There were intensive discussions at the meeting of ISO’s environmental management committee, ISO/TC 207, in Oslo. Considerable progress was made in areas like life cycle assessment, environmental performance, environmental audit, ecodesign, carbon footprint, use of resources, and management of water as a scarce resource.
350 delegates from all over the world met in Oslo in the last week of June to develop standards for environmental management. No less than 47 countries and 20 international organizations were represented, including a number of delegates from developing countries.
The meeting was opened by Mr Halvard Ingebrigtsen, State Secretary at the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry. Chairman of ISO/TC 207, Professor Bob Page from Canada, and CEO of Standards Norway, Ms Trine Tveter, addressed the delegates at the opening. During the seven day meeting 30 subcommittees and working groups met to discuss the development of environmental management standards.
In connection with the meeting there was a public workshop with very good attendance. The title of the workshop was “Towards low carbon societies – Need for efficient tools”. Participants pointed at the need for standards in the work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as well as possible ways forward through the use of standardized solutions, globally and locally.
During breaks delegates had a chance to discuss topics across nationality and speciality. That is of great importance, since the environmental management standards need to work together and to complement each other.
Important steps
Hundreds of decisions were taken during the meeting week, as recorded in standards, minutes, and resolutions. As an illustration we shall take a closer look at a couple of them.
In the development of a standardized method for quantification and communication of carbon footprint of products there was important progress. The international community now agrees on all important issues relating to the quantification of carbon footprints. As to the communication of carbon footprints the meeting recommended to make a distinction between information to be made available to the general public and information that is not intended to be publicly available. The former has consumers as its primary target group, while the latter has business partners as its primary target group. A written ballot in the committee later this year shall decide whether this distinction will form a basis for labelling, reporting and declarations.
It has already been recommended to revise ISO 14001, the system standard for environmental management. One of the reasons for a revision would be to harmonize ISO 14001 with ISO 9001 and other management system standards. The long-term aim is by many seen as a full integration of all management systems in an organization. Prior to the meeting a document was circulated listing principal decisions to be made in the initiation phase of the revision. These decisions will determine the directions of a future revision. The issues were discussed and recommendations were issued. The recommendations will be balloted within the committee before the revision process starts.
The way forward
All projects and working groups have detailed plans for their work, at least for one year to come. Tasks are distributed and target dates are fixed. Most of the communication uses electronic media, but some future meetings have been scheduled. The scientific ambitions of ISO/TC 207 are high, and there is a great market demand for the standards that are being planned and developed. In many areas there are urgent needs for efficient tools in place in the form of standards – all for the benefit of the environment. It is the environment that is the driving force, and considerable effort is put into the work even between meetings. The next meeting of the entire committee will be in Thailand in June of 2012.
There is additional information on the meeting web site, www.standard.no/tc207
Direct links to presentations and interviews made during the meeting:
Video interviews
- Bob Page, Chair of ISO/TC 207, Canada
- Guido Sonnemann, The United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP
- Mathias Finkbeiner, Chairman of ISO/TC 207/SC 5, Germany
- Nydia Suppen-Reynaga, Convener of ISO/TC 207/SC 5/WG 8, Mexico
- Klaus Radunsky, Convenor of ISO/TC 207/SC 7/WG 2, Austria
- Annik Magerholm Fet, Chair of the Norwegian mirror committee on product related management systems
New videos taken after the plenary meeting of ISO/TC 207 (posted 2011-07-07)
Public workshop - presentations
- Welcome and opening
Incl. State Secretary Halvard Ingebrigtsen, Ministry of Trade and Industry
- UNEP and SETAC - The Life Cycle Initiative
by Guido Sonnemann, The United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP
- Life cycle assessment (ISO 14040/44) as a basis for environmental declarations and carbon footprint of products
by Mathias Finkbeiner, Chairman of ISO/TC 207/SC 5, Germany
- Environmental product declaration - ISO 14025 as basis for communication of carbon footprint of products
by Ellen Riise, Sweden
- Carbon footprint of products, CFP (draft ISO 14067)
by Klaus Radunsky, Convener of ISO/TC 207/SC 7/WG 2, Austria
- Water footprint of products (draft ISO 14046)
by Nydia Suppen-Reynaga, Convener of ISO/TC 207/SC 5/WG 8, Mexico
- Environmental communication on consumer products – the French system
by Sylvain Chevassus, French Sustainable development Ministry, France
- The Norwegian EPD-system
by Dagfinn Malnes, The Norwegian EPD-Foundation, Norway
- The Japanese Initiative - The Japanese CFP Pilot Project
by Dr. Atsushi INABA, Professor, Kogakuin University, Japan and Mr. Eiji Uehara, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan
- The Japanese Initiative - Eco design - Proposal for revising ISO TR 14062
by Dr. Yoshiaki ICHIKAWA, Hitachi Ltd, Japan
- Traceability and availability of product category rules (PCRs) and environmental product declarations (EPDs)
by Sven-Olof Ryding, GEDnet, Sweden