ISO 26000 in Practice - A User Guide

150 Pages·2011·1.9 MB·English

by  Bernhart

ISO 26000
in Practice
A User Guide
Michelle S. Bernhart and
Francis J. “Sonny” Maher
ASQ Quality Press
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
American Society for Quality, Quality Press, Milwaukee 53203
© 2011 by ASQ
All rights reserved. Published 2011
Printed in the United States of America
17 16 15 14 13 12 11 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bernhart, Michelle.
ISO 26000 in practice : a user guide / Michelle Bernhart and Sonny Maher.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-87389-812-6 (soft cover : alk. paper)
1. Social responsibility of business—Standards—Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Maher,
Sonny. II. Title.
HD60.B47 2011
658.4'08—dc22 2010049701
ISBN: 978-0-87389-812-6
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Foreword
T
his is an important book. As we watch once trusted icons of strength
and virtue succumb, one after another, to breakdowns in internal gov-
ernance and to implausible but real failures to address clear respon-
sibilities, ISO 26000 could not have come at a better time. Yet the greatest
strength of this new ISO guidance standard on social responsibility—its
all-encompassing scope and coverage of numerous social responsibility
issues deemed important by the 400 multi-disciplinary, global stakeholders
who developed it—is also intimidating to the potential user.
Bernhart and Maher show how to take the first bite of this apple, and
the second, with each bite bringing the user a greater degree of comfort that
their organization’s essential obligations are recognized and on their way to
being addressed. The standard is voluntary, but an organization’s social
responsibilities are fundamental to the right of existence. The organization
can pursue its mission, but it must meet the expectations of civil society.
Bernhart and Maher point the way for organizations to analyze the expec-
tations that apply specifically to their organization, to map out and imple-
ment programs to address them and, indeed, to leverage them in support of
their mission.
This book is not a substitute for the standard; it is a tool to bring the
standard to life within an organization. Because many of those in its most
likely audience are quality professionals, users are led to obvious link-
ages between quality and social responsibility and the importance of good
management. Due to the concern of many authors that the standard could
become a mandatory management system standard in parallel to ISO 9001
and ISO 14001, the standard was written as guidance. But clearly, ISO
26000 will be most effectively implemented by a thorough management
system, one that links governance, quality, environment, safety, risk man-
agement, community relations, and other functions with the social respon-
sibilities of the organization.
ix
x Foreword
In particular, this book helps the user deal with the overwhelmingly
broad scope of the standard. Bernhart and Maher lead the user into social
responsibility implementation using ISO 26000 through the eyes of Midget
Widgets, a hypothetical, small manufacturing company, using tools and
language that will be familiar and comfortable even in the smallest organi-
zation. Yet even large, multinational organizations will find the book useful
in taking social responsibility from the corporate headquarters to its mul-
titude of facilities.
This book is easy to use and filled with helpful tips, tables, and exam-
ples, yet it will bear re-reading as the user undertakes social responsibil-
ity and begins to appreciate just how much valuable knowledge has been
packed into so few pages.
—Dorothy P. Bowers
Chair, U.S. Technical Advisory Group
to ISO 26000 (2006–2009)
Table of Contents
List of Figures, Tables, and Boxes........................... vii
Foreword .............................................. ix
Acknowledgments ....................................... xi
Chapter 1 Introduction and Approach.................... 1
1.1 A Unique Standard ............................... 1
1.2 Our Approach ................................... 2
Chapter 2 Building the Social Responsibility Foundation .... 7
2.1 Determining Your Social Responsibility Destination..... 10
2.2 Beginning the Paradigm Shift....................... 13
2.3 Planning for Social Responsibility Implementation:
The Self-Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.4 Planning for Social Responsibility Implementation:
Identify and Build the Team ........................ 36
Chapter 3 Implementing Social Responsibility............. 47
3.1 Key Factors for Implementing the Standard............ 48
Recognize Current Social Responsibility Performance ... 48
Become Proficient in Some Social Responsibility
Process Fundamentals .......................... 49
3.2 Determining the Sphere of Influence ................. 49
3.3 Identifying and Prioritizing Stakeholders.............. 54
Reference the Guidance of the Standard and of Other
Documents ................................... 56
Identify Current Internal and External Stakeholders
and Engagements .............................. 57
Reference the Organization’s Social Responsibility
Strategy, Policies, and Objectives.................. 58
Map Current Stakeholders and the Type(s) of
Engagements Involved and Planned................ 58
v
vi Table of Contents
Prioritize Stakeholders and Decide on the Engagement
Approach(es) for Each .......................... 59
3.4 Conducting Due Diligence ......................... 61
3.5 Identifying Relevant and Significant Issues ............ 64
Using ISO 26000 to Identify What Is Relevant and
Significant.................................... 64
The ISO 26000 Criteria for Determining Social
Responsibility Issue Relevance.................... 67
The ISO 26000 Criteria for Issue Significance.......... 72
The ISO 26000 Criteria for Issue Prioritization ......... 75
3.6 Conducting a Social Responsibility Gap Analysis ....... 78
Use and Enhance Existing Systems Where Feasible...... 82
3.7 Using Your Current Management System(s) with
ISO 26000...................................... 82
3.8 Choosing New Systems or Tools to Implement Your
Social Responsibility Strategy....................... 89
3.9 Integrating, Measuring, and Reviewing Social
Responsibility Performance ........................ 90
Integrate Social Responsibility into the Line ........... 90
Measure Social Responsibility Performance............ 93
A Brief Word on Governance ....................... 96
Chapter 4 Communicating, Monitoring, and Improving
Social Responsibility.................................. 99
4.1 Applying Communications Principles................. 100
4.2 Building Stakeholder Engagement and Aligning
Communications ................................. 104
Making the Internal Case for Social Responsibility...... 105
Engaging External Stakeholders..................... 106
4.3 Developing Key Messages and Planning Internal
and External Communications ...................... 107
Crafting Key Messages ............................ 108
Developing the Communications Plan ................ 109
4.4 Reporting....................................... 110
4.5 Enhancing Credibility............................. 113
Creating Mutually Beneficial Alliances ............... 115
4.6 Monitoring and Improving Performance .............. 117
References ............................................. 121
About the Authors ....................................... 123
Index.................................................. 125
1
Introduction and
Approach
The price of greatness is responsibility.
