The Corporate Responsibility Code Book

The Corporate Responsibility Code Book has become the go-to guide for companies trying to understand the landscape of corporate responsibility and searching for their own, unique route towards satisfying diverse stakeholders. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. A company may face quite different challenges if it operates in more than one part of the world. And yet stakeholders, especially consumers and investors, are keen for some degree of comparability with which they can evaluate corporate performance. There are countervailing forces at work within corporate responsibility: on the one hand is the need for convergence in order to simplify the large numbers of codes and standards; and, on the other hand, the need to foster diversity and innovation.

Many of the best codes of conduct and standards are not well known, while some CR instruments that are well disseminated are not terribly effective. Some comprehensive codes of conduct achieve nothing, while other quite vague codes of conduct become well embedded into the organization and foster innovation and change. This landmark book explains the best CR instruments available, and distils their most valuable elements.

In the fully revised third edition, Deborah Leipziger widens her lens to provide detailedanalysis of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the Gender EqualityPrinciples and ISO 26000 while updating other key tools such as the Equator Principles, the OECD guidelines and GRI’s new G4 framework.

The codes in this book cover a wide range of issues, including human rights, labour rights,environmental management, corruption and corporate governance. The book also includeshow-to (or process) codes focusing on reporting, stakeholder engagement and assurance.

Foreword Sir Mark Moody Stuart

A note to readers

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Introduction to the third edition

Executive summary of corporate responsibility initiatives

1. Values, principles, norms, codes and standards

Part 1: Global Initiatives

2. The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises

3. The UN Global Compact

4. ISO 26000

Part 2: Human rights

5. IFC Performance Standards to be included Part II Human Rights

6. The Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

7. The Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights

Part 3: Labour rights

8. International Labour Organization: Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy

9. Social Accountability 8000

10. Fair Labor Association: Workplace Code of Conduct

11. Ethical Trading Initiative: Base Code

12. Other major initiatives in the clothing industry

Part 4: Health issues

13. ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work

Part 5: From environment to sustainability

14. The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development

Part 6: Combating corruption

15. The OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions

16. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative

17. The Business Principles for Countering Bribery

Part 7: Corporate governance

18. The OECD Principles of Corporate Governance

Part 8: Company codes of conduct

19. Shell’s General Business Principles

20. Johnson & Johnson’s ‘Credo’

Part 9: Framework and sectoral agreements

21. Framework agreements

22. Sectoral agreements

23. The Equator Principles

24. The Principles for Responsible Investment

Part 10: Gender

25. The Gender Equality Principles

Part 11: Implementation

26. AccountAbility 1000 Series: AA1000 AccountAbility Principles Standard 2008

27. AccountAbility 1000 Assurance Standard

28. The Global Reporting Initiative29. ISO 14001

Part 12: Visions for the future

30. An emerging consensus

This book about Corporate Responsibility is the most authoritative, comprehensive, informative— and yes, practical—guide for corporations, governments, and human communities worldwide that has ever been written ... Leipziger deserves our applause for collecting, describing, and interpreting these CR codes that deliver a central message to corporations, governments, and human communities everywhere: “Ready, aim … comply!” - http://www.williamcfrederick.com/current-book-reviews.html - William C. Frederick, February 2016