It is the mission of ISM to promote excellence in social responsibility through the development of principles and the sharing of tools, information, and best practices that will assist in the implementation and continuous improvement of supply management organizations and professionals. Learn more about organizations supporting this effort.

ISM objectives:

1. Increase the supply management profession's awareness of social responsibility.
2. Provide tools, information, and best practices for the development of a proactive social responsibility program for supply management professionals and their companies.
3. Make available social responsibility references to supply management professionals.
4. Raise the profile of supply management through the promotion of social responsibility internally and through supplier personnel.

ISM will ask organizations to:

1. Support these social responsibility principles.
2. Donate resources to support communication of the social responsibility principles and practices.
3. Share best practices and other material to assist other organizations working to improve social responsibility behavior internally and with suppliers.

Learn more about ISM's Committee on Social Responsibility.

Use this link to find materials to support your business case for implementing or enhancing a social responsibility program within your organization.

Preamble

ISM believes supply management is a key contributor in the development and implementation of social responsibility principles. The supply chain can be impacted both "upstream" and "downstream." The purpose of these principles is to increase supply management's awareness and to provide tools to supply management professionals for the development of a proactive supply management social responsibility program for their organization. Organizations are encouraged to promote social responsibility through participation on appropriate committees, boards, and panels of governmental and nongovernmental organizations.

Creating principles applicable across social, sector, organization (public, private, and nonprofit), and country boundaries is a daunting task. Additionally, federal, state and local laws and regulations, international laws and regulations, and customs and practices pertinent to social responsibility must be a relevant and integral part of the development and implementation of policies and procedures.

These principles have been written and distributed to provide "one more voice" to the importance of social responsibility in its many forms and applications. They may complement existing standards, or they may be used as a starting point from which to develop a set of standards unique to the needs of the organization.

Finally, it is recognized that individual social responsibility components or dimensions may be of greater or lesser importance depending on the context in which the organization operates.