INNI

TC 207 Working Group 4 incorporated the comments received on its Draft International Standard ISO 14063 - Environmental Communications - Guidelines and Examples and has submitted the revised standard as FDIS to the ISO Central Secretariat for a two-month ballot. Considering that the DIS 14063 was approved by an almost unanimous majority of ISO member bodies, it is very likely that the FDIS will be published as an ISO standard in the second quarter of 2006.

Draft International Standard for Environmental Communications Approved [7/21/05]

In May 2005, ISO's Draft International Standard ISO 14063 - Environmental Communications - Guidelines and Examples was also approved by large majority of member countries, with 56 out of 57 countries voting to approve the DIS. Canada was the only country against advancing to the DIS stage, arguing among other things, that the inclusion of provisions relating to stakeholder engagement is beyond the intended scope of the standard. Technical Committee 207 Working Group 4 will now discuss comments submitted with the ballot, with a goal of preparing the FDIS by late this year and publishing the final standard by early 2006.

ISO Releases Draft International Standards on Greenhouse Gas Accounting and Environmental Communications [3/25/05]

ISO's Working Group on environmental communications has also released a DIS version of its standard, ISO 14063 - Environmental Communications - Guidelines and Examples for comment and balloting, with a deadline for comments (and votes by ISO member countries) of May 17, 2005.

The DIS or "enquiry" stage is the first time at which a draft ISO standard undergoes a review and ballot by the entire ISO membership, not just the member countries participating in Technical Committee producing it. Interested organizations can download the standards for the purpose of review at INNI's Draft International Standard page, and are encouraged to submit comments to their respective national standards bodies or the INNI Secretariat before the deadline noted above. ISO/TC 207's Working Groups on environmental communications will meet in mid-September in Madrid to discuss and incorporate the comments received and to prepare Final Draft International Standards for ballot. The Working Group hopes to publish their final ISO standards in early 2006.

Committee Draft of Environmental Communications Standard Circulated to TC 207 Members [11/24/03]

At its last meeting in Berlin in September 2003, TC 207 Working Group 4 (WG 4) agreed to propose elevating its document to the "committee draft" stage and to circulate the draft environmental communications standard (ISO/CD 14063) to the full TC 207 membership for review and comment. The next meeting of WG 4 will be held February 25 - 27, 2004 in Paris, at which time the group will deal with the comments received on ISO/CD 14063. For information on how to obtain ISO 14063 Committee Drafts, contact the INNI Secretariat at inni @ pacinst.org

More information

Environmental Communication Standard Update [8/5/03]

While TC 207's Working Group 4 (WG4) on Environmental Communications did not officially meet at the Bali plenary, an ad hoc group was charged with discussing approaches for including annexes in the ISO 14063 standard. The ad hoc group's recommendation to include three annexes in the standard will be discussed by the full WG at its next meeting in Berlin, Germany, September 8-10. The proposed annexes include: 1) examples illustrating different communication approaches, 2) a table with cross-references to the ISO 14000 family, and 3) a bibliography of available information sources.

Draft Standard Under Review [4/29/03]

Following its October 2002 meeting in Cancun, Mexico, TC 207 WG4 issued a third working draft of ISO 14063 for review and comment by member bodies. The most recent WG 4 meeting was held in London in February 2003 to discuss and incorporate the 180 pages of comments received on that draft. At the conclusion of the London meeting, several editorial groups were formed to further develop certain sections of the document. Once those sections are complete, the WG4 Secretary will disseminate the updated working draft for comment by beginning of May. Submissions received on working draft four will be compiled and circulated by the Secretary in mid-July.

Because of the substantial structural and conceptual changes made to the document in London, WG4 decided to reissue the document as a working draft, rather than attempt to vote on elevating it to the "committee draft" stage in its current state. The next WG 4 meeting will be held in September 2003 in Berlin, Germany. The final standard is still scheduled for completion in September 2004.

ISO 14063 and Other Environmental Reporting Initiatives [4/29/03]

It is becoming increasingly clear that the ISO 14063 standard will pose little, if any, threat to existing NGO-led environmental reporting guidelines, such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). When TC 207 began work on in the area of environmental reporting some NGOs feared the risk of inconsistencies with existing protocols or competition among them, however, these outcomes are becoming increasingly remote, based on decisions taken by WG4 at recent meetings. This is because the standard is becoming much broader in scope, with environmental reporting being only a part of an organization's overall environmental communications program. Furthermore, unlike existing guidelines, the ISO 14063 standard will not include any detailed guidance and/or requirements on the actual information that an organization should report to external stakeholders.

The Debate on Mandatory Requirements in ISO 14063 [4/29/03]

After two years of deliberations, experts developing the environmental communications standard, ISO 14063, have yet to reach consensus regarding whether the standard will, in fact, contain any minimum requirements for organizations that use it. At its most recent meeting in London in February 2003, the group agreed to defer the decision on whether mandatory elements, in the form of "shall" statements, will be included in the standard. The long-standing debate revolves around differences of opinion as to whether the standard should be used strictly as an internal guidance tool, or also have meaning for stakeholders external to the organization. NGOs and some government entities within the working group have argued in favor of minimum requirements, suggesting that they will serve as the credibility linchpin for external audiences that may wish to know what can be expected of organizations that eventually claim to be in accordance with the standard. The Pacific Institute agrees that minimum requirements are crucial if the standard is to add value for stakeholders external to the implementing organization. The next meeting of WG4 will be held in Berlin in early September 2003.

