CSR labels - What are the differences between CSR labels, certifications, assessments and standards?

Your company has structured and implemented a CSR approach, and now you'd like to showcase it and communicate it to your stakeholders? If so, you've probably identified obtaining a CSR label as one of the levers that will enable you to showcase your efforts to your customers, suppliers, employees and investors.

But how do you choose between Lucie 26000, B Corp, EcoVadis or a sector label? The proliferation of CSR assessment systems is such that it's becoming increasingly complex for companies to find their way around, and many struggle to differentiate between labels, certification, assessment and reference systems - especially as the terms label and certification are often used inaccurately.

If you too are having trouble finding your way around, don't panic: in this article we explain everything to help you make the difference between :

• benchmarks (GRI, 17 SDGs)
• standards (ISO 26000, ISO 9001)
• labels (Lucie 26000, Entreprises Engagées)
• and finally evaluations (Ecovadis)

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What is a CSR reference framework?

Frameworks are reference texts explaining how to implement a complete or partial CSR approach within a company. They explain in detail what a company must do to be considered responsible in a number of areas, such as the environment and ethics. Companies can thus choose to follow a set of standards to the letter, or rely on them only in part to make progress on one or more specific dimensions.

These standards often serve as the basis for CSR labels, which draw on them to build their assessment criteria - as is the case, for example, with LUCIE, which is based on ISO 26000, or B Corp, which links its criteria to the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Independently of labels, companies can also use these standards as guides to integrate a responsible approach into their organization. Below, we detail three internationally recognized benchmarks widely used by companies.

ISO 26000

ISO 26000 is the benchmark standard for CSR: it is based on the major international founding texts (World Labor Organization, etc.) and offers companies a holistic approach to sustainable performance.

To do this, it breaks down corporate social responsibility into 7 central questions covering all the social and societal issues that companies need to address:

1. Organizational governance
2. Human rights, and the mechanisms in place to ensure they are respected
3. Work relations and working conditions, to ensure the safety and development of human capital
4. The environment, to ensure control of the company's impacts
5. Good business practice
6. Consumer issues, to ensure their respect and safety
7. Communities and local development

ISO 26000 does not replace other CSR instruments and initiatives, but aims to complement them by proposing a common international language around the notion of corporate responsibility.

Given its holistic nature and international recognition, ISO 26000 serves as the basis for numerous labels, such as Lucie 26000 or Entreprises Engagées.

SDGs - 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals

In September 2015, 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were unanimously adopted by the United Nations (UN) as part of the 2030 Agenda, a program to ensure the world's transition to sustainable development.

To help put the 17 Sustainable Development Goals into practice, in 2015 the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the UN Global Compact and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) created a guide to the SDGs for companies: the SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) Compass.

This SDG Compass enables companies to align their strategy and operations with the 17 SDGs, and provides them with concrete instructions for measuring and reporting their contribution to achieving these 17 goals. In this way, it provides companies with a framework for tracking and reporting on common indicators that address priorities shared by all.

GRI - Global Reporting Initiative

The Global Reporting Initiative is an international, independent, non-profit initiative that offers a set of methods and indicators to standardize companies' reporting on their :

These common dimensions are complemented by sector-specific indices and indicators.

Much more than just a list of indicators, GRI provides methodological guidance on how information should be reported and verified to ensure completeness and transparency.

One of the benefits of GRI is the standardization of extra-financial reporting methods and the harmonization of the indicators measured, making it possible to compare the quantitative impacts of companies.

It should be noted that companies that align their reporting with the GRI do so voluntarily, and that, unlike ISO 26000, no CSR label is based on this standard. Nonetheless, the Ecovadis assessment recognizes companies whose reporting is aligned with the GRI.

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What is a CSR label?

A CSR label can be defined as an attestation of guarantee issued by a third party that characterizes the CSR approach implemented by a company within the meaning of the guidelines of a reference framework.

In other words, having your company certified means having it assessed to certify that the policies and practices implemented, as well as the results obtained, meet a certain number of quality criteria defined by a recognized standard.

Since obtaining CSR labels is conditional on a company's methods being in line with the best practices in terms of social responsibility, these labels enable companies to lend credibility and value to their CSR approach in the eyes of their stakeholders.

While many CSR labels base their assessment criteria on the ISO 26000 standard, such as LUCIE 26000 and Entreprises Engagées, other labels define their own criteria. This is the case, for example, with the B corp label, which assesses not only the robustness of a company's CSR management system, but also the way in which its business model impacts the environment or society as a whole.

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What are the differences between certification, labeling and assessment?

Differences between certification and labeling

In the field of CSR, the terms certification and labeling are very similar, in that they both involve third-party verification of the conformity of a CSR approach with a recognized standard.

Both labels and certifications have a limited period of validity (usually a three-year cycle): the company must undergo regular surveillance audits to prove to the certifier that it complies with the reference standard. If this is not the case, certification may be suspended, or even withdrawn.

There is, however, a distinction to be made between the two: whereas obtaining a label is in the vast majority of cases a voluntary process, certification may be required for a company to be able to carry out its activity - as is the case, for example, with quality certification in the healthcare sector, or CE certification for the sale of toys in the European Union.

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Differences between label/certification and assessment

In contrast to labels and certification, assessment does not sanction a minimum level of performance to be achieved in relation to a standard or reference framework. Instead, it objectively assesses the company's approach and awards it a grade.

To give an example:

• A company will be awarded the B Corp label if, and only if, it achieves a minimum of 80 points in the BIA (B Impact Assessment) questionnaire - a company that fails to meet the minimum requirements set by B Corp will therefore not be awarded the label.

• Une entreprise évaluée par EcoVadis obtiendra une note sur 100 quoiqu’il arrive : en fonction de la robustesse du système de management de la RSE mis en place par l’entreprise, cette note pourra être mauvaise (<40 points), moyenne ou encore excellente (>75 points).

CSR assessment (such as EcoVadis) is often required in B2B contexts, with the aim of providing companies with quantified information on their stakeholders (suppliers, acquisition targets, etc.) to inform the company's strategic and operational decisions.