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UPDATES BY
ISSUE AREA
- Drafting of ISO Social Responsibility Standard
Begins
- ISO's Water Management Standards Moving Forward
- Miscellaneous
News
-- ISO's
new nanotechnology standards to include environmental aspects
-- Draft International Standard for GHG validation and verification
bodies released
-- GRI releases draft of new sustainability reporting guidelines
-- ISO member bodies forming national mirror committees for ISO
SR standard
-- New
standard for hazardous substance management
-- European
organizations discuss standards and public policy
-- New
report on standards and corporate social responsibility
-- NGO task group within ISO's environmental committee develops
operational guidance to improve stakeholder involvement
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE
Drafting of ISO Social Responsibility
Standard Begins
Update
After two meetings in March and September 2005 to lay the groundwork
for developing its international standard on social responsibility
(SR), ISO's Working Group (WG) responsible for the task has started
to draft the contents of the new standard. At its last face-to-face
meeting, the WG finalized an annotated
outline of the future standard, and created three sub-groups
to draft designated clauses. The leadership
of these groups - dubbed Task Groups (TGs) 4, 5, and 6 - was
selected and approved in December 2005, and the start-up meeting
of the new TG leadership was held in Stockholm in mid-January 2006.
Since then, experts in the three TGs have been developing their
first Working Drafts (WDs). The groups have a very ambitious schedule
to finish the first versions of their documents by March 27, and
then circulate them to the WG membership for comment. The TGs are
planning to discuss and resolve comments and to create a second
iteration of the WDs at its next face-to-face meeting in Lisbon,
Portugal May 15-19, 2006.
Update on Task Groups Activities
TG1: Funding and Stakeholder Involvement
TG1 has been developing a "Strategic Framework" on how
ISO SR WG can increase participation by under-funded stakeholder
categories. The Framework has identified three overall objectives:
1) to improve understanding among under-funded stakeholders as to
how the international standards development process works; 2) to
support an adequate balance of stakeholder participation and influence
in the WG SR itself, including in the leadership of the WG and TGs
and activities of the WG SR; and 3) to ensure that the interests
of small and medium sized enterprises are incorporated into the
international standard and that the standard will be useful to these
entities once it's complete. Historically, ISO's programs for improving
stakeholder involvement have focused on developing versus industrialized
country balance. The WG's attempt to look beyond geographical balance,
and also address stakeholder/interest categories and various sizes
of organizations in the user community, is a step forward for ISO.
In addition, TG1 is considering a strategy to ensure
that the funding raised will not only support participation at WG
meetings, but also involvement at the national mirror committee
level. As a part of its fund-raising efforts, the TG1 leadership
organized a meeting with potential donors (mostly national and international
development agencies and standardization bodies) in Geneva in November
2005.
TG2: Communication
Based on the terms of reference and the strategy adopted during
the Bangkok meeting, TG 2 developed a set of action items in the
areas of networking, development and dissemination of media material,
and communication support programs. The group has decided to prioritize
its external communication on developing countries and small and
medium sized enterprises. One of the strategies is to make more
effective use of existing stakeholder networks and other organizational
resources, as well as to make use of national standards bodies by
utilizing their local language capacity and distribution mechanisms
in the transmission of particularly important communications. TG2
is also establishing criteria regarding which printed and electronic
material is considered to be official output of the WG and also
which material is appropriate to disclose. Currently most of the
major official WG and TG documents can be downloaded at: http://www.iso.org/wgsr
TG3: Operational Procedures
TG3 is currently working on two operational procedures; balanced
participation in working meetings and a policy on media participation.
The group has prioritized finalizing its draft procedure on participation
so that it can provide guidance to member bodies in time for the
Lisbon WG meeting. The procedure provides rules and guidance to
ensure balanced participation at the TG level. It also includes
rules that limit the number and role of observers allowed to the
WG and TG activities, so that the WG's attempt to achieve stakeholder
balance with the national delegations is not jeopardized by having
too many observers from a particular country or interest group attend
meetings. At the same time, the procedure creates a new participant
category "Special Advisor" to allow experts who are not
registered "expert" delegates to participate in the standard's
development in case there is a gap in expertise.
On the issue of media participation policy, the Industry
Stakeholder Group issued a statement opposing media participation
in the WG's activities during the last meeting in Bangkok. The NGO
and Consumer Stakeholder Groups on the other hand are in favor of
increased media participation as a means to improve external communication
and to promote transparency within the standard development process.
TG3 has not been able to reach consensus thus far, and has decided
to further discuss this issue in Lisbon.
