(ASQ: Milwaukee) -- A new standard on social responsibility (SR), ISO 26000—“Guidance on social responsibility” will be made available this November through the American Society for Quality (ASQ). ASQ serves as the U.S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG) secretariat to ISO Working Group SR, developers of ISO 26000.

The standard focuses on seven key aspects of social responsibility: organizational governance, community involvement and development, environment, fair operating practices, consumer issues, labor practices, and human rights. While ASQ embodies and supports all seven subjects, it initially is concentrating on the areas that will deliver the greatest value to the quality community: organizational governance, environment, and community involvement and development.

“Stakeholders are looking for a transparent, credible yardstick to determine how an entity measures up to its social responsibilities,” says Dorothy Bowers, past chair of the U.S. TAG for ISO 26000. “ISO 26000 will not only fulfill that need, but should also help entities achieve their missions and enhance their organizational strengths.”

Recognizing that organizational leaders increasingly seek to practice and demonstrate social responsibility, ASQ began working with leading advocates of social responsibility (SR) to partner on building an infrastructure to enable others to embrace and produce socially responsible practices in all areas of human endeavor.

Social responsibility is an ideology. Quality is the methodology to achieve sustainability and measure impact from existing organizational strategies, systems, practices, and processes. ASQ is developing concepts, tools, and techniques to help organizations achieve SR business results. As part of its growing effort to assume a leadership role locally and internationally in the SR movement, ASQ created the Socially Responsible Organization (SRO) initiative. Individuals and organizations interested in becoming a part of ASQ’s SRO initiative are encouraged to contact Sarah Tillmar at stillmar@asq.org or visit http://thesro.org/ for more information.

SR product portfolio

To assist organizations with implementation of the new SR standard, ASQ has also developed a portfolio of products and services. Access to this information can be found in the ASQ Knowledge Center’s Standards Central and in the Hot Topics of Quality. Resources include:

• A free webinar on ISO 26000, including an overview of SR by ASQ SR discussion board moderator Chad Vincent. Future webinars will be produced throughout 2010.
• Case studies on SR, including “Pathways to Social Responsibility”
• The 2011 ASQ International Social Responsibility Conference.
• Corporate Sustainability Planning Assessment Guide, by Donald Fisher (free webinar with the authors is available)
• Managing With Conscience for Competitive Advantage, by Pete Geissler
• Bringing Business Ethics to Life, by Bjørn Andersen
• Corporate Social Responsibility Excellence Criteria, by Tapio Aaltonen and Kari Tuominen
• Public Health Quality Improvement, by Ron Bialek, John W. Morton, and Grace L. Duffy
• ISO 26000 Explained (available fall 2010)