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Kernaghan Webb
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The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is well into development of ISO 26000, a guidance standard on social responsibility (SR). With the objective of providing widespread common understanding and guidance on social responsibility concepts, definitions and implementation, ISO 26000 could play a critical role in better addressing the business-society agenda worldwide. Professor Kernaghan Webb, an expert on ISO and a special advisor to the United Nations Global Compact, discusses the need for ISO SR guidance, what ISO 26000 hopes to achieve and how it relates to the Global Compact. According to Webb, “ISO 26000 is a way of truly mainstreaming the concept of SR, using a worldwide standards system that most companies are likely to be familiar with.”
Dr. Kernaghan Webb is a law and business professor specializing in voluntary codes and standards, and is the founding Director of the Ryerson University Institute for the Study of Corporate Social Responsibility, located in Toronto, Canada. He currently serves as Special Advisor to the UN Global Compact on the ISO 26000 Social Responsibility Standard.
Compact Quarterly (CQ): There are many strong national and international corporate social responsibility initiatives around the world, why do we need an ISO guidance standard?
Kernaghan Webb (KW): The proposed ISO social responsibility (SR) guidance is about making SR available, making SR understandable and getting the word out to a much broader group of organizations concerning SR operationalization than you could ever hope to reach by creating your own rule development, implementation process and infrastructure.
ISO is probably the most recognized international standards body in the world today, particularly from the standpoint of the private sector. It has a brand, and level of respect which is fairly universal. You can be in Bangladesh, Boston, Burma or Bolivia, and if you mention ISO 9001 on quality management or ISO 14001 on environmental management, business will tend to know about it. And that is important from the stand point of social responsibility because the vast majority of companies around the world – small, medium and large – are still new to the issue of SR. ISO 26000 is a way of truly mainstreaming the concept of SR, using a worldwide standards system that most companies are likely to be familiar with.
With close to 1 million facilities worldwide certified to ISO 9001 or ISO 14001, ISO 26000 can build on a strong global standards foundation. Organizations that have already agreed to the need for standardized solutions on issues such as quality and environmental management will hopefully choose to "go to the next level" with ISO 26000. In general, when organizations see that ISO is involved in SR, they may be more likely to learn about it. This is highly valuable and easily the best opportunity for mainstreaming SR globally.
To illustrate its mainstreaming value, until ISO 26000 there has been no universally agreed-upon definition of social responsibility. Individual businesses and organizations around the world have been saying that they are socially responsible, when in fact no one can turn to a single definition of SR that is authoritative – and is authoritative because everybody who had an interest in the issue was around the table when the definition was developed. Achieving that alone is highly useful and helps to create a level playing field of understanding from which we can all move forward. The draft definition that has already been developed in the ISO process, which probably will change somewhat between now and the end of the process, is by and of itself an important step forward.
CQ: How will ISO 26000 work?
KW: As I’ve mentioned, many companies are familiar with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, which are standards that an organization can be certified to by a third party. The ISO 26000 socially responsible standard is different because it is not designed for certification. It is what is called a “guidance standard”, rather than a certification standard. Its objective is to provide assistance to organizations in understanding and operationalizing SR.
Technically, it does not require anybody to do anything, which I believe at this early stage for a general standard of this nature to be a good thing. The issue of SR is a new and developing area that is hard to reduce to the type of “yes/no” answers that a more conventional subject-specific certification standard requires. It is specifically designed not to be a replacement for all of the very good existing instruments and tools that are already out there. It will provide a baseline platform, framework or road map for businesses and other organizations concerning the meaning of and how to operationalize important concepts.
CQ: Will that platform or road map be relevant to organizations of all sizes, sectors and regions?
KW: Yes, it is likely to be helpful to companies or other organizations that are already in the game, as well as those that might only be thinking about getting into the game, be they big or small, operating anywhere in the world. For a larger company that is fairly advanced in its thinking about SR, a standard like this can be used as an internal benchmark to make sure that they are covering the important areas in a sensible way. It could arguably be quite helpful in providing a level of internal assurance that an organization is on the right track.