Environmental Communication on the Rise [10/30/02]

The proliferation of terms such as "corporate accountability," "disclosure," and "transparency" is not a phenomenon confined to the financial field, but also pertains to the environmental and social performance of companies. Both public and private organizations have begun to recognize environmental communication as an important environmental management tool that can assist in establishing and maintaining good relations with stakeholder groups. There are many forms of environmental communication depending on the stakeholders with whom organizations attempt to interact: employees, local communities, environmental groups, business partners, end-use consumers, lending institutions, insurance companies, current and prospective shareholders, and government, among others.

Over the last decade, external reporting in the form of annual corporate environmental reports has been rapidly gaining popularity. There has been an explosion in the number of such reports, as well as an increase in their length and content (i.e., social performance). Such reports are a response to a growing demand by an array of stakeholders for companies to commit to and demonstrate sound environmental practices. And while these parties have expectations for credible and meaningful information on companies' environmental performance, concern is mounting among some observers that there is an information overload, while the quality of the content is increasingly suspect. Inconsistent metrics and reporting formats, in addition to the tendency to prefer "flash" over content, may undermine the value and meaning of company environmental reporting to the public.

Development of Frameworks for Communicating Environmental Performance [10/30/02]

To help fill the need for credibility and comparability, numerous guidelines for corporate environmental reporting have been developed by various NGOs and governmental bodies. According to the European Commission, there are 15 different guidelines being used by companies producing environmental reports. The problem is that the majority of companies does not follow any one particular practice, but mix and match to meet individual needs. This array of approaches has led to initiatives to establish internationally recognized protocols that facilitate credibility and comparability of environmental reporting.

Perhaps the most recognized attempt at international standardization is the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which was launched in 1997 as a joint initiative of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) and United Nations Environmental Programme. GRI works to establish a common framework for reporting on sustainability issues through multi-stakeholder dialogue among public, private and government sectors. The first version of GRI's "Sustainability Reporting Guidelines" was published in 2000, and a revised version was made available in 2002. Based on the "Triple-Bottom-Line" concept, the Guidelines provide specific sets of indicators in economic, social and environmental categories, which are used to produce a sustainability report. Despite its short history, GRI has become the bases for the sustainability reports of many companies worldwide.

ISO's Environmental Communication Standard [10/30/02]

Putting an end to an almost decade-long debate as to whether to include an environmental reporting standard within the ISO 14000 series, Technical Committee 207 in May 2001 approved the development of a new standard in the area of environmental communication. In June of that year, a new Working Group (WG 4) was established to develop the standard, "Environmental Management-Environmental Communication - Guidelines and Examples," also known as ISO 14063. The U.S. and Swedish delegations in September 2001 delivered the first working draft of the standard.

ISO 14063 is a generic standard providing guidance to organizations regarding "what to consider" when developing an environmental communication program. It includes principles for environmental communication, such as clarity, transparency, and appropriateness, as well as techniques and processes for carrying out individual environmental communications.

The standard is intended for use by both organizations with or without an ISO 14001 environmental management system (EMS), and it is not intended for certification purposes. Since ISO 14001 does not include a reporting requirement, unlike similar standards such as Europe's Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS), there have been discussions within TC 207 since its creation regarding if and how to incorporate a reporting element within its work. Outside of ISO, many environmental groups and some within government have seen the absence of reporting requirement in ISO 14001 as a major shortfall of the standard, especially when compared with similar standards such as EMAS.

An ongoing debate throughout ISO 14063's development has been whether to include any baseline requirements (procedural or otherwise) as a part of the standard. Although some within WG4 are determined to make the standard strictly informational and as non-prescriptive as possible, others within the group are concerned that putting too much emphasis on flexibility might undermine the final standard's credibility and usefulness.

The final standard is scheduled for completion in September 2004.

Comparing ISO 14063 and GRI Guidelines [10/30/02]

Although both initiatives share the same overarching objectives - to provide a foundation for the sharing of credible and comparable environmental information - there are some major differences between them.

Perhaps most important is the make up of the stakeholders developing the respective guidelines. GRI is built on a multi-stakeholder foundation, including business, government, civil society and labor groups. In contrast, business, consultancies and national standards bodies dominate the ISO and have a disproportionate influence on the standards ISO produces. In addition to the way in which the respective standards are being produced, there are differences in the guidelines themselves.

Scope
· GRI Guidelines include social and economic reporting, as well as environmental, while ISO 14063 focuses only on environmental issues.
Target Audience
· GRI-based reports are directed primarily at external audiences, whereas ISO 14063 covers environmental communication both internally and external to the organization.
User
· The major user of the GRI Guidelines is typically large, multinational corporations. ISO 14063 is being written explicitly to appeal to small and medium-sized enterprises and to firms in developing countries, in addition to large multinationals.
Deliverable
· GRI Guidelines focus on written reports, whereas ISO 14063 will address environmental communication more generally.
Approach
· GRI provides guidance on what to report: ISO 14063 doesn't provide the content of the communication, but instead offers guidance on what should be considered in developing an environmental communication program.

Because of these differences in their scopes and methods, GRI Guidelines and ISO 14063 are in fact not real "competitors." Nor must they be exclusive of one another, but rather can be complementary: one provides guidance on developing an overall communication program and another on the content and format of information provided.
How exactly the developers of the new ISO standard on environmental communications will coordinate (and work to integrate) their efforts with existing standards initiatives like the GRI Guidelines remains an important, yet unanswered, question.