The latest help on CSR for smaller businesses arrives from Europe.

NORMAPME Director Sebastiano Toffaletti explained in his opening speech that the aim of the User Guide is to “help the European SMEs, our constituency, understand and implement ISO 26000”. This was highly acknowledged by the European Commission representative Thomas Dodd (@Tom_Dodd), who said that the document has a lot of potential to “bridge the gap between a global reference point on CSR (ISO 26000) and the enterprises”.

The following panel discussion focused on issues such as cost of the ISO 26000 and certification. For SME representatives it was important to reaffirm that ISO 26000 is a guidance standard and therefore not certifiable. However, national standards institutes can issue their own certifiable standards on CSR, which adds unnecessary costs and burdens to SMEs.

All participants agreed that further ways need to be explored to bring Social Responsibility closer to SMEs. The NORMAPME User Guide on ISO 26000 is one of them.

Here is a link to the NORMAPME User Guide for European SMEs on ISO 26000

www.normapme.eu

Twitter: @NORMAPME