TG4: Scope, SR context, and SR principles
TG4 is tasked with drafting the clauses relating to the standard's
precise scope, the SR context in which organizations operate, and
SR principles relevant to implementing organizations. The group
is also assigned the task of defining "Social Responsibility",
and is currently developing an outline of the key elements of a
definition for SR to be discussed by the WG in Lisbon.
TG5: Guidance on core SR subjects/issues
TG 5 is tasked to create a section that provides separate guidance
on a range of core subject/issues, and relates them to organizations.
The guidance will include background, challenges and opportunities,
trends, existing initiatives, stakeholder relationships and references
for each core subject. TG5 is currently selecting core issues to
be included in the standard, and will present their proposal at
the Lisbon meeting. Considering the diversity of the issues encompassed
in social responsibility, the challenge of coming up with a manageable
and meaningful set of "core issues" is formidable.
TG6: Guidance for organization on implementing SR
TG6 is responsible for the section that provides practical guidance
on implementing and integrating SR in the organization, including,
policies, practices, approaches, issue identification, performance
assessment, reporting and communication. The group is currently
compiling ideas for various methods and activities to implement
SR programs, which will serve as a basis for further discussion
in Lisbon.
TMB resolution
At its January 2006 meeting, ISO's central management body, the
Technical Management Board (TMB), issued a resolution relating to
the WG on SR. TMB resolutions typically confirm and/or communicate
decisions made at the ISO technical committee or working group level,
but also clarify the intention or interpretation of past decisions
in cases where questions or concerns arise. The following topics
were included in the latest TMB resolution on SR WG.
- The TMB will send a letter to all ISO member bodies to invite
participation and circulate the definition of stakeholder categories
to help them nominate the experts,
- It will encourage member bodies to approach their government for
financial support,
- It confirms that it is the exclusive responsibility of each member
bodies to ensure the involvement of stakeholders at the national
level, and
- It asks WG SR to categorize liaison organizations in order to
avoid duplication and overrepresentation of a particular stakeholder
category.
The third item raises a bit of concern since
it could diminish the influence of WG's effort to ensure the balanced
participation not only at the WG meetings but also at the national
level.
More information
ISO's Water Management Standards Moving Forward
Update
Technical Committee (TC) 224, the body developing ISO's water management
standards, held its fifth plenary meeting in Berlin, Germany this
past October. TC 224 experts reviewed and incorporated comments
submitted on their three standards under development - ISO
24510, ISO 24511,
and ISO 24512 - and
decided to elevate their work products to the Draft International
Standard (DIS) stage. Along with the language revisions, a new stand-alone
chapter explaining the concept of performance indicators was added
to each of the DISs, as was an annex section with 34 sample performance
indicators.
The decision to circulate the documents as DISs for
ballot marks a significant milestone in the standards' development,
since the DIS or "enquiry" stage is the first time that
a draft ISO standard will undergo a review and vote by the full
ISO membership, not just the countries participating in the committee
producing it. The three working groups responsible for the development
of each of the drafts met separately after the Berlin plenary to
finalize the DISs to ISO Central Secretariat, which will circulate
the official versions by April 1 for a five-month ballot. The final
standards are scheduled for publication in mid-2007.
Developing Country Matters
In addition to developing three water management standards, TC 224
has been working to promote their implementation. At its Berlin
meeting, the TC decided to launch work on a "Guide for the
application of ISO 24510, 24511, 24512 in developing and emerging
countries." The plan is to test the standards in some developing
country regions or cities and then produce the guide based on the
outcomes of the pilot. The work has been assigned to TC 224's ad
hoc group on developing countries. The type of ISO guidance produced
(i.e. international standard, publicly available specification,
technical report, etc.) is yet to be decided.
In order to increase Latin America's involvement in
international standardization, the TC decided to create a Spanish
Translation Task Force, and will also request the ISO Council to
publish official Spanish versions of TC 224's standards. In addition,
the TC decided to hold a topic session on TC 224 activities during
the World Water Forum in Mexico City in March. The next TC 224 plenary
meeting is going to be in Punta Del Este, Uruguay from November
29 to December 3, 2006.
More Information
Miscellaneous
News
ISO's new nanotechnology standards
to include environmental aspects
ISO has formed a new Technical Committee (TC) 229 to develop standards
on nanotechnologies. The proposed standards will include classification,
terminology and nomenclature, basic metrology, calibration, and
certification, as well as environmental issues associated with nanotechnology.
The first TC meeting was held in London in November 2005, and hosted
by the United Kingdom, which provides the Chair and Secretariat
of the new committee. Three working groups have been created to
develop the standards, including one that has been tasked with addressing
the health, safety, and environmental aspects relating to nanotechnology.
