ISO 26000 Social & Environmental Accountability
What is ISO 26000?
For businesses and organizations committed to operating in a socially responsible way, there’s ISO 26000.
It provides guidance to those who recognize that respect for society and environment is a critical success factor. As well as being the “right thing” to do, application of ISO 26000 is increasingly viewed as a way of assessing an organization’s commitment to sustainability and its overall performance.
ISO 26000 provides guidance rather than requirements, so it cannot be certified to unlike some other well-known ISO standards. Instead, it helps clarify what social responsibility is, helps businesses and organizations translate principles into effective actions and shares best practices relating to social responsibility, globally. It is aimed at all types of organizations regardless of their activity, size or location.
The standard was launched in 2010 following five years of negotiations between many different stakeholders across the world. Representatives from government, NGOs, industry, consumer groups and labour organizations around the world were involved in its development, which means it represents an international consensus.
Consideration of ESG allows businesses to evaluate their economic, environmental, sustainability, ethical, legal and other obligations as well as their societal activities. This allows businesses to make better decisions through legal governance and sustainability strategies, whilst reducing risk and aids continual improvement on an organizations ESG values and responsibility.
Benefits of ISO 26000:
- Enables organizations to demonstrate their commitment to social responsibility.
- Enables mapping your activities to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- It can be used by any organization regardless of its size.
- Client and potential client / customer confidence in your organizations commitment to social responsibility.
- Can help organizations to implement the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (2011).
- ISO 26000 provides the framework and catalysts for an organization to be socially and environmentally accountable.
- It provides the platform for accountability of behaviours, social and environmental impacts of the business operations, services & products provided and supply chain.
- The standard promotes and delivers transparency and facilitates communication with stakeholders in relation to the business and its social and environmental performance.
- ISO 26001 promotes ethical behaviours in respect for the workforce and to providing safe & healthy environments to work incorporating the respect of human rights and the consideration of ethical approaches to modern slavery and other areas as part of its supply chain and due diligence of such.
- It aids the facilitation of compliance with legal and other obligation requirements including the understanding of legislation within each country that it operates.
How can we support?
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We deliver a different level of support working together with our clients, building bespoke management systems that truly fit the scope of their business, designed for continual improvement and delivering effective results. We educate your team as we move through the process and we deliver the Stage 1 and Stage 2 certification or verification audits with you to ensure successful achievement.
Our team implement single and combined integrated management systems with a 100% success rate that we are proud of. We are equally proud of the relationships we build with our clients and our 97% retention rate for ongoing support after successful certification to help ensure that you retain certification and your systems continue to evolve with your strategic direction and growth.