Policies, Regulations, and Standards

Standards and Just and Sustainable Business

BSR’s advice, insight, and guidance for companies through our Membership and Advisory Services is founded upon well-established standards for just and sustainable business. We believe the following six globally agreed standards, which are directly applicable to business, provide the basic building blocks for most companies:

• The Science Based Targets Initiative Net-Zero Standard for setting climate change targets.
• The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights for the corporate responsibility to respect human rights.
• The International Sustainability Standards Board for reporting the impact of sustainability on enterprise value creation.
• The Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Reporting Standards for reporting the impact of the business on sustainability.
• The UN Global Compact and OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprise provide universal principles for all companies.

Further, there are various issue- and industry-specific principles, standards, and guidelines that we recommend companies adopt when appropriate for their circumstances, some of which we played a role in creating via our collaborative initiatives. These include, but are not limited to:

• The Global Network Initiative Principles and Implementation Guidelines on Privacy and Freedom of Expression.
• The Principles for Responsible Investment.
• The Responsible Business Alliance Code of Conduct for global supply chains.
• The UN Standards of Conduct for Business tackling discrimination against Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, & Intersex People.
• The Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights.
• The Women’s Empowerment Principles.

Finally, we believe that the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and International Human Rights Instruments provide direction for a just and sustainable world. While BSR believes these principles, standards, and guidelines support our mission and vision, we maintain an open membership policy.