Form 1: Proposal for a new field oftechnical activity
Circulation date:2017-06-18
Closing date for voting:2017-10-10

Reference number(to be given by Central Secretariat)

Proposer :ISO/TS/PSIS Swedish Standards InstituteTS/P267

A proposal for a new field of technical activity shall be submitted to the Central Secretariat, which willassign it a reference number and process the proposal in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives(part 1, subclause 1.5). The proposer may be a member body of ISO, a technical committee,
subcommittee or project committee, the Technical Management Board or a General Assemblycommittee, the Secretary-General, a body responsible for managing a certification system operating
under the auspices of ISO, or another international organization with national body member ship.
Guidelines for proposing and justifying a new field of technical activity are given in the ISO/IEC
Directives (part 1, Annex C).
The proposal (to be completed by the proposer)
Title of the proposed new committee (The title shall indicate clearly yet concisely the new
field of technical activity which the proposal is intended to cover.)Social Responsibility

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Scope statement of the proposed new committee (The scope shall precisely define th elimits of the field of activity. Scopes shall not repeat general aims and principles governing
the work of the organization but shall indicate the specific area concerned.)Standardization in the field of social responsibility**As defined in ISO 26000:
Social responsibility
responsibility of an organization for the impacts of its decisions and activities on society
and the environment, through transparent and ethical behaviour 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 ofbehaviour; and• is integrated throughout the organization and practised in its relationships
Excluded: areas that are dealt with by other technical committees
NOTE: This TC will only develop ISO deliverables in areas that are outside the scope of other existing
ISO Technical Committees. Therefore, the main focus areas are general methods for s ocial
responsibility management, Human Rights, Fair Operating Practices, Consumer issues Sustainable
Consumption, and Community Involvement and Development.

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Proposed initial programme of work (The proposed programme of work shall correspond toand clearly reflect the aims of the standardization activities and shall, therefore, show therelationship between the subject proposed. Each item on the programme of work shall bedefined by both the subject aspect(s) to be standardized (for products, for exampl e, theitems would be the types of products, characteristics, other requirements, data to besupplied, test methods, etc.). Supplementary justification may be combined with particular
items in the programme of work. The proposed programme of work shall also suggest
priorities and target dates.

The proposed TC SR would continue to build on the success of ISO 26000:2010 Guidance on Social
Responsibility, a standard that has been adopted as national standard in more than 80 of the ISO
member countries. Many additional ISO deliverables have been developed, in for example projectcommittees, based on ISO 26000 and a new TC SR can help companies and other organizations
better understand and use exiting and additional standards in the field of social responsibili ty. The
programme of work is focused on combining areas that have been standardized or are in need ofstandardization:
ISO 26000:2010 Guidance on Social Responsibility:
Maintain and act on results of systematic reviews
Guidance and promotion, including the existing linkage documents between ISO 26000:2010 andother international documents UN Global Compact, OECD MNE Guidelines, IIRC, UN Sustainable
Development Goals and Global Reporting Standards. Develop new linkage documents, most urgently
with UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
IWA 26:2017 Using ISO 26000 guidance on social responsibility in ISO Management systems:
Maintain and act on any input from relevant stakeholders
IWA 9:2011 Framework for managing sustainable development in business districts
Maintain and act on any input from relevant stakeholders
Future work related to two standards closely related to ISO 26000, ( which were developed inproject committees that have been disbanded):
ISO 20400:2017 Sustainable Procurement – Guidance (AFNOR/ABNT)ISO 20121:2012 Event sustainability management system (BSI).
Maintain and act on any input from relevant stakeholders
Future work related to Guides in connection with ISO 26000: ISO Guide 82:2014 Guidelines for
integrating sustainability in standards and ISO Guide 71:2014 Guide for addressing accessibility instandards
Note : the development of guides is a matter usually under TMB responsi bility and this is just a
proposal to be approved by TMB
New Work Item Proposals:
Any new work item needs to be approved by the ISO committee members. However a preliminary list
will be discussed with members and relevant stakeholders in order to develop a market relevantbusiness plan and may contain the following :1. New Work Item Proposal: Self-declaration of Social Responsibility – Guidance
2. New Work Item Proposal: Social Responsibility for SMEs and SMOs – Guidance
3. New Work Item Proposal: Social Responsibility Audits – Guidance

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Indication(s) of the preferred type or types of deliverable(s) to be produced under theproposal (This may be combined with the "Proposed initial programme of work" if moreconvenient.)
This TC will consider all types of ISO deliverables; including requirements, guidance andspecifications.

