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How ISOs technicalprogramme and standardscontribute to a sustainable world
International
Organization for
Standardization
environmental integrity
social equity
economic growth
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How ISO contributes to a sustainable world 2008
The purpose of this brochure is to pro-
vide a concise overview of how ISOs
technical programme, which has so far
produced more than 17 400 Internation-
al Standards, contribute to a sustaina-
ble world.
To learn more about ISO, how it works,
what its standards can help to achieve,
how to participate. Access these pub-
lications free-of-charge on ISOs Web
site :www.iso.org
ISOs technical programme in support o a sustainable world
ParticipatinginInternat
ionalStandardization
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How ISO contributes to a sustainable world 2008 1
ISO a multi-sector, multi-stake-
holder international organization is
the leading producer o consensus-
based International Standards. ISOs
membership comprises the national
standards bodies o 157 countries.This network is complemented by
more than 600 international and re-
gional partners and the direct partic-
ipation o close to 100 000 experts.
With a current portolio o more than
17 400 International Standards and
related documents, ISO delivers al-
most 100 new or revised standardseach month covering a broad scope
o issues, technologies and econom-
ic sectors. The system allows or ex-
tensive stakeholder involvement and
consultation.
ISOs national members are respon-
sible or organizing national input to
the development o ISO International
Standards and are open to, and en-
gage, dierent stakeholder groups.
A liaison mechanism also allows awide range o international or broad-
ly based regional stakeholder organ-
izations to participate directly in the
technical work o ISO committees.
Key principles such as transparency,
openness and consensus are un-
damental to ISOs working practices
and global relevance. These under-pin and complete the whole system
to ensure that ISO is a trusted part-
ner or developing standards con-
tributing to the objectives o sustain-
able development.
The ISO standards development system
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2 How ISO contributes to a sustainable world 2008
Indeed, International Standards o
the type developed by ISO, based
on a double level o consensus
between stakeholders and between
countries contribute to the three
dimensions o sustainable develop-ment economic, environmental and
social. They:
support the facilitation of glo-
bal trade, the dissemination o
new technologies, good business
practice and the relations between
economic actors
supportgoodenvironmentalprac-
tice and inormation, energy ei-
ciency and the dissemination o
new, eco-riendly and energy per-
ormance technologies
contributetoconsumerprotection,
saety at work, healthcare, securi-
ty and other social interests which
may require technical or manage-
ment standards or the related
products and services.
The ISO Strategic Plan 2005-2010
relects and enhances this contribu-
tion and is placed under the general
heading o Standards or a sustaina-
ble world.
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How ISO contributes to a sustainable world 2008 3
Market and regulatory requirements or
products and services now demand
not only the specication o technical
characteristics, but also those related to
the management o production and
distribution. Impacts on the environ-ment, energy consumption, health and
saety risks, security, traceability and
social responsibility are issues which
must be taken into account in the
design, production and distribution
o products and services. Interna-
tional Standards help to avoid such
considerations becoming unjustied
barriers to trade and can acilitate thedissemination o good practice and
related technical solutions.
ISO has closely reviewed its technical
work in the context o sustainable de-
velopment. In particular, a Task Force
was established under ISOs Technical
Management Board (see next page)
and given the responsibility o iden-tiying ISOs current and potential
contribution to sustainable develop-
ment, It was also asked to investigate
the establishment o mechanisms
to enable a coordinated approach
across all ISO technical committees,
the bodies which actually develop
ISO standards.
As a irst step, ISOs technical com-
mittees were asked how their stand-
ards contributed to sustainable
development. For some committees
dealing with broad subjects, the con-
tribution to one or more o the three
components was obvious. However,
the responses rom committees in
very speciic technical ields were
also revealing.
Some examples o ISOs work which
illustrate current and potential u-
ture contributions to sustainable
development are highlighted in the
ollowing pages. It is worth noting that
during the consultation exercise, there
was great interest among the ISO
technical committees as a whole to
consider and address sustainabledevelopment matters in their work
programmes.
ISOs technical programme and sustainable development
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4 How ISO contributes to a sustainable world 2008
In addition to the technical inputs de-
scribed, ISOs standardization work
beneits rom strategic management
and policy inputs that also contribute
to sustainability.
The ISO Technical Management
Board (TMB) oversees the technical
committees and their standards de-
velopment programmes. It helps to
ensure that the development o ISO
standards is carried out eiciently
and eectively. By launching the de-
velopment o only those standards
or which a market requirement hasbeen established, the TMB makes
certain that redundant eort is avoid-
ed and that resources are used op-
timally.
