Gold for Safety in Sports and Leisure

Home , ISO 4217, ISO 7001

ISO Focus The Magazine of the International Organization for Standardization Volume 5, No. 7/8, July/August 2008, ISSN 1729-8709

Gold for safety in sports and leisure

• Jiangsu Sunshine : ISO standards are “ green pass ” • Consumers for sustainable energy Contents

1 Comment Håkan Murby, ISO President, Standards and sport 2 World Scene Highlights of events from around the world 3 ISO Scene Highlights of news and developments from ISO members

Focus 7-8 2008.indd 1 15.07.2008 15:26:06 4 Guest View Chen Lifen, Chairman of the Board of Jiangsu Sunshine ISO Focus is published 11 times a year (single issue : July-August). Group, Ltd. It is available in English. 8 Main Focus Annual subscription 158 Swiss Francs Individual copies 16 Swiss Francs Publisher Gold for safety ISO Central Secretariat (International Organization for Standardization) in sports and leisure 1, ch. de la Voie-Creuse CH-1211 Genève 20 Switzerland Telephone + 41 22 749 01 11 Fax + 41 22 733 34 30 E-mail [email protected] Web www.iso.org

Manager : Roger Frost Acting Editor : Maria Lazarte Assistant Editor : Janet Maillard • ISO’s “ toolbox” of Olympic proportions for major events Artwork : Pascal Krieger and • The growth of fake grass Pierre Granier • Pain ? Maybe, but no danger – Sculpting the perfect body ISO Update : Dominique Chevaux • Plotting the course for golf services Subscription enquiries : Sonia Rosas Friot • Teeing off for the environment – The Carimate Golf Club ISO Central Secretariat • Adventure tourism comes of age Telephone + 41 22 749 03 36 • Diving with confidence into the deep blue Fax + 41 22 749 09 47 E-mail [email protected] • Quick-release for sailing trapeze • Slaloming towards safety in alpine skiing © ISO, 2008. All rights reserved. • Man overboard ! – Prevention and recovery The contents of ISO Focus are copyright • Staying afloat – From Norwegian cork to Olympic sailing and may not, whether in whole or in part, be reproduced, stored in a retrieval • Taking a dive with immersion suits system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, 35 Developments and Initiatives photocopying or otherwise, without written permission of the Editor. How can consumers influence a sustainable energy future ? • ISO IT Strategy 2010 and beyond The articles in ISO Focus express the views of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of ISO or of any of its members. 43 New on the shelf • How to get the best out of the ISO 9000 family • Privacy of ISSN 1729-8709 financial data • Corporate governance of IT Printed in Switzerland Cover photo : Montage ISO. 45 Coming up ISO Focus July-August 2008 Comment

1 Comment Håkan Murby, ISO President, Standards and sport 2 World Scene Standards and sport Highlights of events from around the world