A listing of relevant existing documents at the international, regional and national levels.
(Any known relevant document (such as standards and regulations) shall be list ed,regardless of their source and should be accompanied by an indication of theirsignificance.)
In the area of the proposed scope of this TC SR there are hundreds of local, regional andinternational documents that are relevant to an organization wanti ng to improve their performancein Social Responsibility. Some of the most significant documents are listed in for example Annex
A of ISO 26000:2010 (approximately 100 references) and its bibliography (more than 150references), and the bibliographies of the other existing standards mentioned in the proposed work
programme.
Since publication of ISO 26000 in 2010 there have been many new in ternational documents
produced or updated, some examples are:

TheUnited
Nations
2030
Agendafor
SustainableDevelopment
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld
United Nations guiding principles for business and human rights: https://businesshumanrights.org/en/un-guiding-principles
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): OECD Guidelines for
multinational enterprises https://www.oecd.org/corporate/mne/

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A statement from the proposer as to how the proposed work may relate to or impact on
existing work, especially existing ISO and IEC deliverables. (The proposer should explain how
the work differs from apparently similar work, or explain how duplication and conflict will beminimized. If seemingly similar or related work is already in the scope of other committees ofthe organization or in other organizations, the proposed scope shall distinguish between theproposed work and the other work. The proposer shall indicate whether his or her proposal
could be dealt with by widening the scope of an existing committee or by establishing a newcommittee.)Managing social responsibility involves a holistic integrated appr oach towards a broad range of issues
with the aim to contribute to sustainable environmental, social and economic development. The
proposed TC SR will therefore need to discuss several issues that are currently within the scope ofother TCs but will only produce deliverables that are within the scope of TC SR.
Annex A to this document describes the seven core subjects and 37 issues that constitute the mainapproach of ISO 26000:2010. An organization behaving in a socially responsible manner should
identify in which of these issues the organization has a relevant an d significant impact, taking
stakeholder interests and international norms of behaviour into consideration.
ISO already has several TCs that produce standards and other deliverables that help organizations
manage several of these issues which is why these are excluded from the proposed TC SR. Th reeof the seven core subjects (number 1,3 and 4) are excluded from the proposed TC SR and four(number 2,5,6 and 7) are proposed to be included:
1. Organizational governance (part of ISO/TC 309 Governance of organizations)
2. Human Rights
3. Labour Practices (part of other work items in ISO, e.g. ISO/PC 283 Occupational health andsafety management)
4. The Environment (part of ISO/TC 207 Environmental Management)
5. Fair Operating Practices
6. Consumer Issues, only the issue of sustainable consumption is included
7. Community Involvement and Development
If the proposed TC SR identifies social responsibility issues in need of standardization that are closeto the scope of other TCs, it will first discuss with the concerned TC and suggest a joint working group.
Examples of other TCs that could be interested in working together on social responsibility i ssues
include quality management, environmental management, organizational governance, sustainable
cities and communities, security and resilience, risk management, food safety, energy management.
None of the existing TCs are foreseen to be able to expand their scope to include the scope or work
programme proposed for the new TC SR.

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A listing of relevant countries where the subject of the proposal is important to theirnational commercial interests.
This proposal was developed after having consulted stakeholders in several ISO member bodies.
The proposer, SIS/Sweden, is willing to carry the TC SR Secretariat and is open for proposals for
future twinning.
The number of countries with an interest in this new TC SR is estimated to be similar to that former
Working Group Social Responsibility 2005-2010, 100 countries, especially those more than 80
countries that have adopted ISO 26000 as national standard, the many countries that haveadopted ISO 20121 Event Sustainability Management system, and the more than 35 countries thatrecently finalized ISO 20400 Sustainable Procurement – Guidance.