In addition to this good steward-
ship o the process and associat-
ed resources, which is itsel a con-
tribution to sustainable development,
the TMB explores the strategic need
or new standardization initiatives tohelp solve challenges acing the glo-
bal community and then attributes
the practical realization o the work to
existing technical committees or new
structures. Recent examples include
energy management, societal securi-
ty and supply chain security.
The ISO system also includes threepolicy development committees which
explore the standardization needs o
the broad categories o stakehold-
ers whose interests they represent.
They then make recommendations
or these needs to be taken account
o in the development o standards,
or, in the case o ISO/CASCO (see
next page) develop standards them-
selves.
The ISO Committee on consumer pol-
icy (ISO/COPOLCO) helps to ensure
that ISO standards support the devel-
opment and trading o products and
services that better meet consumers
expectations in areas such as design,
perormance, saety, quality and reliabil-
ity. Policy recommendations and/or ex-
ploratory work by ISO/COPOLCO haveled to the launching o ISO standards in
areas o clear relevance to sustainable
development such as environmental
labelling, services and social respon-
sibility.
Policy inputs to ISOs standards development programme
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How ISO contributes to a sustainable world 2008 5
The ISO Committee on developing
country matters (ISO/DEVCO) advis-
es on training, capacity building and
inormation programmes to help de-
veloping countries derive optimal
benets rom International Standardsand to participate to the maximum in
international standardization. Its work
thus impacts positively on the eco-
nomic and social aspects o sustain-
able development.
Many developing countries are also
keenly interested in such matters as
environmental management and so-cial responsibility or questions o in-
telligent use o resources and socially
responsible develoment, Thus, ISO/
DEVCO provides a practical comple-
ment to responsible, inclusive and
sustainable standardization and de-
velopment.
The ISO Committee on conormity
assessment (ISO/CASCO) develops
standards and guides or conorm-
ity assessment. Conormity assess-
ment is the name given to the proc-
esses that are used to demonstrate
that a product, service, management
system, or organizational processes
meet specied requirements.
The use o ISO/IEC* conormity as-
sessment standards allows or harmo-nization o such activities throughout
the world and this, in turn, not only a-
cilitates trade within countries, but al-
so acilitates trade internationally by
giving all purchasers o the product
or service greater condence that it
meets the requirements. In acilitating
international trade and creating con-
dence among regulators, users and
consumers, conormity assessment
standards contribute to global e-ciency and the economic dimension
o sustainable development.
* IEC (International Electrotechnical Com-
mission)
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6 How ISO contributes to a sustainable world 2008
Examples o contributions to sustainabledevelopment by ISOs technical programme
Buildings
ISO has a strong standardization pro-
gramme or the building sector with
several technical committees active.
ISO/TC 59, Building construction, isparticularly relevant to sustainable de-
velopment, producing standards that
address environmental aspects. They
also address broader issues such as
accessibility and usability which have
a social dimension.
Another committee, ISO/TC 163, Ther-
mal perormance and energy use inthe built environment, is dedicated to
improving the energy perormance o
buildings. By providing accurate meas-
urement methods or the thermal prop-
erties o building products and whole
buildings, the committee is providing
tools or the ecient use o energy and
the reduction o greenhouse gas emis-
sions.
ISO/TC 71, Concrete, notes that the de-
terioration o concrete can be a signi-
cant problem in buildings and civil en-
gineering structures. A large amount o
resources and energy are consumed
during construction o these structures.
Thereore, it is very important to pro-
long their lie span. The committee is
in the process o developing standards
or the maintenance and repair o con-crete structures that will have important
impacts on their useable lietime. The
committee has also started work on a
standard or environmental manage-
ment in the sector.
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How ISO contributes to a sustainable world 2008 7
Energy
ISO has recently ocused on activities
in the ield o energy. At the strategic
level, an advisory group on energy
eiciency and renewable energysources has been established to
examine new opportunities in the
ield and to ensure optimal use o
ISOs existing contributions in these
important areas. At the technical level,
ISO has established a new project
committee to develop a standard on
energy management. This is intended
to be a systems approach to tackleenergy eiciency improvement in
all organizations in developed and
developing economies.
optimal eiciency, energy is lost in
the orm o heat. Individual machine
energy losses may be relatively small
but, considering the vast number o
mechanical machine installations in
the world not operating at their op-timum, the total loss may be enor-
mous. Standards rom ISO/TC 108,
help machines to run eiciently.