3 ISO Scene n the eve of the 2008 Olym- Some people might object to a Another objection to linking Highlights of news and developments from ISO members pic Games *, it is instructive to link being drawn between standards and standards and sport might be that stand- O reflect on the parallels between sport on the grounds that standards are ardization is the realm par excellence 4 Guest View international sports competitions and the antithesis of the superior performance of the technical, while sport is an are- Chen Lifen, Chairman of the Board of Jiangsu Sunshine standardization. On first considera- that it takes to win in sport. These people na for showcasing human excellence. Group, Ltd. tion, the two disciplines might seem would no doubt be the same ones who While it is true that the content of the rather far removed, but on reflection, would see standardization as being the vast majority of standards is largely 8 Main Focus we soon perceive that rules are vitally antithesis of innovation, when, in fact, technical, there are many standards that important to both. standards are tools to facilitate, speed define and disseminate good practice – up and disseminate innovation. and what is more human than developing, sharing and nurturing good practice ? Isn’t it the basis of “ Like sport, much in parenthood, education standardization has and apprenticeship ? entered the era of Whether standards con- tain technical information and globalization and specifications or guidance for there is a clear good practice, the process of advantage for those developing them depends very much on teamwork, good com- who participate munication and a focus on a when the “ rules ” common goal – which are also are agreed upon.” highly desirable qualities in many sports. Standards and sports have a lot more in common than first meets the eye ! Naturally, it goes without saying Playing by rules laid down in that rules are absolutely necessary for codes and enforced by referees and sport. In fact, without rules and respect officials hardly prevents sportsmen of the rules by sports associations, play- and women from displaying creativ- ers, referees and spectators, there is no ity – even brilliance on occasions – sport, but a free-for-all. When the rules and other human values like courage, are changed, it affects the strategy of the initiative and steadfastness. In sport, players and can favour some competi- rules establish the baseline behaviour, tors over others, thus influencing who but do not fix the upper limits of per- will win. Therefore, it is important to formance. participate in developing the rules. Likewise, standards set accept- Although voluntary, International able levels of values like safety, reli- Standards can become market require- ability, effectiveness, usability and ments and so they too can be compared so on. As ISO standards are regular- to rules. Increasingly, if your product ly revised, these levels are constantly or service does not meet Internation- being reviewed in the light of techni- al Standards for aspects such as safe- cal progress and best practices. At the ty, quality, environmental impact and same time, nothing prevents manufac- Håkan Murby compatibility, then it will suffer from turers from going above and beyond ISO President restricted access to global markets. the standards’ requirements to differ- Like sport, standardization has entiate themselves from competition to firmly entered the era of globalization win customers. Like the rules of sport, * This Comment is expanded from a shorter and there is a clear advantage for those standards assure the basics and provide a platform or framework for creativity text specially written by the ISO President for who participate in international stand- the Standardization Administration of China ardization when the “ rules ” are being and a level playing field. (SAC) on the occasion of the Beijing 2008 agreed upon. Olympic Games.