There are currently 24 participating and eight observer countries
involved in the TC. The second TC 229 meeting will be held June
23-26 in Tokyo.
Draft International Standard for GHG validation
and verification bodies released
The Draft International Standard version of ISO 14065: Greenhouse
gases - requirements for greenhouse gas validation and verification
bodies for use in accreditation or other forms of recognition, was
published on January 9, 2006 for a five-month ballot. Interested
organizations can download the standard at INNI's
Draft International Standards page, and are encouraged to submit
comments to your respective
national standards bodies or the INNI
Secretariat before June 9, 2006.
GRI releases draft of new sustainability reporting
guidelines
Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) new
Sustainability Reporting Guidelines were released on January
2, 2006 for a three-month public comment period. This is the third
version of the GRI's Guideline, named G3. Interested parties can
submit their comments via GRI's website until March 31, 2006. The
final version is planned for publication in October 2006.
ISO member bodies forming national mirror committees
for ISO SR standard
Since the establishment of ISO Working Group (WG) to develop international
Social Responsibility (SR) standard in March 2005, ISO member countries
have been working to assemble national mirror committees. Although
the WG encourages member countries to establish a "well-balanced
national mirror committee comprising a balance of all national interests
and stakeholder categories," it is up to each member body how
to implement such a goal. For instance, the recently formed US national
mirror committee does not have any mechanism to support under-represented/funded
stakeholder groups. The tiered membership fee structure proposed
by consumer and NGO representatives (i.e. higher fee for well-represented/funded
groups and lower fee for under-represented/funded ones) could not
gain enough support within the committee, and the group decided
to use a flat fee of $500/year for all six stakeholder categories.
WG SR's Task Group 1 recognizes the importance of
balanced representation at the national level, and is exploring
the funding and other mechanisms to achieve the balance. At the
same time, the recent TMB resolution confirmed that the organization
and decision of national mirror committees is exclusively the national
member body's responsibility. Although this WG has been establishing
new procedures that did not exist in other ISO committees (such
as introducing a strict stakeholder category quota for national
delegates), it is yet to be seen how much influence WG can exert
at the national level.
New standard for hazardous substance management
In response to the recent introduction of major European legislation
in the area of electronic waste, IECQ -(Quality Assessment System
for Electronic Component, a certification body for electronics-related
standards, recently developed a standard on hazardous substances
process management (HSPM). The new standard uses a management system
approach, and is targeted for the implementation/compliance for
the European Directives on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
(WEEE), and the Restriction of Use of Certain Hazardous Substances
(RoHS). These regulations were developed based on the concept of
extended producer responsibility, and require producers to recycle
waste electrical/electronic equipment and remove certain hazardous
substances from their products. IECQ had also proposed that the
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), a standards developing
body for the fields of electrotechnology, create an international
standard for hazardous substance management based on their HSPM,
however, industry groups were against creating another certifiable
management standard, and the management body of the IEC decided
not to develop such a standard for the time being. IECQ will nevertheless
continue to promote and to certify companies to their HSPM standard.
It is yet uncertain how this standard will be used, and how widely
it will be accepted, but the case presents an example of a private
standard developed/used in absence of equivalent international standard,
and which was created without formal process and stakeholder involvement,
but yet could become a quasi-market norm.
European organizations discuss standards and public
policy
The European Environmental Citizens Organisation for Standardisation
(ECOS) met in December to discuss the nexux between standardization
and environmental policy. More information including the workshop
presentations can be found at the ECOS
website. Also in December, the European Commission (EC) hosted
a workshop on the "challenge of stakeholder involvement in
order to integrate environmental aspects into European standardization."
It was a follow-up on the EC's
report on the integration of environmental aspects into standardization
published in 2004.
New report on standards and corporate social responsibility
A report "Corporate
Social Responsibility: Standards and Objectives Driving Corporate
Initiatives" was released in January 2006. The paper examines
the various tools through which CSR is being integrated and developed,
including standards and guidelines, market incentives and investment
indices.
NGO task group within ISO's environmental committee
develops operational guidance to improve stakeholder involvement
A task group consisting of NGOs and representatives of the leadership
within ISO's environmental management committee (TC 207) released
draft
recommendations for operational guidance to improve balance of stakeholder
participation in the committee's work. The recommendations were
based on the joint group's analysis of the relevant parts of ISO's
official rules (ISO/IEC Directives Part 1 - Procedures for technical
work) pertaining to participation and decision making in standards
development. The task group chair will present the draft document
at the TC 207 leadership's midyear meeting in Trinidad in early
March. The task group intends to revise and recirculate the piece
based on input received at the meeting.
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