ISO 26000: the business guide

Lars Moratis, Timo Cochius. Greenleaf  Publishing. Paperback, 206 pages.
£29.95/€40/$55.00

There’s a certain inevitability about the rapid emergence of  this ‘guidance to the guidance’, which follows just a few months after publication of the long-awaited ISO 26000 standard on social responsibility – and actually runs to more pages than the guidance itself.  

Compared to benchmarks set by some of its peers, ISO 26000 is a jargon-free and understandable document, so the question has to be asked as to whether this first publication on the subject is really needed.

Happily, the book answers that question for itself by  setting ISO 26000 in  some kind of context and  by putting forward many practical tips – such as on how to set up stakeholder panels – that the standard does not provide.

Crucially, the authors – two CSR consultants from the Netherlands – also offer what they describe as ‘a compass’ to identify where an organization stands in relation to ISO26000 at the current time. This takes the form of an annexe which provides a ‘quick scan’ survey to be filled out by readers – who can then produce a total score for their company that shows roughly where it stands
in relation to the standard’s ideal position.

This is especially useful given that those most likely to benefit from using the book will be relatively new to the CSR field. However, even old hands would do well to have a copy of the guide in one hand while consulting the standard in the other.

Peter Mason