ISO Focus July-August 2008 1 World Scene

Energy at heart of Pan VAMAS welcomes new EASC, regulatory American meeting members reform and International COPANT, the Pan American In the late 1980s, ISO and IEC Standards Cooperation on Technical signed a Memorandum of The 33rd meeting of the Euro- Standards, held its annual meet- Understanding with VAMAS Attending the first International Asian Council for Standardiza- ing in Buenos Aires, Argentina, (Versailles Agreement on Transport Forum, (from left) tion Metrology and Certification in May 2008. The event, hosted Advanced Materials and Stand- Jack Short, ITF Secretary General ; (EASC) met in Baku, Azerbaijan, by IRAM (ISO member for ardization). The terms allow Angela Merkel, German Chancellor ; in June 2008. EASC gathers, i.a., Argentina) was attended by VAMAS to submit the results Anu Vehviläinen, Minister of the national standards bodies of national and associate members of its research work in the form Transport, Finland (ITF Chair) ; the Commonwealth of Independ- of COPANT, and by representa- of pre-standards for publication Wolfgang Tiefensee, Minister of ent States (CIS) – all members tives of ISO and IEC. as Technology Trends Assess- Transport, Germany (ITF host) of ISO. Seven other European ments (TTAs). Over the years, a The meeting provided a forum ISO members took part in the number of TTAs have been On the road to energy for addressing standardization meeting, as well as the Russian published, but most of VAMAS’ issues of interest to the region, efficiency Union of Manufacturers and work has been transmitted such as capacity building, The first International Transport Entrepreneurs. directly to technical committees increasing the competitiveness Forum (ITF), held in Leipzig, for processing as normal com- The meeting reviewed national of SMEs, and the creation of Germany, in May 2008, attract- mittee deliverables. progress and regional coopera- a COPANT mirror group to the ed some 900 participants, tion on technical regulations, ISO Committee on consumer At its 33rd meeting, held in including transport ministers standards, metrology and policy, ISO/COPOLCO. Montreal, Canada, the VAMAS from its 51 member countries. accreditation – in particular in Steering Committee welcomed Positioned as a worldwide the light of regulatory reforms new members from Australia, platform for transport ministers, currently underway in most Brazil, Chinese Taipei, India, industry and civil society, ITF member countries adjusting to Mexico and South Africa. Each is an inter-governmental organ- the market economy and joining new member presented an over- ization within the Organisation the World Trade Organization. view of how advanced materials for Economic Co-operation research is organized in its coun- and Development. try and its current priorities. Within the theme of “ Transport The Steering Committee consid- and Energy : The Challenge of COPANT officers at the annual ered proposals for new projects Climate Change ”, the Forum meeting in Buenos Aires : (from left) in the fields of properties of focused on improving energy Manuel Diaz Portocarrero, Executive nanoparticle populations, char- efficiency and reducing trans- Secretary ; Pablo Benia (Uruguay), acterization of airborne nanopar- port’s dependence on oil and Vice-President ; Peter Clark (Canada), ticles (particularly from a mor- CO emissions. Participants at the 33rd EASC meeting President ; and Mario Wittner 2 phological point of view, to in Baku, Azerbaijan. (Argentina), Treasurer. The Forum workshop. “Reduc- responding to requests from tox- The rate of adoption of both ing CO2 Emissions in Goods A workshop on “Strategies for icologists) and collection of data Transport” highlighted the ISO international and European development” addressed both concerning the environmental 14064 standards for greenhouse standards is accelerating (aver- quality management in the pub- performance of materials. gas (GHG) reporting and verifi- age of 54 % achieved to date). lic administration, and energy The former projects are of cation as providing a framework The ISO Secretary-General pre- efficiency and renewable ener- interest to ISO/TC 229, Nanote- for quantifying GHG emissions sented ISO developments in key gies. On the latter issue, the chnologies, while the latter at company level. The actions sectors for CIS countries, such workshop recognized that a path should be a useful adjunct to of companies keen to demon- as oil and gas, energy efficiency, response to climate change, towards sustainable development new work on ecodesign within strate their CO2 performance could not take place without an ISO/TC 207, Environmental were considered an important industrial engineering, informa- energy response adapted to the management. element of climate policy, and tion technologies, nanotechnolo- reality of each region. the ISO 14064 standards could gies, food safety and healthcare. be a platform for this effort. In relation to energy, ISO Secre- He encouraged cooperation tary-General Alan Bryden spoke It was also noted that the within EASC to increase and on the contributions of ISO and Carbon Disclosure Project pro- share the production of official highlighted the importance of motes the use of ISO 14064 versions of ISO standards in International Standards for avoid- and the GHG Protocol of the Russian, for which the ISO ing unnecessary technical barri- World Resources Institute and Central Secretariat has passed ers to trade, enabling the creation the World Business Council for an agreement with GOST-R, of world markets for energy effi- Sustainable Development, with the ISO member for the Russian cient technologies, promoting whom ISO has a Memorandum Federation, to put the appropri- good energy management prac- of Understanding to jointly ate logistics in place. This meet- tices, helping improve consum- promote their respective GHG ing was hosted by AZSTAND, ers’ and users’ understanding and accounting and reporting the ISO member for Azerbaijan, confidence, and supporting scien- standards. and chaired by its Director tific cooperation and possible General, Mr. Gassanov, then harmonization of public policies. Chairman of EASC.

