Background

A new Working Group to accomplish the task of developing an international standard on Social Responsibility was created, in September 2004, by ISO’s Technical Management Board
(ISO/TMB) to which the WG answer directly. The historical background is as follows:

2001
An increasing number of consumers are expressing their concern regarding the social integrity of corporations in their operations in the global marketplace. In 2001, ISO's Committee on consumer policy (ISO/COPOLCO) starts a feasibility study on standards for corporate social responsibility and launches an online forum to gather stakeholder views. The forum was hosted by the Canadian office for consumer affairs and was set up to facilitate worldwide discussion of the possible role of standards in defining the elements of corporate social responsibility. It was designed to provide a mechanism for increasing awareness and promoting constructive discussion of new and existing corporate social responsibility initiatives and their relevance to existing or potential standards projects.

2003
In February 2003, the Strategic Advisory Group, established by the TMB to examine the question of whether standardization work by ISO could add value to already existing programmes for the range of issues coming under the scope of what has come to be termed "Corporate Social Responsibility" presented recommendations to ISO. One of the recommendations that the group put forward was that any work by ISO should address the social responsibility not only of business corporations, but also of all types of organization. As a result of that any possible ISO social responsibility deliverables should be referred to without organizational specification.

2004
In April 2004, the Strategic Advisory Group launched an extensive report and final recommendations which included an overview of social responsibility initiatives worldwide and identified issues that should be taken into account by ISO.

In June 2004, ISO held a conference on social responsibility hosted by the Swedish Standards Institute (SIS) in Stockholm, Sweden. The conference drew 355 participants from 66 countries, including 33 developing countries, representing the major stakeholder groups: business, government, labour, consumers, and non-governmental organizations. The conference discussed whether ISO should proceed with work addressing the social responsibility of organizations and, if so, what form it should take. The decision in favour of developing an ISO guideline standard on SR was taken by the ISO/TMB at its meeting, just after the conference, on 24-25 June 2004. At its meeting, the TMB concluded on the basis of the consistent and supportive feedback from the conference that a further feasibility study was unnecessary and that the SR work should be undertaken immediately. It accepted the recommendations from the Strategic Advisory Group and addressed them in its resolution 35/2004 to launch ISO work on SR.

ISO national member bodies were asked to submit candidates for a twinned leadership and secretariat to the ISO working group on Social Responsibility, linking developed and developing countries. In September 2004 the secretariat duties was given to the national standardization bodies of Brasil (ABNT) and Sweden (SIS).

In October 2004, ISO issued a New Work item Proposal for development of a SR standard, to its member bodies for a three months voting period. For the proposal will be accepted if approved by a simple majority of the members voting and a commitment by at least five members to participate actively in the work.

In January 2005 the ballot on the New Work Item Proposal was finalized with a broad majority in favour of starting the development of a standard for Social Responsibility.