The Voluntary Quality Standard was:
- First approved on 2003-10-24 as version CSRR-QS 1.0;
- Internally piloted and updated on 2005-09-30 as version CSRR-QS 1.1;
- Externally piloted and adapted after stakeholder consultation and expert advice, and was approved on 2006-03-31 as version CSRR-QS 2.0^®.

This Quality Standard has been drawn up by a number of independent Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility Research (CSRR) Groups mostly working for customers in the financial services industry. They are thus supporting and servicing Socially Responsible Investments (SRI).

The establishment of the standard was initiated with the support of the European Commission, DG Employment and Social Affairs as the outcome of two projects.

Phase 1 was the project “Developing a Voluntary Quality for SRI Research” (2002-2003).
The Quality Standard has been drawn up in the light of the European Commission’s aim to build partnerships for the promotion of CSR.
CSR is seen as a contribution to achieve the strategic goal of becoming, by 2010:
“The most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion”.
Both the Green Paper (“Promoting a European framework for corporate social responsibility”) and the EC’s Communication (“Corporate social responsibility, a business contribution to sustainable development”) call for “More convergence and transparency of SRI rating methodologies”, request that “Quality and objectivity should be ensured, not only on the basis of the information submitted by the management, but also by the stakeholders” and suggest that “External audit and internal quality procedures should be used to assure accuracy in the research and assessment processes”.

Phase 2 of the project “Implementing and Disseminating the Voluntary Quality Standard for Corporate Sustainability & Responsibility Research (CSRR-QS)” (2004-2006) aimed at discussing and amending the standard and its instruments with stakeholders and experts in the field of SRI and CSR research. Furthermore the Quality Standard and the Transparency Matrix have been piloted within participating CSRR Groups and updated versions of the main documents (CSRR-QS 2.0^® and CSRR-TM 2.0^®) have been provided.
A sector specific verification system was set up in order to offer solutions to all legal and technical aspects regarding the certification. A guidance document for completing the Transparency Matrix, and an instruction manual for proving conformity with the final verifiable.