2 ISO Focus July-August 2008 ISO Scene

UNIT expands its training Aligning the energy front facilities ISO’s new Strategic Advisory In May 2008, the ISO member Group on energy efficiency and for Uruguay (UNIT) inaugurat- renewable energy sources (SAG ed a significant expansion of its E) held its first meeting in May premises in the centre of Mon- 2008 in Geneva. The group, co- tevideo, the country’s capital. chaired by Ms. Carole Le Gall and Mr. Yang Zeshi, reflects a The first meeting of SAG E at ISO headquarters in Geneva. UNIT now offers some 250 balance of expertise, with mem- training sessions annually. bers coming from policy-mak- The aim of the workshop was As a “ horizontal ” committee, With 120 different courses, of ing organizations, industry and to assist members in the region ISO/TC 145 strives to enable which 25 % are delivered research institutions from all to fully participate in the inter- good coordination with commit- directly in companies, they over the world. national standardization proc- tees needing symbols and safety attract the participation of ess. The target audience con- signs. For this purpose, ISO/TC 5 000 trainees from both the Excellent progress was made, sisted of coordinators and 45 is promoting awareness of its public and the private sectors. including agreement of a administrative staff from stand- standards and requirements. This number of recommendations ardization or international rela- will ensure that proposals from aimed at ISO’s technical level. tions departments who are other committees are consistent These stressed the importance directly responsible for coop- with ISO/TC 45 standards, and of aligning standards work eration with ISO, or who will that advice can be given at an with the priorities of intergov- guide others within their early stage. ernmental organizations, such national standards body. At the meeting, ISO/TC 145 as the International Energy Participation was sponsored by agreed to continue subcommit- Agency, and ensuring that ISO. International Standards are tee 3’s cooperation with IEC available to help bring new In addition, selected partici- on the joint database for sym- energy technologies to market. pants received training on the bols for use on equipment. After the inaugauration ceremony of ISO Global Directory to enable SAG E has also recommended The technical committee wel- UNIT’s new training facilities. their appointment as new that joint work begin with the comed the demonstration of a Member Body User Adminis- Many of these courses build on IEC to develop a harmonized prototype of the ISO Concept trators for their countries. ISO standards, especially on terminology in this area. Database, designed to hold all the management system series Similar hands-on training com- ISO/TC 145 symbols, including such as ISO 9000, ISO 14000, Hands-on training on puter courses in 2008 are being those of SC 1 (public informa- ISO 22000 and ISO/IEC 27000. eServices organized for ISO members in tion) and SC 2 (safety). The At the inauguration ceremony, The Korean Agency for Tech- South America, Africa and tool will make it easier for ISO Secretary-General Alan nology and Standards (KATS) South Asia. potential users to find and use Bryden spoke on “ International hosted a newly designed ISO the symbols. Members empha- Standards and public policies ”. regional workshop in Seoul, Easy access to graphical sized that the database could The interest of the Uruguayan Republic of Korea, in April 2008. symbols create valuable opportunities authorities was highlighted by the presence of the Vice Minister for Economic Affairs, Cr. Gerar- do Gadea, who delivered a message from the President of Uruguay, Dr. Tabaré Vásquez ; the Minister of Education and Culture, Ing. María Simón ; and the Vice Minister of the Interior, Insp. Ricardo Bernal. Ing. Pablo Benia, Director General of UNIT, presented the new 2 700 m2 facilities Participants at the ISO eServices Working for symbols and safety, (more than double the original Two themes predominated at workshop in Seoul. participants at the ISO/TC 145 plenary. surface), equipped with mod- the recent plenary of ISO/TC ern technology and designed The workshop provided a 145, Graphical symbols, in for improving accessibility and for accessibility, as a tool con- detailed overview and update Chicago, USA, which took ensuring that the standardized tributing to the country’s com- on ISO eServices. Participants place in May 2008 : images are used. petitiveness and progress on from the ISO members of 14 • improving communications environmental and social issues. countries in the region of East The meeting was hosted with with other committees, and He underlined that the facilities and South Asia were taken the generous support of the were also used for regional through the workings and use • moving forward to having National Electrical Manufac- events, as will be the case for of all the relevant applications all ISO/TC 145 symbols turers Association (NEMA) an upcoming regional ISO and given practical hands-on available through the ISO and the Association of Equip- training session on IT tools. computer training. Concept Database. ment Manufacturers (AEM).

