Pegamento sees ISO 26000 corporate social responsibility certification as a model for the digital sector and wants to share its experience with other service providers.
Certification body KIWA granted Pegamento the ISO 26000 certificate, rewarding its efforts in the field of corporate social responsibility.
Few fully Dutch digital service providers have been awarded this certificate. This is a pity, as the sector can make a significant contribution to a more sustainable, balanced and inclusive economy and society through technology and business practices.
Pegamento wants to show by example that certification is not just for multinationals. The Zeist-based ICT company is happy to share its experience of the certification process and the possibilities of corporate social responsibility with other service providers. In the coming period, Pegamento will actively disseminate its experiences and best practices through publications and dialogue with its stakeholders.
Serge Poppes, CEO of Pegamento: "What we have learnt is that the examination of the organisation and its processes should be a task for all employees and all functions. This makes the whole organisation transparent, which allows new areas of focus to emerge in relation to our carbon footprint, diversity, the creation of equal opportunities and also our entire supply chain. This allows us to engage customers, suppliers and other stakeholders to drive improvements in these areas. Digital service providers like Pegamento are technologically used to working with everyone and everything and connecting technologies. The same needs to happen on a much larger scale when it comes to business practices and collaboration between individuals within and between organisations. That's where we want to take the lead."
After a thorough year-long process of analysis and implementation, Pegamento was certified for Level 3 of the CSR Performance Ladder. Pegamento's Chief Happiness Officer Nini Heerings and Online Marketer Ike van der Voort led this process, which ultimately involved all employees. Level 5 is to be achieved by 2025 at the latest, and here the focus is on the entire chain. For that purpose, a CSR management system is already up and running, based on the 'Plan-Act-Do-Check' principle. This was already in place for ISO 27001 information security and ISO 9001 quality management. Experience shows that working with standards that a digital company already uses for its technological tasks also helps to embed CSR aspects quickly and fundamentally.
Pegamento's corporate social responsibility system is available online: CSR Report 2023
What does Kiwa ISO 26000 certification entail?
ISO 26000 is also known by Kiwa as the CSR Performance Ladder. Together with other certification bodies, Kiwa has developed the CSR Performance Ladder. This is the certification standard for corporate social responsibility that enables the development of a CSR management system. By means of this certification, companies can show how far they have progressed in the field of CSR and can fully organise their business operations accordingly.
The CSR Performance Ladder is a management system that focuses on creating, implementing and aligning policies around 31 themes based on the UN Goals. These 31 topics fall under the category of People, Planet, Profit. The Performance Ladder has 5 levels. Levels 1 and 2 are used as a first step to progress to level 3. Level 3 leads to industry-wide development and implementation of the CSR themes. From Level 3, companies can move up the ladder to Levels 4 and 5 by developing the themes in a more specific and distinctive way and aligning them more broadly with their supply chain.