Ethics Officer Association (EOA) and eight global standards

Many general counsel have responsibility for compliance, ethics, or both (See my posts of Oct. 21, 2005, Oct. 29, 2005 on a survey, and Jan. 16, 2006 on the health-care industry.) The EOA is the world’s largest multi-industry association for ethics and compliance professionals, having over 1,000 members from 575 organizations www.eoa.org.

A recent presentation by EOA’s Lee Essrig gives a framework for global compliance and ethics standards. The presentation has been reproduced in Advanced Corporate Compliance Workshop 2005 (PLI, No. B-1504, at 567). www.Pli.edu

Two slides listed the “Global Eight” international standards most commonly adopted. They are the Global Compact (UN), ILO Conventions (labor laws), OECD Guidelines (business conduct), ISO 14000 (environmental management), Global Reporting Initiative (corporate responsibility), SA8000 (labor), AA1000 (stakeholder engagement), and World Business Council for Sustainable Development (corporate responsibility).