ISO Focus July-August 2008 3 Guest View Mrs. Chen Lifen

rs. Chen Lifen is the reliability of its own Chairman of the suppliers ? M Board of Jiangsu Sunshine Group, Ltd., Chen Lifen : Nowadays, Chairman of the Board and the economy worldwide is General Manager of moving in the direction of Jiangsu Sunshine Co., Ltd., global trading. In this con- and a Vice president of the text, International Standards China Wool Textile are encouraging fair com- Association (CWTA). petition, maintaining order within markets, eliminating Mrs. Chen Lifen began her trade barriers and supporting career in the wool textile technology innovations. industry in 1979. Indeed, the adoption Successively, she worked as of International Standards a technician, workshop for operations and prod- director, technical manager ucts demonstrates that the and Deputy General company’s management, Manager, before being technology and equipment appointed to her present have reached an internation- position in Jiangsu Sunshine ally recognized level of per- Group. Since then, the formance. They are, there- company has developed fore, green passes for com- from an unknown small- panies entering the inter- town enterprise to one of national market, providing the world’s largest modern both assurance and confi- enterprises with a wide dence in the product and a product range and silent advertisement. significant influence in To give some exam- the industry. ples, in 1992, Sunshine Under Mrs. Chen Lifen’s leadership, Group opened the Japanese market at Jiangsu Sunshine Group established “ International Standards a single stroke by introducing Japa- three major research and development are encouraging nese technology and producing fabrics institutions – a scientific-assembled in accordance with Japanese textile post-doctoral research station, a fair competition.” standards. In 1995, as Sunshine entered national technology centre, and a into cooperation with the Internation- national new materials engineering al Wool Secretariat and applied Inter- and technology research centre for ISO Focus : How do you see the national Standards, Sunshine worsted wool, which led to a structured, role of International Standards in fabrics began to be promoted through- focused technological innovation facilitating access to international out the world. Today, 65 % of Sunshine system. Jiangsu Sunshine Group’s markets and how can Jiangsu Sun- worsted fabrics and suits for both men development capacity, which averages shine Group benefit from their use ? and women are portrayed as high-qual- 30 to 40 new products daily, allows it Conversely, as a company that ity, high-grade products, selling in over to maintain a leading position in its relies in part on imported high- 30 countries in Europe, the Americas domestic market and to enter quality machinery, how does com- and South East Asia. the higher ranks of the worldwide pliance to International Standards Different countries have different wool industry. give Jiangsu Sunshine assurance of languages and requirements for product

4 ISO Focus July-August 2008 Headquarters, Jiangyin City, Jiangsu Province, ISO Focus : The Secretariat of tech- China. Jiangsu Sunshine nical committee ISO/TC 38, Textiles, is held jointly by the ISO members Group for China and Japan, with Mr. Chen Founded in 1986, it is now one Min of the Jiangsu Sunshine Group of the country’s leading enterpris- as the Secretary representing China. es with key national support. The How do you view the value of this Group has 18 000 employees. Its involvement for Jiangsu Sunshine activities encompass wool spin- and, more generally, for the Chinese ning and weaving, clothing, medi- textile industry, and what would you cal biotechnology, ecological agri- like the committee to achieve? culture, forestry, real estate, thermal power, new energy, metal and “ Relevant International Headquarters Bosch Group, Gerlingen, Germany metallurgical industries. Standards are helping us Jiangsu Sunshine Group’s base is the textile industry. It annually pro- choose the right suppliers duces three million sets of high- and ensure that machinery grade garments and owns brand meets our requirements.” names such as Venetia, Pompei performance and features. The great and Gezelia. With an annual capac- advantage of International Standards is ity of 35 000 000 metres of super- Chen Lifen :The Secretariat of ISO/ that they introduce a common base and fine worsted fabric, it has become TC 38, Textiles, was held by the United thus level the playing field. Sunshine the world’s largest wool fabric mill Kingdom for more than 60 years, since its creation. With the development of thus realized that all markets would and high-end clothing producer. open if the quality and performance the textile industry, China has played an The company is amongst China’s of its products could achieve Interna- increasingly important role in the indus- tional Standards. well-known trademarks with state try and is now in the forefront in both Sunshine business with Giorgio inspection-exempt products, and technology and market share, while the Armani, Hugo Boss and other well- China’s world-famous brands with influence of former leading countries is known labels proves that manufactur- export inspection-exempt products. gradually declining. ers in both developed and developing It is the first enterprise in China to countries can have the same opportu- act as ISO/TC 38 Secretariat. nities. Through its business cooperation with these companies, Sunshine has accomplished continual improve- Committed to sport ment in both technology and manage- Life is movement. In addition to ment, and has also enhanced the com- table tennis, basketball is one of petitiveness of its products. At the same time, we are pur- the most popular sports in China. chasing a lot of advanced machinery Almost every village, school, enter- to upgrade our production capability. prise and institution has basketball The relevant International Standards courts. Jiangsu Sunshine Group has are helping us choose the right sup- sponsored China’s national basket- pliers and ensure that the machinery ball team since 2006 – the Sun- meets our requirements. shine Group’s Pompei Uniforms has been designated as the exclusive Sunshine garment factory. official outfitter of China’s national basketball team.

