Halfway through, the SDGs will have their management standard

You have probably already heard of the SDGs. The SDGs are the Sustainable Development Goals, a series of 17 major projects formulated as calls to action to eradicate poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all human beings live in peace and prosperity. They succeeded what was previously grouped together in Agenda 21, a major UN program adopted at the end of the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.

Formalized in 2015 with a target date set for 2030, the SDGs are now halfway to completion. This is an opportunity for international standardization stakeholders to turn them into a voluntary standard! This is the aim of the proposal put forward by Danish Standards, the Danish equivalent of AFNOR. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), in which AFNOR represents France (and DS represents Denmark), has given the green light to set up a standardization committee, called ISO/PC 343, to draft the text. The standard, which will be called ISO 53001, will provide guidelines for building a management system on the subject, i.e., describing the organizational process required to plan, implement, monitor, and adjust actions aimed at a particular SDG, in a spirit of continuous improvement.

A supplement to ISO 26000

Contrary to expectations, despite their incantatory nature, the SDGs are gaining support from economic actors. Many see them as a guide for their CSR approach, a set of simple and tangible objectives that enable them to organize their actions and communication at a time when public opinion increasingly expects them to set an example and deliver extra-financial performance. In this respect, the SDGs complement the ISO 26000 standard, a voluntary standard that provides a seven-point questionnaire matrix for implementing a CSR approach. The Danish project does not intend to replace ISO 26000, which continues to be the benchmark in its original 2010 version, but without claiming to provide the keys to implementing a management system. It should also be noted that AFNOR publishes a guide, entitled FD X30-037, which provides a table of equivalences between ISO 26000 and SDGs. Furthermore, as indicated by the suffix 1 In the ISO 53001 wording, this standard will be certifiable. As with quality, the environment, energy, or occupational health and safety, a company that manages SDGs well will be able to showcase this!

An initial meeting is scheduled at ISO on June 20 and 21, 2023, primarily to validate the title and scope of the project. Do you represent a large group, a medium-sized company, an SME, or even a microbusiness? Do you work in CSR, purchasing, QSE, or OHS? You have everything to gain by getting involved in standardization: the rules of the game are being written today. And certainly not without you!