At the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit on 25 September 2015, world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030.
The SDGs are a new, universal set of goals, targets and indicators that UN member states will be expected to use to frame their agendas and political policies over the next 15 years. They follow and expand on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were agreed by governments in 2001 and expired at the end of 2015.
So where does ISO 26000 on social responsibility fit into the picture? According to Professors Adriana Rosenfeld and Adriana Norma Martínez from the National University of Luján in Argentina, ISO 26000 addresses sustainable development and the post-2015 development agenda in a coherent and complete way. The core subjects and issues defined by the ISO standard include human rights, labour practices, the environment, fair operating practices, consumer issues and community involvement, which encompass, among other things, the principles of equal opportunities and non-discrimination. ISO 26000 provides a visible, influential and pragmatic way to impulse change, and meet the SDGs. Here, Rosenfeld and Martínez highlight the reasons why.