ISO Focus July-August 2008 5 Guest View

I personally think that in undertaking the Secretariat of ISO/TC 38, China brings advantages relative to textile history, production scale and technical level. Mr. Chen Min is the Direc- tor of Sunshine Products Development Centre and has a long experience working in textile production and technology. He is often involved in international exchange, and is knowledgeable about international textile advanced technology. Therefore, he is well qualified to act as the Secretary of ISO/TC 38 representing China. Mr. Chen Min’s involvement as Secretary of the technical committee will improve the international status and influence of China’s textile industry, and advance the development of Chinese textile technology. His work and role will also help Sunshine upgrade its production, technology and R&D capability. We have to maintain our position as a leading company in this sector

tion of the textile and garment brands and increased success for the textile technical committee in the near future.

ISO Focus : What part does the implementation of ISO’s standards for quality management and environmental management play in Jiangsu Sun- shine’s operations and how do they contribute to its success?

Chen Lifen : Jiangsu Sunshine set up its management system in accordance with ISO 9001 (quality management) and ISO 14001 (environmental management) in 1999 and 2000 respectively. After nearly 10 years of operation, our company has benefited considerably and the management system is much more complete. The quality of its products is the foundation of a company. Through the ISO 9000 quality management system, the staff of the entire company has become aware of the standards. As a result, we have achieved better management meth- in order to do our work well. Mr. Chen our ability to adapt to new internation- ods and product quality assurance. Min’s involvement will encourage Sun- al standards. Similarly, as an enterprise with shine to continually undertake techni- The work of ISO/TC 38 helps high responsibility in society, the ques- cal innovation, international exchange industry to contribute and safeguard better tions of resource consumption and envi- and cooperation to improve ourselves. international competition. I expect this new ronmental protection are very important Additionally, by being informed of new Secretariat to be able to actively promote issues which we need to address. With the requirements and standards for interna- international textile technology improve- implementation of the ISO 14001 envi- tional markets, we can quickly improve ment, leading to greater internationaliza- ronmental management system, we are