—Sir Winston Churchill
KEY QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER 1
1. What is ISO 26000?
2. Why a book on ISO 26000?
3. What is the approach used in this book?
1.1 A UNIQUE STANDARD
ISO 26000 is a voluntary guidance standard that attempts what no other
global standard on social responsibility has: to consolidate in one place
the fundamental expectations of organizations regarding their responsibil-
ities to society. Because the standard was developed by a global, multi-
stakeholder group—consisting of thousands of contributors and reviewers
from more than 90 countries—the standard addresses the wide landscape
of social responsibility and provides valuable context for implementation in
all types of organizations around the world.
For each of seven core subjects, the standard provides information on
scope, relationship to social responsibility, related principles and consid-
erations, and related actions and expectations. It also provides guidance
for integrating social responsibility throughout the organization. This
1
2 Chapter One
integration is fundamentally transformative. It helps us connect the dots
between social responsibility and quality, procurement, health and safety,
communications, and many other functions, in turn strengthening each one.
ISO 26000 does this within the broader library of related standards
that focus on one aspect of social responsibility, such as the Global
Reporting Initiative Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (for public
disclosure), AccountAbility 1000 series (for assurance), and ISO 14001 (for
environmental management), as well as initiatives like the United Nations
Global Compact, Equator Principles, and Millennium Development Goals,
which provide far-reaching aspirations but little implementation guidance.
ISO 26000 closes the gaps in these and other global and geography- and
sector-specific tools by providing guidance that can be applied by any type
of organization at any point along the social responsibility journey. For
these reasons, we believe ISO 26000 can be a catalyst for significant change
in many organizations. However, it is not a step-by-step guide. Some read-
ers of the standard might find it difficult to know where to start and how to
use ISO 26000 to implement social responsibility. We hope this book will
help do that by providing practical strategies, tools, and examples for using
ISO 26000 to integrate social responsibility into your organization.
1.2 OUR APPROACH
The book is structured to help you navigate ISO 26000 and to provide
succinct practical information for implementing the guidance provided by
the standard. The book is akin to a GPS that speaks point-to-point guidance
to you, the social responsibility driver, as you help your organization set and
move toward its social responsibility goals based on the broader map that
ISO 26000 provides.
We want to be very clear that the book should in no way be construed
as supporting certification to ISO 26000. ISO has emphatically stated that
ISO 26000 provides guidance only and is not designed for certification—
and reputable certification bodies will comply with that policy. However,
the book contains terminology that some of you may associate with certifi-
able management systems. The reason for using this terminology is that ISO
26000 encourages organizations to integrate social responsibility into their
existing systems, and such management systems are common. However,
it should also be clear that using a certifiable management system to help
implement and integrate the guidance provided by ISO 26000 should not be
used to claim certification to ISO 26000.
Introduction and Approach 3
We have structured the chapters of this book based on our recommen-
dations for implementing the standard in an organization. The chapters do
not attempt to mimic the order of the clauses in the standard.
(cid:115) (cid:35)(cid:72)(cid:65)(cid:80)(cid:84)(cid:69)(cid:82)(cid:18)(cid:70)(cid:79)(cid:67)(cid:85)(cid:83)(cid:69)(cid:83)(cid:79)(cid:78)(cid:85)(cid:83)(cid:73)(cid:78)(cid:71)(cid:84)(cid:72)(cid:69)(cid:83)(cid:79)(cid:67)(cid:73)(cid:65)(cid:76)(cid:82)(cid:69)(cid:83)(cid:80)(cid:79)(cid:78)(cid:83)(cid:73)(cid:66)(cid:73)(cid:76)(cid:73)(cid:84)(cid:89)(cid:69)(cid:88)(cid:80)(cid:69)(cid:67)(cid:84)(cid:65)(cid:84)(cid:73)(cid:79)(cid:78)(cid:83)
and principles in ISO 26000 to develop or enhance social
responsibility policies and strategy. The chapter also introduces
many of the topics that are explained in greater detail in
later chapters.
