International Standards Organization (ISO)
From www.entrepreneurstoolkit.org
The International Standards Organization (ISO) is a non-governmental organization and the world's largest developer of standards. ISO brings together the national standards institutes of 162 countries, one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system.
ISO has developed the ISO 14000 series of standards to measure environmental performance. The ISO 26000 guidelines are currently being developed to measure social impacts, and will be published in 2010.
ISO 14000
The ISO 14000 series of standards addresses various aspects of environmental management including: labeling, performance evaluation, life cycle analysis, communication and auditing. These standards proivde the basis for developing an environmental management system.
ISO 14000 can be used to:
- provide assurance to business owners and managers that activities having an impact on the environment are being properly managed;
- assure employees that they are working for an environmentally responsible organization;
- demonstrate environmental responsibility to external stakeholders;
- comply with environmental regulations; and
- verify an organization's claims about its own environmental policies, plans and actions.
ISO 26000
The ISO 26000 standard will provide guidance on managing and measuring social responsibility (SR) aspects. It will be published in 2010 and is intended for use by organizations of all types, in both public and private sectors, in developed and developing countries.
