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How S-BAR Works

Using a web-based platform, the S-BAR process and certification system provides a cost-effective, comprehensive, transparent and user-friendly tool that offers instant feedback, fast-track learning, evaluation and market-segment comparisons.

The S-BAR Certification Tool will use a structured set of criteria that covers the full range of social and environmental practices. The process will take place online, reducing paperwork, time, and costs and will allow for instantaneous feedback. The Tool will cover five major domains of business activity: Governance and Management, Environment, Workplace, Marketplace, and Community. Learn more about the S-BAR domains.

For each major category, and for the questions within each, companies will be rated based on four key measures: Policy (what commitments they have made); Practices (how they have implemented the policy); Performance (the measurable outcome of the practices); and Progress (how performance has improved over time).

S-BAR offers two levels at which companies can engage: Level 1: Self-Reported — companies fill out the Certification Tool but are ineligible for S-BAR certification; and Level 2: Independent Verification — all answers are verified by a credible, third-party source.

A Learning Tool for Companies

Companies also may use the Certification Tool as a learning device, enabling them to conduct a self-assessment on an anonymous basis. In addition, all of the Certification Tool questions will be linked to resources that users can access for more information: backgrounders, how-to advice, best practices, and links to Web sites, organizations, and government programs that can offer additional information and assistance.

How S-BAR Is Different

S-BAR fills a need unmet by other organizations, standards, or certification systems. For example:

• The Global Reporting Initiative describes how companies should describe and disclose their environmental and social practices, but doesn’t say what those practices should be. It certifies only reports, not companies.
• The Natural Step is a framework to help companies view their operations and practices through a sustainability lens, but doesn’t offer specific guidance about what companies should do.
• Business for Social Responsibility is a membership organization of companies interested in being more socially responsible, but doesn’t rate or certify companies that have met specific standards.
• The Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes and FTSE4Good track the stock market performance of large companies that have passed a set of performance screens, but don’t rate companies.
• Wherever appropriate, S-BAR intends to partner with such organizations, or otherwise leverage or build on their good work, in creating the S-BAR system.

In contrast to other organizations, S-BAR will allow companies to:

• measure their performance against a specific set of criteria, derived by a consensus-driven stakeholder process;
• engage in learning opportunities around sustainability that will help them better understand the business case for the S-BAR criteria and how to make proactive changes;
• receive public acknowledgment that they have achieved a measure of sustainable performance;
• engage their suppliers by asking (or requiring) that they meet the same set of standards and be certified for doing so; and
• promote their achievements in the marketplace with some assurance that their claims have been backed by an independent organization.

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