Basis for sustainability

At first glance, many SMEs have little idea of what the concept of social responsibility has to do with their activities. However, if you take a closer look, they are often more committed to societal-social aspects than they themselves and their environment are aware of. The reason for this is that Swiss SMEs are often still personally managed by the owning family and therefore usually have a relatively close connection to the employees and their company locations.

Beyond the environment

Environmental activities have long been perceived and seen as the company's contribution to sustainability. However, sustainability has - for some time now and rightly so - been understood more and more broadly to include social-societal issues. These are aspects such as: How does a company deal with its

Elegant solution for SMEs

How do you deal with your employees? Are they treated fairly and non-discriminatorily? Is there equal pay for men and women? Are working conditions safe, healthy and motivating? And what about the supply chain? Is there a risk of human rights and basic working conditions being violated there? Is compliance with basic standards monitored? Is responsibility taken for the safety and ecology of products and is reference made to the needs of customers/consumers? What influence does the company have and what relationship does it maintain with the local community or region? These questions do not cover all possible aspects, but they do cover some important ones.

EMS as a starting point

In many cases, companies' attention to the issue of environmental protection led to the decision to introduce an environmental management system. As a rule, the main benefit of this introduction was the internal systematization of activities, which also brought the certainty that - through actual analysis and process control - no "blind spots" remained and that a driver for goal setting and further development of the commitment was installed. In addition, the EMS certificate according to ISO 14001 offered the possibility of presenting the company's commitment to the outside world. Why not extend this to include social sustainability aspects? An EMS offers an ideal basis for this, because it already provides most of the relevant elements for sustainability management, through which, among other things, processes for the collection and dissemination of data are established in the company.

The existing environmental management only needs to be supplemented and expanded in a meaningful way. This also applies to quality and occupational safety management, albeit to a lesser extent, since the structure is also in place here, but important sustainability aspects are not already covered in terms of content, as is the case with the EMS.

Where is there a need for action?

The basic elements of the EMS, which follow the steps PLAN - DO - CHECK - ACT ("management cycle"), can usually be extended quite easily to include topics from the socio-social sphere.

Sustainability aspects supplement

expand its activities in this area. However, the basic prerequisite is first of all an assessment of the company's position with regard to social responsibility (CSR). Various instruments exist for this purpose, which are based on the international guideline for social responsibility, ISO 26000. ISO 26000 deals with topics of social responsibility and procedures for their implementation in the company. Among other things, it describes seven core topics: Organizational Governance, Human Rights, Labor Practices, Environment, Fair Business and Operating Practices, Consumer Concerns, and Community Involvement. For implementation, stakeholder engagement is cited as an important practice. Two instruments for analysing CSR-related fields of action and activities have already been described in detail in previous MQ articles (see box).

Subsequently, appropriate priorities should be set from the entrepreneur's point of view, depending on where the company sees a corresponding need for action, is exposed to external requirements or sees opportunities to raise its profile. For an in-depth CSR analysis, it is appropriate to also record the views of selected stakeholder groups. This information can then also be used as the basis for developing a sustainability strategy.

From environmental to CSR policy

This analysis complements the environmental (U) relevance analysis to a full CSR analysis. The other elements of the environmental management system can now be expanded accordingly: The environmental policy is expanded into a CSR policy. For this purpose, the company can orientate itself on the developed priorities as well as on the basic principles of ISO 26000. The environmental indicators are expanded into CSR indicators. The indicators of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which is the internationally recognized standard for transparent sustainability reporting, should be taken into account. Similarly, the environmental targets are developed into CSR targets. Similarly unproblematic is the extension of environmental monitoring and internal audits to the entire sustainability area. Finally, the environmental management review is supplemented to become a CSR review. Figure 1 shows what this might look like.

As a rule, the process control for the CSR-relevant aspects of the company is somewhat more extensive. Depending on the field of activity and the priorities set, these are, for example, distribution

Certification becomes possible

The company may already have various (sub-)processes in place for these issues, depending on the company's existing commitment, such as the obligation and monitoring of suppliers with regard to human rights, the consideration of diversity and equal opportunity aspects in human resources management, the management of sponsorship of community activities, health management or the development and implementation of anti-corruption guidelines. Depending on the company's existing commitment, various (sub-)processes may already exist in the company for these topics.

If the elements shown in Figure 1 are integrated into the EMS and the stakeholders are also appropriately involved, a company can obtain external certification. The newly developed IQ-Net SR 10 standard, which refers to the requirements of ISO 26000 and links them to the management system cycle, can be used as a basis.

Communication and reporting

With these steps, sustainability management is largely implemented. Only one additional, but potentially very interesting element is missing: a communication of the commitment and the successes through public sustainability reporting. Here, too, there are clear synergies with the EMS. With the (internal) management review, an initial grid already exists which, although it only covers environmental aspects, can be the starting point for supplementing the other two sustainability aspects, social and corporate governance. The procedure is shown schematically in Figure 2.

Experience from our current consulting practice shows these synergies very clearly. Several companies we accompany have a certified EMS, which means that a larger set of sustainability management elements is already in place.

One company first conducted the CSR analysis process, including a stakeholder survey. This resulted in an important process of process control: communication with relevant stakeholders, in particular with the most important customers. A reporting structure was then created that combines EMS, GRI and customer requirements. Depending on the target group, a part of an overall report, which is also used as a management review, is produced.

Do and talk about it

excluded. This will be provided to the main customer with particularly high information requirements. A smaller part will be published as a sustainability report.

Another company has identified the public as its main target group. In this case, the key figures for social and corporate governance are first supplemented and then the strategy and goals are expanded accordingly. Using existing data and documents, this can be done efficiently and credibly at the same time. Based on this, a sustainability report will be prepared in accordance with the GRI version 3.1, which is currently still valid. In a later phase, the sustainability report will be adapted to the new GRI G4 version, as this requires greater involvement of the stakeholder groups.

We ourselves also go the

Path The success of this path is also demonstrated by our own Neosys AG sustainability report, which we have been producing for three years. The public report is currently the only GRI report in Switzerland, which at the same time (supplemented by an internal section) represents the EMS/ QMS management review and the company's annual report. It is also submitted as a progress report to the UN Global Compact. So here too, there are meaningful synergies.

Finally, the sustainability report can also be checked by the GRI to determine whether it meets its requirements in terms of the aspects it covers.