UPDATES BY ISSUE AREA
- Association of European Water Agencies Submits Position Paper on ISO Water Management Committee
- First Working Draft of Greenhouse Gas Standard Complete
- ISO CSR Advisory Group Develops Research Workplan
- NGOs Negotiate Future Work in TC 207
- Environmental Communications

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Dear INNI member,

Below please find our latest issue of the International NGO Network on ISO (INNI) - Online Update. This issue focuses on recent developments relating to ISO's standardization activities in water management, greenhouse gas accounting, corporate social responsibility, and NGO participation in ISO standards development.

For our new INNI members, more general information about the initiative, past issues of the INNI Online Update, and detailed supplementary and background material on the topics we cover can be found online at: www.pacinst.org/inni.

Please feel free to forward this bulletin onto other NGOs you think may find it of value. And as always, we encourage you to email us at inni@pacinst.org with any comments or feedback you may have.

Best regards,

Jason Morrison
Pacific Institute

Association of European Water Agencies Submits Position Paper on ISO Water Management Committee

On June 17, 2003, EUREAU, the Union of National Associations of Water Suppliers and Waste Water services from the EU and European Free Trade Association countries, submitted a position paper regarding ISO's water management committee - TC 224. The overall tone of the position paper is supportive of the idea of standards development in water services, but it raises several issues to be taken into account if the standards are to be valid and useful. The paper identifies the key expectation for the standards to provide clear advantages to both water utilities and their customers, as well as emphasizes the need for transparency between water industries and their clients. It further raises several criteria to be considered in the development of the new standards, such as the cost/benefit associated with the new standards and clear allocation of the responsibilities among the different stakeholders in water services. Considering the widely differing nature of water services globally and locally, EUREAU recommends that TC 224 concentrate on the essential service requirements. It also suggests that the standards should not impose on companies any particular mandated form of organization.

Some of the issues raised in the position paper will be discussed at the next TC 224 plenary meeting September 22-25 in Ottawa, Canada. Key topics such as how and what to include as performance indicators in the standards, the definition of stakeholders, and whether the concept of a 'human right to water' should be included in the standards will also be addressed at the meeting.

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First Working Draft of Greenhouse Gas Standard Complete

In May 2003, the first Working Drafts (WDs) for two parts of the three-part standard on greenhouse gas (GHG) quantification, reporting, and verification were circulated to Working Group 5 (WG5) members for review and comment. During the ISO/TC 207 plenary meeting in Bali in July 2003, WG5 discussed comments received on the two WDs, 14064-1 (entity level accounting) and 14064-3 (verification and validation). Major decisions taken in Bali on 14064-1 include:

• Recommendation (not requirement) to quantify and report GHG emissions associated with imported electricity, heat, steam or other energy product;
• Requirement to establish GHG data management processes with elements of continuous improvement;
• Requirement to consider and document objectives, needs of intended users and other key elements of GHG reporting in report planning; and
• Requirement to report all of the 13 key elements of the GHG inventory.

WG5 decided to move forward with elevating 14064-1 and 14064-3 to the Committee Draft (CD) stage and plans to complete the CDs for these two sections of the standard by June 2004. Once a document reaches CD stage, it has its first exposure to a wider audience outside of the WG. The second part of the standard on project level GHG accounting is somewhat behind the other parts, with its first WD scheduled for circulation by October 2003.

While in Bali, WG5 (and TC 207 as a whole) decided to support a March 2003 ISO CASCO (Committee on Conformity Assessment) resolution asking TC 207 to explore the establishment of a joint group between CASCO and TC 207 WG5 that will develop a greenhouse gas organization accreditation document.

Ecologia, an NGO working closely on the ISO greenhouse gas accounting standard, has been developing an NGO position paper, the current draft of which can be found at: http://www.ecologia.org/ems/ghg/. Also posted on their website is a more specific issue paper looking at the 'entity' (corporate or organizational) part of the standard and a detailed update on and evaluation of the entity part. In the coming weeks Ecologia will be posting corresponding updates on the project and verification sections, as well as a report on participation and transparency in WG5's process thus far.

