The notion of creating standards for standards setting organizations not a new one, but it certainly has attracted more discussion and interest over the past 18 months. The challenge I see with this movement is less in coming up with the types of broad criteria that would be helpful to individual participants in the standards setting ecosystem, there are a host of useful research projects that have done just that over the years. Instead, my concern is related to the idea that there is a single exhaustive set of criteria and moreover a single formula through which those criteria can be passed to create an assessment or comparison of SSOs. Moreover, whatever a systematic or formulaic process such as this might inform us about the SSO itself, I am concerned that it doesn’t guarantee anything with respect to several of the key attributes of individual standards themselves, namely that they be of high quality, relevant and most importantly that they obtain market acceptance.
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Posts Tagged ‘ISO’
The Dangers of Elevating (SSO) Form over Substance (of Standards)
Thursday, April 29th, 2010ISO 14000- Green Standards
Thursday, December 17th, 2009The ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 families are among the best known standards and have the widest spread of use. All over the world, ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001:2004 have been implemented by over one million organizations, all willing to decrease their operation’s impact on the environment (http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/management_standards/iso_9000_iso_14000.htm). In structure the ISO 14000 standards are similar to the ISO 9000 quality management and they are most often implemented simultaneously. In order for a business or organization to be ISO 14000 accredited it need to be audited by an external auditor.
The ISO 14000 standards family helps organizations to minimize their environmental impact by the use of Environmental Management Systems (EMSs), Environmental Labeling, Auditing and Evaluation, and Life Cycle Assessments (http://www.ems-14000.com/). For instance, the two first published standards ISO 14001 and ISO 14004 provides requirements and guidelines for EMS respectively (http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_14000_essentials). With an EMS reaching the ISO 14001:2004 requirements, an organization has a tool which can identify the environmental impact of its activities, products and services, and then control them. It can also implement a systematic approach to setting the sought after environmental objectives and targets; how these can be reached and how the results should be demonstrated.
Striving towards ISO 14000 compliance can not only increase the reputation of an organization, which in itself could be very valuable in the current environment conscious society, but the systematic approach of e.g. the ISO 14001:2004 requires organizations to scrutinize its processes and result in the finding of new benefits. One result is lowered energy consumption, and therewith savings in cost.
ISO 14000 standards can contribute to internal efficiencies in an organization by increasing management control over the impact processes and activities have on the environment. Also, with an organization being ISO 14001:2004 certified, employees might find assurance in knowing that they are working for a company or an organization which takes a documented care of the environment.
The ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 families are among the best known standards and have the widest spread of use. All over the world, ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001:2004 have been implemented by over one million organizations, all willing to decrease their operation’s impact on the environment.
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