A listing of relevant external international organizations or internal parties (other ISO and/orIEC committees) to be engaged as liaisons in the development of the deliverable(s). (Inorder to avoid conflict with, or duplication of efforts of, other bodies, it is important toindicate all points of possible conflict or overlap. The result of any communication withother interested bodies shall also be included.)Internal ISO liaisons:
The new TC SR could establish liaison with ISO/TC 309 Governance of organizations, ISO TC/207
Environmental Management, ISO/TC 34 Food management, ISO/TC 159 Ergonomics, ISO/TC 176
Quality Management and quality assurance, ISO/TC 268 Sustainable Cities and Communities.
These technical committees all have ISO deliverables that refer to ISO 26000 and socialresponsibility.
External liaisons:During the development of ISO 26000 approximately 40 international organizations were Dliaisons to the process. In the process of developing ISO 20400 at least seven D-liaisonsparticipated. Similar for ISO 20121.
Most of these more than 50 international organizations are likely interested in participating in anew TC SR. Examples are Global Reporting Initiative, UN WG on Business and Human Rights,
OECD, WHO, European Commission, ISEAL.

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A simple and concise statement identifying and describing relevant affected stakeholder
categories (including small and medium sized enterprises) and how they will each benefit
from or be impacted by the proposed deliverable(s).

Relevant affected stakeholders are found in all of the seven categories of the ISO General Directoryin the same way as was the case for ISO 26000, ISO/PRF 20400 (sustainable procurement) and ISO
20121:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Industry and commerce, including SMEs
Government
Consumers
LabourAcademy and research bodies
Standards application
Non-governmental organizations, including SMOs

These stakeholders will benefit from being able to participate in this new TC SR as they are using
one or more of the existing ISO deliverables that are developed and maintained by the proposed TCSR.

An expression of commitment from the proposer to provide the committee secretariat if theproposal succeeds.

SIS is committed to provide the Secretariat if the proposal is accepted.

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Purpose and justification for the proposal. (The purpose and justification for the creation ofa new technical committee shall be made clear and the need for standardization in thisfieldshall be justified. Clause C.4.13.3 of Annex C of the ISO/IEC Directive s, Part 1 contains amenu of suggestions or ideas for possible documentation to support and purpose andjustification of proposals. Proposers should consider these suggestions, but they are notlimited to them, nor are they required to comply strictly with them. What is most important isthat proposers develop and provide purpose and justification information that is mostrelevant to their proposals and that makes a substantial business case for the market
relevance and the need for their proposals. Thorough, well-developed and robust purpose andjustification documentation will lead to more informed consideration of proposals andultimately their possible success in the ISO IEC system.)

All ISO standards help companies and organizations manage and improve their contributions tosustainable environmental, social and economic development. The individual contribution tosustainable development and long term future sustainability is called the social responsibility of anorganization (CSR for corporations).
In 2010 ISO membership published the world’s first International Standard on Social Responsibility:
ISO 26000:2010 Guidance on Social Responsibility. According to the more than 450
recommendations in this popular standard, every organization can contribute to sustainable
development through certain methods and in 7 core subjects with 37 issues (see annex A).
There are many standards and tools, in ISO or outside, that offer guidance or requirements to help
companies/organizations in parts of these seven core subjects of ISO 26000. ISO membership hasfor example already set up Technical Committees in two of the core subjects: Environment (TC 207)
and Governance of organizations (TC 309).
This new TC Social Responsibility focuses on maintaining and developing IS O deliverables relating
to the parts of social responsibility that are not yet covered by existing ISO standardization: methods
for social responsibility management, Human Rights, Fair Operating Practices, Consumer Issues(sustainable consumption), Community Involvement and Development.
The suggested TC work programme is not intended to replace or negate existing national orinternational policy, regulation, legislation or international norms of behaviour, but to support it.
Around the world there are hundreds of SR/CSR initiatives and there is a need to help companies
and organizations, especially SMEs/SMOs, to decipher and align tools and definitions. SR/CSR iscurrently a booming area with lots of research and development. ISO deliverables in this field c ancontribute to a more predictable global market.

Signature of the proposer
Karin Lindmark, Acting Director Standardization at SIS, Swedish Standards InstituteFurther information to assist with understanding the requirements for the items above can be foundin the Directives, Part 1, Annex C.

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Annex A:
The seven core subjects and thirty-seven issues of Social Responsibility in ISO 26000:2010

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