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ISO CSR Advisory Group Develops Research Workplan

Following on the CSR Strategic Advisory Group's (SAG) March 2003 recommendation to further study the possible development of ISO standards on CSR, the chairs of the ISO Technical Management Board (TMB) and the SAG on CSR met on April 3rd to clarify the SAG's role in the implementation of the recommendation. The following issues were confirmed at the meeting:

• The ISO Council has formally accepted the SAG's recommendations;
• The ISO Council has given management and oversight responsibilities for this file to the ISO TMB;
• An acceptable and credible consultant will prepare the Technical Report, the mandate and scope of which will be established with input from the SAG; and
• Drafts of the Technical Report will be circulated to the SAG for comments and input.
  

In terms of initiating work on the Technical Report (TR), it was decided that the SAG Secretary will draft selection criteria for consultants, including their neutrality and expertise. It was also agreed that the scope of the TR should focus on the overview of social responsibility, rather than try to compile a comprehensive list of all CSR initiatives. The major components of the TR will include: a survey of the state of the art in the area of social responsibility; an analysis of the current trends and their possible meaning for the future; and an analysis of the gaps identified and potential opportunities to fill these gaps.

The SAG recently met on 24-25 July 2003 in Sao Paulo, Brazil to discuss the workplan for the production of the TR, the preparation of a Justification Study, and a review of ISO's standards development processes. The group fine tuned the Secretary's draft terms of reference for the TR and agreed to a schedule for the report's development. It decided that once the consultant is finally selected, a "kick off" meeting between the consultant and the SAG will be held (likely in late August). The consultant will produce a first draft of the TR by October, and following a comment period within the SAG, a revised draft will be publicly circulated in February 2004. The SAG plans to organize a conference on the issue of ISO and CSR standards in June/July 2004 and to send a final draft of the TR to the ISO Technical Management Board by September 2004.

In its July 2003 plenary meeting in Bali, the ISO/TC 207 Task Force on CSR was given approval by the full technical committee to reiterate its previous offer (to which it received no response) to provide assistance to the SAG on CSR in its deliberations.

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NGOs Negotiate Future Work in TC 207

At its annual meeting in Bali, ISO/TC 207 received the report of the NGO Task Group, "Increasing the Effectiveness of NGO Participation in TC 207" (also known as TC 207 N590). The use of the term "receive" in the final TC 207 resolution, rather than "accept," the term typically used for such reports, reflects a notable discomfort among a number of influential national member bodies with some of the report's findings and recommendations.

And after thanking the NGO Task Group for completing the report, TC 207 resolved to disband the group on the basis that it had completed its two-year mandate. In its stead, TC 207 created a joint group of NGOs and representatives of the TC 207 leadership to review the N590 report, and to provide recommendations to TC 207 on how to address the specific recommendations within the report. Dubbed the NGO-Chairman's Advisory Group (CAG) Task Force, the body will consist of eight members (4 CAG representatives and 4 NGO representatives). The chair of the new joint group will be an NGO, who will be chosen by the NGOs within TC 207. The NGO-CAG Task Force will deliver its recommendations to TC 207 through the development of an action plan, which will be produced in close cooperation with national and international NGOs.

At its Bali meeting, TC 207 also resolved to welcome an initiative of the NGO participants in TC 207 to establish an NGO Forum (NGOF). The purpose of the NGO Forum is to organize NGO input into the NGO-CAG Task Force, and to address other issues that NGOs consider important.

The ISEAL Alliance, a formal collaboration of international voluntary standard-setting and conformity assessment organizations focused on social and environmental issues, has recently released its second draft of "ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards." Along with the new draft, ISEAL issued a guidance document for the application of the Code. The ISEAL Alliance is seeking comments on this second draft from August 1, 2003 to September 30, 2003.

For more information, contact ISEAL Outreach Coordinator, Abra Brynne, at: secretariat@isealalliance.org

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This update was created by the Pacific Institute of Oakland, CA. Copyright 2003