ISO technical committees already
dealing with renewable energies
include ones working on solar (ISO/
TC 180) and hydrogen (ISO/TC 197)
standards, while another committee
is working on standards or technicalenergy systems (ISO/TC 203). ISO
is also developing standards or
biouels
An example o an indirect contri-
bution o ISOs work to energy sav-
ing was provided by ISO/TC 108,
Mechanical vibration and shock. The
committee noted that careul moni-toring and maintenance o machines,
vehicles and structures result in both
improved eiciency o operation and
longer operating lie. For example,
when a machine is not operating at Hydrogen passenger vehicle.
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8 How ISO contributes to a sustainable world 2008
Environment
Since 1993, ISO/TC 207, Environ-
mental management, has been a
leader in this ield. All o the commit-
tees work contributes to improvedenvironmental management and sus-
tainable development. Speciically, it
has developed standards on environ-
mental management systems (EMS),
greenhouse gas accounting and ver-
iication, environmental auditing, en-
vironmental labelling, lie-cycle as-
sessment, and environmental per-
ormance evaluation. ISO/TC 207 isnow working on new areas such as
carbon ootprint quantiication.
However, ISOs activities to support
environmental improvement are not
limited to one committee there is a
wealth o other technical work which
may be considered to make important
contributions to environmental protec-
tion and related matters. One exam-
ple, ISO/TC 43, Acoustics, provides
methods or measuring noise emis-
sions rom a range o sources and in
dierent environments. These stand-
ards aim to create a better sound en-
vironment and can thereore help im-
prove quality o lie.
ISO also has committees developing
standards on air quality. A good in-
door environment is dependent on the
quality o the supplied air. ISO/TC 142,
Cleaning equipment or air and other
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How ISO contributes to a sustainable world 2008 9
gases, develops standards or air l-
ters. The correct specication o lters
is a prerequisite or the correct unc-
tioning o ventilation systems, to pro-
tect humans and the environment and
to improve indoor air quality.
ISO/TC 146, Air quality, develops stand-
ards or characterisation o emissions,
workspace air, ambient air and indoor
air. In particular, the committee provides
measurement methods or air pollutants.
Horizontal resources also exist to
assist committees in their eorts to
urther sustainable development. For
example, ISO/TC 207, Environmental
management, can advise committees
on any environmental issue they ace
when developing their standards.
In addition, ISO/TC 207 helped to
develop ISO/IEC Guide 67, Guide
or the inclusion o environmental as-
pects in product standards.
Existing technical committees also
deal with soil quality (ISO/TC 190)and water quality (ISO/TC 147)
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10 How ISO contributes to a sustainable world 2008
Fire saety
ISO has two committees involvedwith ire saety, both strongly sup-porting the social pillar o sustaina-ble development, in addition to cer-
tain considerations o environmentalissues. ISO/TC 21, Equipment or ireprotection and ire ighting, has de-veloped standards or eicient waterdelivery and dispersal equipment.For example, an eective sprinklersystem results in less water beingused to extinguish a ire. The com-mittee has also developed stand-
ards or systems using oam andpowder, and standards or systemsusing gaseous extinguishing mediaagents, that contribute to improved
design and increased eiciency o
the system, thus preventing the use
o excessive amounts o agents that
would unnecessarily harm the envi-
ronment.
The other ISO committee in this area
is ISO/TC 92, Fire saety, which has
recently started two new projects,one on a standard to assess the ad-
verse environmental impact o ire
eluents and another on contain-
ment systems or the prevention o
pollution arising rom uncontrolled
ire water run-o.
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How ISO contributes to a sustainable world 2008 11
Food
ISO/TC 34, Food products, has been
providing essential test methods or
the ood industry or more than 50
years. Its standards have acilitated
trade in speciic ood products, thus
helping developed and developing
countries to trade whilst helping to
ensure consumer saety.
From the environmental and social
perspectives, the committee has pro-
duced several methods or detect-
ing genetically modiied organisms
in ood products. More recently, the
committee has developed standards
which are dedicated to improving the
management o, and traceability in,
the entire ood chain.
Health
ISO has extensive and long-estab-
lished activities in support o health
care, which is a major issue in the so-
cial dimension. Seventeen ISO com-
mittees currently address matters re-
lated to health. One ocus is on the
quality, saety, clinical evaluation and
cleanliness o medical devices to im-
prove patient saety.
There is also strong activity in the eld
o health inormatics (ISO/TC 215)
where the standards will be used to
help achieve compatibility and interop-
erability between computer systems, in
order to improve access to healthcare
inormation to the benet o patients
and those who und healthcare.
