ISO 26000: The Toyota Motor Corporation’s CSR Approaches in India

Abstract

The strong global focus to bring business and society together for important economic synergies with regards to social, environmental and economic development, has led to a number of academic and practitioner discourses to charter Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) towards the society in which they operate. Tokens of initiatives towards this outcome are abounding. For example, in the form of the Global Reporting Initiative (voluntary reporting), the AA1000 license (voluntary international principles-based standard) and legal mandates passed in various emerging economies like India, Mauritius and Indonesia. One of the recent efforts is the International Standards Organisation’s (ISO) ‘Social Responsibility’ guidance as prescribed in ISO 26000. Different from other ISO standards like the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 (quality and environmental standard), ISO 26000 is not certifiable. Instead, it targets to guide and clarify the universality of the CSR concept and its components in a dynamic global marketplace (irrespective of corporate location or size). However, being a relatively new standard (launched, 2010) coinciding with systemic market turbulence (the Global Financial Crisis aftermath), ISO 26000 implementation is likely to take time even among firms with top ranking CSR practices. To contribute to the understanding and applicability of this latest CSR framework, this paper assesses and exemplifies how one well known multinational company, TOYOTA, operates its CSR efforts in India with respect to the ISO 26000 principles and requirements (organizational governance, human rights, labour practices, the environment, fair operating practices, consumer issues; and community involvement and development). This paper, also provides valuable insight for other MNCs operating in India via a benchmark of ‘how-to’ comply with the Indian CSR legislation based on Toyota’s recognized and award winning efforts (‘Asia’s Best CSR Practices Award’).