Setting standards for social reporting

The would-be auditors are moving in on the area of social reports. Shell, BT and the Co-operative Bank may have won praise as pioneers of social accounting, but as the idea is more widely taken up, issues such as comparability and standardisation come to the fore. Seeing the advantage of tackling this early on, the Institute for Social and Ethical Accountability (ISEA) has come up with AA 1000, the AccountAbility 1000 standard for social and ethical accounting, auditing and reporting.

AA 1000 is primarily intended to help develop best practice, and AccountAbility is not planning to go down the certification route with it. Since the launch of the standard at the recent Copenhagen conference, it has been concentrating on accrediting professionals through approved training courses. The University of Surrey will start delivery of the first AA 1000 course in April this year.

ISEA, 020 7407 7370; www.accountability.org.uk

• Scottish border farming business MAMCO, supplier of organic potatoes, turnips and cereals to major supermarkets, has become the world’s first agricultural operation to implement the environmental management standard ISO14001 - as certified by BM Trada (01494 565484).

18 October 2001