GENEVA – AccountAbility, the international non-profit think tank and standards setter, announced today that it will be developing a guide to help organizations better understand the linkages between the new ISO 26000 standard and the AA1000 suite of sustainability standards.

"The publication and launch of ISO 26000 is a welcome achievement", according to David Simpson, Director of Standards and Collaborative Governance for AccountAbility. "As a participant in the development of this standard from the very beginning, we are pleased to see ISO 26000 finally come to fruition and believe that its release represents an important step forward in providing organizations of all types with much needed guidance on a very broad range of issues associated with social responsibility".

It is anticipated that ISO 26000 will have an important impact in creating a greater awareness of the issues around social responsibility among organizations in the private, public and non-profit sectors and also in introducing organizations to other relevant tools and standards in this space. AccountAbility also expects that ISO 26000 will increase the uptake of other standards in this space as organizations seek to enhance their social responsibility and sustainability performance.

"ISO 26000 is very much in line with AccountAbility's family of sustainability standards and we expect that it will further support uptake of the AA1000 standards – especially as organizations seek practical tools to implement aspects of social responsibility", explains Simpson.

A user-friendly guide will help organizations better understand the complementary elements and linkages between ISO 26000 and the AA1000 suite of standards.

These complementary elements include that:

  • ISO 26000 highlights many of the same principles evident in the AccountAbility Principles Standard that many organizations are using to stimulate transformational change in areas of social responsibility and sustainability;
  • ISO 26000 suggests the use of assurance processes to enhance the credibility of the information, which will naturally lead organizations towards the AA1000 Assurance Standard;
  • ISO 26000 lists stakeholder engagement as a fundamental practice of social responsibility, while the AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard provides an open source framework for organizations to improve the quality of the design, implementation and assessment of their stakeholder engagement practices.

The AccountAbility guide will be released later this year free of charge on the AccountAbility website.

About the AA1000 Series
AccountAbility's AA1000 series are principles-based standards for helping organisations become more accountable, responsible and sustainable. The revisions to AA1000 AS and AA1000 APS were completed in 2008 and the revision process for to AA1000 SES will be completed in the first quarter of next year. All standards are available for download free of charge at AccountAbility's website: www.accountability.org

For more information please contact:

Kurt Ramin
Director, Standards
AccountAbility
T: +44 (0)207 549 0400
W: www.accountability.org