The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has circulated a proposal for a new field of activity on social responsibility. As the U.S. member body to ISO, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) invites all relevant and interested stakeholders to submit comments on the proposal by the end of the business day onAugust 25, 2017.
The proposal, submitted by the Swedish Standards Institute (SIS), details that a proposed technical committee (TC) on Social Responsibility would continue to build on the success of ISO 26000:2010, Guidance on Social Responsibility, a standard that has been adopted as a national standard in more than 80 of the ISO member countries.
Social responsibility, as defined in ISO 26000, is the responsibility of an organization for the impacts of its decisions and activities on society and the environment, through transparent and ethical behavior 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 behavior; and
- Is integrated throughout the organization and practiced in its relationships
All interested stakeholders are invited to review the proposal, which includes a listing of relevant existing documents at the international, regional and national levels, in addition to affected stakeholder categories, and how they will each benefit from or be impacted by the proposed deliverables.
Please submit comments to Steve Cornish, ANSI senior director of international policy ([email protected]) by close of business onAugust 25, 2017. Based on the input received, the AIC will then be asked to approve an ANSI position and comments to be submitted to ISO before its October 10, 2017 deadline for voting on this proposal.
ANSI has published an explanatory information document outlining the process used to develop U.S. positions on issues and activities under consideration by ISO and IEC.