Climbing the Tower of Babel: A Universal Definition of SR?

One of the biggest challenges for ISO and indeed people working in social responsibility, is to come up with a universally accepted definition of "social responsibility" as it applies to all types of organizations throughout the world. This is important so that all parties can understand exactly what we're talking about when we speak of "social responsibility" - and that and international standard is meaningful.

Much progress was made in this area at the most recent meeting in Lisbon where the international working group proposed the following definition for Social Responsibility:

"The actions of an organization to take responsibility for the impacts of its activities on society and the environment, where these actions:

• are consistent with the interests of society and sustainable development;
• are based on ethical behaviour, compliance with applicable law and intergovernmental instruments; and,
• are integrated into the ongoing activities of the organization."

While this definition has not been finalized it does give useful guidance to organizations in that it demonstrates that social responsibility is tied to the concept of sustainable development and that it includes much more than simply philanthropic activities.