For a business altogether unfamiliar with or just learning about social responsibility, ISO 26000 will serve as an introduction to the key concepts and ideas about implementation. The guidance standard will internalize and reflect key ideas in existing instruments, initiatives and tools. So, it acts as a point of departure document which can lead to more intensive and sophisticated actions drawing on other initiatives when an organization is ready for them.
And while the group process of drafting the ISO 26000 with 400 experts from around the world is very challenging, it also means that there are representative voices around the table to ensure that the guidance is relevant for all contexts and is truly universal. Governments, consumers, labour, NGOs and businesses from developed and developing countries around the world have been heavily involved. The ISO SR guidance that will emerge through this process will be something that will be relevant and applicable no matter what type of organization, no matter where you are or what you are doing. It is not likely that the language and concepts contained in the standard are going to be Western-centric or inappropriate for any area. That is the assurance which comes from having a broad of a set of stakeholders involved.
CQ: How might the GC principles and other relevant instruments and initiatives fit into the ISO SR guidance?
KW: ISO 26000 is being built on an existing but disparate foundation of understanding located in individual experts, organizations and instruments or initiatives. The standard will explain the core SR issues and will provide basic and essential information regarding key concepts and implementation ideas, such as in the areas of human rights, labour standards, environment and corruption. Key concepts and ideas contained in the UNGC and other instruments and tools are drawn on as appropriate. The insights of participating experts on how these instruments and processes have operated are extremely valuable to bring to the ISO table. It’s a huge advantage when you can point to an existing document and say, “Here is a relevant instrument or initiative, here is the wording, here is the practical experience, and here is why it is useful”.
The UN Global Compact is valuable to ISO 26000. The UNGC is what I consider a transpositional instrument – or bridging mechanism – because it is voluntary commitment agreed upon by a wide number of businesses and other organizations that was developed under the auspices of a United Nations office which takes key principles and concepts from UN treaties and other instruments on human rights, environment, labour and corruption, and transposes them so that they are directly and explicitly applicable to business and other non-governmental organizations. That’s very useful for ISO 26000, because the drafters of the guidance standard can turn to the wording of the UNGC rather than trying to distill principles and concepts applicable to organizations on their own. The ISO SR process is an opportunity for the UNGC to ensure that there is complete alignment between the ISO 26000 and the UNGC principles.
CQ: Are there concerns about the development of an ISO guidance standard on social responsibility?
KW: There have been concerns from some stakeholders dating back to before ISO had even decided to do something in this area. On one hand, some businesses feared an SR standard would be yet another instrument out there, and not a very helpful one at that. They claimed that more work and more expense would be required of businesses and a new industry of CSR consultancy and auditors would emerge.
Other stakeholders were concerned that whatever guidance came out of the ISO 26000 process would be so weak that it would give an easy path to business. They feared that it would allow businesses to say they were doing the right thing, when they were doing very little, if anything.
These were the two competing concerns going into the process and it is hard to say how much they have been alleviated, largely because the final guidance standard is still in development. But, it is fair to say that the extensive work underway to develop a common platform regarding SR – how it can be defined and how it can be operationalized – is seeking to outline an agreed-upon global architecture for SR that has taken into consideration a diversity of contexts and views.
CQ: After ISO 26000 is finalized, what impact can we expect to see on the global corporate responsibility movement?
KW: Judging by the impact of other major ISO standards when they were introduced or revised, immediately after the completion of ISO 26000, there will be a huge amount of publicity about the standard around the world followed by workshops and conferences in countries, regions and sectors. I imagine there will be a lot of pent up interest. As businesses and other organizations start to use ISO 26000 and look to the SR instruments and initiatives reflected in the guidance standard, it is likely to lead to spinoff interest in related initiatives, such as the UNGC. So ISO 2600 should open doors for users to other more specialized SR instruments, initiatives and tools. But first, it is important to get companies and other organizations into the SR tent and give them a common point of departure. And that’s one of the things that ISO 26000 is particularly well positioned to do.