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12 How ISO contributes to a sustainable world 2008
Nanotechnologies
Many ISO committees develop stand-
ards which will help bring new tech-
nologies to market and disseminate
them to everyones beneit. ISO/TC
229, Nanotechnologies, provides a
good example. This technology has
great potential or healthcare and
scientiic applications. In addition
to tackling environmental and sae-
ty challenges with nanotechnologies,
the committee will examine standards
that have the potential to reduce ma-
terial usage and to support improvedenvironmental clean-up methods and
operations.
People with disabilities
The work o ISO/TC 173, Assistive
products or persons with disabil-
ity, is helping to improve the quali-
ty o lie or persons with disability
another contribution to the social di-
mension. This committee has nearly
70 standards or a diverse range o
products rom wheelchairs to envi-
ronmental controls or daily living.
The subject area has also been dealt
with in the context o construction
where ISO/TC 59, Building construc-
tion, has developed standards or
accessibility and usability o the built
environment.
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How ISO contributes to a sustainable world 2008 13
Quality management
It can be argued that all ISO stand-
ards contribute to the economic di-
mension. However, the work o ISO/
TC 176, Quality management and
quality assurance, perhaps pro-
vides the best known example o
how standards support the economy.
Standards rom ISO/TC 176 such as
ISO 9001 are used in all types o or-
ganizations all over the world. They
cover subjects which are undamen-
tal to economic development such as
the eicient use o resources to sat-isy customer and regulatory require-
ments, continual improvement o per-
ormance and complaints handling.
A generic guide (ISO/IEC Guide 71)
to help standards writers to address
the needs o older people and peo-
ple with disabilities has also been
published. This makes available im-
portant knowledge o these areas to
all ISO technical committees.
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14 How ISO contributes to a sustainable world 2008
Social responsibility
Organizations around the world and
their stakeholders are becoming in-
creasingly aware o the need or so-
cially responsible behaviour. The aim
o social responsibility is to contrib-
ute to sustainable development. ISO is
working on an International Standard,
ISO 26000, to give voluntary guidance
or social responsibility (SR). The work
aims to encourage voluntary commit-
ment to SR and will lead to common
guidance on making SR operational in
organizations.
The standard will be usable by organ-
izations o all sizes and in all coun-
tries, at every stage o development.
To refect the innovative nature o the
project, ISO and its members have
made strong eorts to ensure that the
standard will have a broad input by all
stakeholders with a serious interest in
SR.
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How ISO contributes to a sustainable world 2008 15
Transport
ISO/TC 8, Ships and marine technol-
ogy, works closely with international
and regional governmental authorities
in both the maritime and supply chain
elds. It thereore responds to regula-
tory needs wherever possible and, as
such, sustainable development princi-
ples have been a driver or the commit-
tee in all its work. As well as acilitating
trade and, thereore, the economic di-
mension o sustainability, the commit-
tee has addressed issues such as sup-
ply chain security (social dimension)and, more recently, recycling which will
help lower the environmental impact o
decommissioning ships.
The work o ISO/TC 104, Freight con-
tainers, has standardized the interna-
tional reight container, helping to un-
derpin the trade in goods and signi-
icantly contribute to the reduction o
pollution associated with the move-
ment o reight. The committees work
has also helped to greatly increase the
security o goods in transit. On the ba-
sis o tons o cargo moved, a typical
modern containership utilizing stand-
ards rom ISO/TC 104 consumes 60 %
less uel and produces 60 % less CO2
emissions than would a similar capac-
ity series o break bulk ships. In addi-tion, much o the worlds aid shipments
are supplied using the ISO standard-
ized reight container.
Another committee, ISO/TC 204, In-
telligent transport systems, provides
standards or road telematics and sat-
ellite navigation technology which can
be used to support ecient and eec-
tive transport policies with economic,
environmental and social implications.
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16 How ISO contributes to a sustainable world 2008
Water
There are a number o activities in this
sector where a contribution to sustain-
able development is evident. The work
o ISO/TC 224, Service activities relat-
ing to drinking water supply systems
and wastewater systems Quality cri-
teria o the service and perormance
indicators, is directly aimed at promot-
ing sustainable development in the wa-
ter services eld, ocusing on improve-
ment o the services to users and im-
proving the management o wastewa-
ter and drinking water utilities.
In addition, ISO/TC 147, Water quality,
is dedicated to providing harmonized
methods or measuring and monitoring
water quality.
ISO/TC 30, Measurement o fuid fow
in closed conduits, has a subcommit-
tee which develops standards or wa-
ter meters, contributing to sustainable
development in the social and environ-
mental dimensions. Direct measure-
ment in homes helps individual water
consumption monitoring, thus encour-
aging improved drinking water usage,
water conservation and reduction o
water waste. Standards developed by
ISO/TC 30 also help water suppliers to
reduce water losses in their distribution
systems.
