
Adoption of ISO 26000 as a national standard
• 44 countries (59 %) replied that they have
adopted* ISO 26000 as a national standard
(36 countries in 2011) approximately 50 %
are developing countries
• 17 countries (23 %) responding that they
are planning for/in process of adoption
• 13 counties (17 %) responded
“decided not to” or “not yet decided”
*adopted=made it into a national standard
through its ISO-member body (translated,
available to the market)

42. Have
adopted
60+ adopters and 20+ on their way In progress
Survey 2012 + additional information Not adopted

43. Interesting changes 2011 – 2012
New Adopted: Algeria, Bolivia, Ecuador, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan,
Korea (Republic of), Kyrgyz Republic, Lebanon, Malawi, Malta, Mexico,
Moldova (Republic of), Mongolia, Oman, Panama, Peru, Saint Lucia, South
Africa, Spain, USA
New In Progress: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Burundi, Dominican Republic, Gabon,
Georgia, Indonesia, Jamaica, Macau (China), Montenegro, Poland, Surinam,
Swaziland, Vietnam
Early Stages: Myanmar; Buthan
Unsure due to lack of complete data, may have adopted or be in progress:
Cuba. Canada, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Syria
2012-12-13

44. An interesting regional example:
The European Union
• In general: The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) +
legislative work has moved an estimated 170 000 national standards to
20 000 European Standards, many of these being ISO-standards.
• ISO 26000: most EU member states have adopted ISO 26000 as a
national standard. Possibly not Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg and
Slovenia. In addition, Bosnia/Hercegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Turkey
has adopted ISO 26000.
• Some examples of EU countries that are particularly active in using ISO
26000 include France, Denmark, Sweden and The Netherlands.
• The European Commission CSR communication refers to ISO 26000

45. ISO 26000 is now available
in 22 Languages
• Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English,
Finnish, French, German, Japanese, Kazakh,
Korean, Mongolian, Norwegian, Polish,
Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian,
Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai
• Possibly also: Italian, Estonian, Hungarian,
Chinese
2011: 17 languages
2012-12-13

46. Price
• Range: average 120 Euros
• A lot of money but perhaps acceptable when considering
that
– more than 450 experts, during 5 years, developed the 100 pages
of social responsibility consensus guidance for all types of
organizations
– the standard has been properly translated and made available
locally
– there is an international and local infrastructure to maintain and
develop the standard

47. Number of sold standards locally
• 31 countries responding
• More than12.000 copies sold (including from ISO Central Secretariat)
• Approximately Japan 3000+, France 2500+, Brazil 1500+, Sweden
800+, Netherlands 750, Costa Rica 400, Norway 400, USA 390,
Argentina 200, Czech Republic 200, South Africa 100…
• A number of standards have also been sold through subscriptions to
“areas of standardization”, as part of packages or disseminated for free
National Standards:
• In addition, some 10 countries offer local standards (approx. 10
guidance standards and 10 certification standards) related to Social
Responsibility or Sustainability: France, Austria, Spain, UK, Brazil,
Colombia, Denmark, Israel, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Portugal, The
Netherlands
• Most of them were created before the publication of ISO 26000 and
many are being revised to harmonize with ISO 26000

48. Evolution of interest for ISO 26000
In your opinion, the evolution of the national demand for
ISO 26000 from 2010 to 2012 is: increasing, constant or
decreasing?
Number of responding countries: 70
• Increasing: 59 %
• Constant: 38 %
• Decreasing: 3 %
2012-12-13

49. Local Mirror Committees
Does your National Standards Body maintain a local mirror
committee on social responsibility or equivalent related to ISO
26000 or related standards or tools?
• Yes: 62 countries
84 % of the respondents (62 % 2011)
– They meet in average 2 times/year and have 16 members on average
– Seems to be balanced with regard to stakeholder groups with the
exception of “Labour” which is a bit underrepresented
• Note: PPO experience is that there are still local challenges
in the definitions of stakeholder, stakeholder categories and
the allowing of stakeholders to select their own
representatives and act independently
2012-12-13

50. Need for standard that allows
for conformity assessment?
Does your National Standard Body perceive that there is a
demand in your country for the development of an new
International Standard related to SR that allows conformity
assessment?
Please indicate 1,2,3,4 or 5 where 1 is very little interest
and 5 is a great interest
• Number of responding countries: 68
• Average response = 2.8, i.e. medium interest
• No difference between developed and developing
NB: There is no current proposal to develop additional
SR /ISO 26000 related standards.
2012-12-13

51. Some PPO conclusions
from the 2012 survey
• Growing interest in ISO 26000 world wide
• Growing number of countries that have adopted, especially
among developing countries
• Growing number of translations
• Growing number of sold standard but not as many as many
as could be expected
• Few cases of use involving mainly companies that wrongfully
claim to be “certified according to the requirements in ISO
26000” or using the “ISO 26000 management system”
• Many examples of good use available, e.g. Latin America,
Nordic Region, France, The Netherlands, MENA-region,
Indonesia and by the European Commission.
2012-12-13

52. A few words on
the future of ISO 26000

53. Systematic review?
• Late 2013 there will be a so called systematic review, as for all
standards after 3-5 years, launched by ISO
• ISO Members will be asked whether ISO 26000 should be kept as
is, changed, or withdrawn
• ISO CS will discuss the results with many, including PPO
• My personal belief is that ISO will keep ISO 26000 as is for another
period. Reason: it is a complex and young standard that needs time
to build momentum.

54. Coming use of ISO 26000?
I believe there will be
• a rising number of countries, especially developing, adopting ISO
26000
• a rising number of organizations using ISO 26000 for
self-evaluation/catalysm as well as development of sector/size
specific tools - without organizations necessarily issuing
declarations and statements.
• an increase in national, regional and international harmonization
around fewer initiatives, all in order to facilitate trade and
communication, and that ISO 26000 will be part of that
harmonization

55. I thank you for your attention
Feel free to contact me if you have
additional questions or ideas
Staffan Söderberg
staffan.soderberg@amap.se
www.amap.se