How can you align your sustainability framework with international standards?

1 Why align with international standards?

Aligning your sustainability framework with international standards can help you gain credibility, trust, and recognition from your stakeholders, including customers, investors, employees, suppliers, regulators, and the public. By following the best practices and principles of established standards, you can ensure that your framework is relevant, comprehensive, transparent, and accountable. Moreover, you can benefit from the expertise, guidance, and support of the organizations that develop and promote these standards, as well as the network of peers and partners that use them.

2 What are some of the key international standards?

International standards address different aspects of CSR and sustainability, such as environmental, social, governance, human rights, ethics, reporting, and auditing. Of the most influential and widely used are the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), which encourages businesses to adopt 10 universal principles on human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption; the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework that provides a common language and methodology for measuring and reporting on the economic, environmental, and social impacts of an organization's activities; the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) network of national standards bodies that develops and publishes various standards for quality, environmental, social, and governance management systems; the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) nonprofit organization that develops and maintains industry-specific standards for disclosing material sustainability information to investors and other financial stakeholders; and the Social Accountability International (SAI) global organization that promotes social justice and human rights in workplaces through the SA8000 standard.

3 How to choose the right standards for your framework?

Choosing the right standards for your framework is not an easy task; you need to consider your organization's vision, mission, values, goals, strategy, stakeholders, risks, opportunities, and resources. Additionally, you should assess the relevance, applicability, compatibility, and credibility of the different standards for your industry, sector, region, and market. To help you decide on the best standards for your organization, here are some questions to consider: what are the main issues and impacts your organization faces or creates in terms of CSR and sustainability? What are the expectations and requirements of your stakeholders regarding your CSR and sustainability performance and disclosure? What are the benefits and costs of adopting or aligning with a certain standard? How does the standard align with your organization's culture, values, and strategy? Is it flexible and adaptable to your context and needs? And how widely recognized is it by peers, competitors, and authorities?

4 How to align your framework with the chosen standards?

Once you have selected the standards that fit your framework, you need to align your policies, practices, processes, and performance indicators with them. This may involve conducting a gap analysis to identify areas of alignment and improvement, developing or revising CSR and sustainability policies, objectives, targets, and action plans to reflect the standards' principles and criteria, implementing or enhancing management systems, procedures, controls, and tools to ensure the effective and efficient execution of your framework, collecting data and evidence to demonstrate compliance and performance according to the standards, and reporting and communicating your results and impacts to stakeholders using the formats and channels suggested by the standards.

5 How to review and improve your framework and alignment?

Aligning your framework with international standards is not a one-time exercise, but a continuous process of learning and improvement. To review and improve your framework and alignment, you should conduct internal audits and self-assessments to check the quality, consistency, and effectiveness. Additionally, seek external feedback and verification from third-party auditors or certifiers to validate and enhance your framework. Furthermore, benchmark your framework against the best practices of your peers, competitors, or leaders in your industry or sector. Additionally, engage with stakeholders to solicit their opinions, suggestions, and expectations on your framework and alignment. Lastly, update your framework to reflect the changes and developments in your organization, industry, sector, or standards.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?