(cid:115) (cid:35)(cid:72)(cid:65)(cid:80)(cid:84)(cid:69)(cid:82)(cid:19)(cid:80)(cid:82)(cid:79)(cid:86)(cid:73)(cid:68)(cid:69)(cid:83)(cid:77)(cid:85)(cid:67)(cid:72)(cid:79)(cid:70)(cid:84)(cid:72)(cid:69)(cid:68)(cid:69)(cid:84)(cid:65)(cid:73)(cid:76)(cid:69)(cid:68)(cid:73)(cid:77)(cid:80)(cid:76)(cid:69)(cid:77)(cid:69)(cid:78)(cid:84)(cid:65)(cid:84)(cid:73)(cid:79)(cid:78)(cid:71)(cid:85)(cid:73)(cid:68)(cid:65)(cid:78)(cid:67)(cid:69)
on topics that Chapter 2 has outlined. This includes the nuts and
bolts of stakeholder engagement, how to determine the significance
of your organization’s social responsibility issues, how your
organization might conduct a social responsibility gap analysis
against the standard’s guidance, and other topics.
(cid:115) (cid:35)(cid:72)(cid:65)(cid:80)(cid:84)(cid:69)(cid:82)(cid:20)(cid:68)(cid:73)(cid:83)(cid:67)(cid:85)(cid:83)(cid:83)(cid:69)(cid:83)(cid:72)(cid:79)(cid:87)(cid:89)(cid:79)(cid:85)(cid:82)(cid:79)(cid:82)(cid:71)(cid:65)(cid:78)(cid:73)(cid:90)(cid:65)(cid:84)(cid:73)(cid:79)(cid:78)(cid:67)(cid:65)(cid:78)(cid:67)(cid:79)(cid:77)(cid:77)(cid:85)(cid:78)(cid:73)(cid:67)(cid:65)(cid:84)(cid:69)
about social responsibility, including ongoing communications and
the practicalities of what is commonly referred to as sustainability
reporting.
The book also does not attempt to provide a line-by-line interpretation of
ISO 26000 because the standard’s guidance is mostly clear and we did not
want to write a 500-page book to interpret a 106-page standard. Nonethe-
less, we do strive to work from what the standard provides by, where practi-
cable, referencing its clauses to begin the discussion of a topic.
The standard is somewhat repetitive on topics such as stakeholder
engagement, due diligence, social responsibility integration, and the impor-
tance of contributing to sustainable development. There are two good
reasons for the repetition: the topics are sufficiently important to war-
rant repetition, and they need to be reiterated to provide context or other
information.
We use a range of tools in the book that we hope you find useful. One
of these, the sequence of steps, warrants an introduction. As noted, the stan-
dard is by design not a management system standard; it provides guidance,
not the prescriptive requirements of a management system standard. There-
fore, we felt that you might benefit from a structured plan for implementing
the standard’s guidance—the sequence of steps is such a plan. Some of you
may also find the sequence of steps useful when deciding how to read the
standard. However, in no way should the sequence of steps be seen as pro-
moting certification to ISO 26000. The sequence of steps is designed solely
4 Chapter One
to help you better understand and efficiently take advantage of what ISO
26000 offers. Table 1.1 lays out the structured plan along with the chapters
of the book and the clauses of the standard that you may find most useful
for each step.
It is important to note that the sequence of steps is presented to help
overcome paralysis by analysis—it is designed to get you planning, mov-
ing, and using the standard. The steps that your organization follows may
be sequenced differently from what we suggest. In practice, many of the
activities listed occur in parallel, not in series. For example, top manage-
ment (the standard uses the term “senior leadership”) may be reviewing
social responsibility strategy at a high level while a core team is convening,
Table 1.1 Suggested steps for implementing ISO 26000.
Most relevant
Sequence ISO 26000 PDCA
of steps Step purpose Chapter clauses cycle
Conduct a To understand Chapter 2 Clauses 4, Plan
self-assessment what’s working 7.2, 7.3.3
well, determine the
destination on the
social responsibility
continuum, and
set objectives
Identify and To provide for Chapter 2 Not covered
build the team for ongoing directly in a
coordination and specific clause
guidance of social
responsibility
strategy
development and
implementation
Begin To understand their Chapter 2 Clause 5.3
engaging social responsibility introduces,
internal and interests and and
external concerns and begin Chapters
stakeholders communicating the 3 and 4
organization’s provide
social responsibility more
objectives and detailed
strategies guidance
Continued