Finally, the ISO International Workshop
Agreement IWA 6, Guidelines or the
management o drinking water utilities
under crisis conditions, disseminates
good practice in keeping the worlds
drinking water supplies sae and se-
cure.
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How ISO contributes to a sustainable world 2008 17
The uture
To guide individual ISO committees that
wish to better address sustainable de-
velopment in their work and to ensure
coordination across ISOs technical
activities, the ISO TMB has approved
a resolution establishing a number o
general principles. When a commit-
tee in any sector wishes to develop a
standard dealing with sustainable de-
velopment :
Thestandardmustremainwithinthe
context o the committees scope o
work
ThecommitteeshouldnotifytheTMB
o the title and scope o the proposed
standard as early as possible
The committee undertaking such
work should clariy its intentions in
the introduction o the specic pro-
posed standard(s)
The committee should note that
the most widely used denition osustainable development is the one
rom the 1987 Report o the Unit-
ed Nations World Commission on
Environment and Development (the
Brundtland Commission) : meet-
ing the needs o the present with-
out compromising the ability o
uture generations to meet their own
needs.
In summary, ISOs standards help to
provide the international community
with the practical tools necessary or
achieving its aspirations or sustaina-
ble development and the organization
will continue to use its capacity to sup-
port the concept. The theme o Stand-
ards or a sustainable world is central
to the ISO Strategy 2005-2010and will
undoubtedly be reinorced in its strate-
gic planning or 2011 and beyond.
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18 How ISO contributes to a sustainable world 2008
More inormation
ISO Online
ISOs Web site www.iso.org provides a
wealth o inormation on the organiza-
tion, its activities and standards.
The Standards development link on thehome page leads to inormation includ-
ing the complete list o ISOs technical
committees, the standards they have
developed, their work programmes
and business plans.
The About ISO link on the home page
leads to inormation including on the
ISO system, its structure, and its man-agement organs including the Techni-
cal Management Board.
The Management standards link on the
home page leads to inormation includ-
ing on the ISO 9000 and ISO 14000
amilies.
The Resources or section on the
home page includes links or ISOspolicy development committees or
consumers, developing country mat-
ters and conormity assessment and
to the ISO social responsibility site
www.iso.org/sr
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How ISO contributes to a sustainable world 2008 19
ISOs magazines
ISO Focus News and views on
ISOs positive contribution to econom-
ic growth, environmental integrity and
societal equity through standards or
technology dissemination, global in-
teroperability, testing and conormi-
ty assessment, quality, health, sae-
ty, security and the environment.
Eleven issues a year. English only.
www.iso.org/isoocus
ISO Management Systems World-
wide coverage o ISO 9000 and ISO
14000 developments. Plusnew man-
agement system standards or inor-
mation security, ood saety, supply
chain security. Plus new initiatives
or important business and societal
issues such as social responsibili-
ty, sustainability, occupational health
and saety and conormity assess-
ment. Plussector developments and
national initiatives. Six issues a year.
English, French and Spanish edi-
tions. www.iso.org/ims
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20 How ISO contributes to a sustainable world 2008
ISO and international standardization
ISO is the International Organiza-
tion or Standardization. It has a
membership o 157 national standards
institutes rom countries large and
small, industrialized and develop-ing, in all regions o the world. ISO
develops voluntary technical standards
which add value to all types o busi-
ness operations. They contribute to the
dissemination o technology and good
business practices. They support the
development, manuacturing and sup-
ply o more efcient, saer and cleaner
products and services. They make
trade between countries easier and
airer. ISO standards also saeguard
users and consumers, and make many
aspects o their lives simpler.
ISO develops only those standards
that are required by the market. This
work is carried out by experts coming
rom the industrial, technical and busi-
ness sectors which have asked or thestandards, and which subsequently
put them to use. These experts may
be joined by others with relevant
knowledge, such as representatives
o government agencies, consumer
organizations, academia and testing
laboratories.
Published under the designation o In-
ternational Standards, ISO standards
represent an international consensus
on the state o the art in the technol-
ogy or good practice concerned.
environmental integrity
social equity
economic growth
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8/8/2019 Sustainable World 2008
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ISO Central Secretariat
International Organizationfor Standardization
1, chemin de la Voie-Creuse
Case posatle 56
CH-1211 Genve 20
Switzerland
Tel. + 41 22 749 01 11
Fax + 41 22 733 34 30
E-mail [email protected]
Web www.iso.org
ISBN 978-92-67-10484-3 ISO, 2008-09 / 2 500 Printed in Switzerland