6 ISO Focus July-August 2008 now aware of our environmental work- For example, we have developed nano fin- ing objectives and index ; by using these ishing fabrics, anti-static fabrics and new standards for all production, we have stretch fabrics. Because we have the Inter- minimized the pollution resulting from national Standards for these products, we our processes. have been able to develop them easily and achieve good sales to many clients. ISO Focus : Jiangsu Sunshine has established a technical innovation “ Organizations around research institute. How does the the world … are becoming company perceive the role of Inter- national Standards in enabling the increasingly aware of dissemination of new technologies the need for socially (such as nanotechnologies, informa- responsible behaviour.” tion technologies, new materials) Sunshine top dyeing factory. and best practices ? ISO Focus : The 2008 Olympics take The construction of the Olym- Chen Lifen : Innovation is the soul of place in Beijing. How do you view pic stadiums, accommodation of person- a company. The development of a com- the role of International Standards nel, security, transportation and environ- pany is relative to its capability in crea- in facilitating international events mental protection, etc., are all important tion. In the past 20 years, Sunshine has through the provision of require- issues for which the Chinese government set up its own innovation institution based ments ensuring the quality, safety has followed the relevant International on the “ post-doctor workstation ”, Chi- and performance of products and Standards. This is an assurance for suc- na’s national new materials engineering services (for example, for special- cessful games. Through these Olympics, and technology research centre of wool, ized clothing and technical fab- China will also pay much more attention which closely follows the evolution of rics) ? to getting transportation, environmental new technology and materials to devel- protection, national quality and the like, op new products. Chen Lifen : The 2008 Olympics will be to meet world standards and then upgrade The guidance of International Stand- held in Beijing, which engenders great our international image in accordance with ards is quite important. By using relevant pride in the Chinese people, and will be our country status. International Standards, we can spend the a pageant for the whole world. All the We believe that the implementation right amount of effort in introducing new actions undertaken by the Chinese gov- of International Standards will be more and technology and purchasing new materi- ernment have been carried out in accord- more important with the further globaliza- als, as well as developing new products. ance with International Standards. tion of the world economy.

ISO Focus July-August 2008 7 Main Focus Gold for safety in sports and leisure

This article is a condensed ow are the winners determined in most of the events that make up version of one specially ISO’s H the Olympic Games ? They are, written by ISO Secretary- of course, the athletes who run or swim faster, jump higher, lift heavier, throw General Alan Bryden at “ toolbox” further. But how is their prowess meas- the request of the Stand- ured ? By the SI (Système international) International System of Units, which is ardization Administra- of Olympic contained in the International Standard tion of China (SAC) on ISO 31, Quantities and units1). The SI system will probably not receive much the occasion of the Beijing proportions publicity at the Beijing 2008 Olympic 2008 Olympic Games. Games, and yet, without ISO 31, it is difficult to imagine how any meaning- It is shared here with for major ful competition could take place. ISO Focus readers because In the run-up to the Beijing Games, it is a good moment to reflect of its wide relevance to the events on how ISO’s collection of more than 17 000 International Standards offers subject of standards for practical tools for dealing with so many sports and leisure. of the issues and challenges facing the 8 ISO Focus July-August 2008 Gold for safety in sports and leisure

organizers of a global event like the People’s Olympics ”. In a related move, Olympics. the State Tourism Bureau published the sector standard LB/T007–2006, Green Greenhouse gases hotels, including requirements for clean- Environmental and There will undoubtedly be increas- er production, green design/consump- ing pressure for major events to reduce quality management tion/food/lighting and service, environ- their generation of greenhouse gases to In most cases it is the internation- mental labelling, environmental policy a minimum and to want to communi- al federations for the sports concerned and environmental performance, refer- cate their efforts and successes in this that develop and impose the standards enced to ISO 14001. endeavour. Two indispensable tools for for the equipment used in their disci- To ensure the efficiency of the such purposes are ISO 14064, which plines. However, if this led to the con- Chinese Olympic Committee’s Anti- provides requirements for organiza- clusion that ISO does not have much to Doping Commission, its quality man- tions or persons to quantify and verify offer the Olympic world, then that con- agement system has been certified to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and clusion would be seriously wrong. And ISO 9001:2000. The standard is also ISO 14065, which specifies accredita- for assurance on this point, we turn to referenced by the IOC. In its Manu- tion requirements for organizations that the International Olympic Committee al on Sport and the Environment, the validate or verify resulting GHG emis- (IOC), which has stated : “ Alongside IOC encourages sports equipment sion assertions or claims. sport and culture, the IOC considers manufacturers to seek certification to ISO/TC 207, the technical commit- the environment as the third dimension both ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 to help tee responsible for the ISO 14000 family, of Olympism.” meet their quality and environmental is also looking at extending its work to To implement the spirit of the challenges. other climate change related issues, includ- above declaration, the organizers of the ing metrics for the “carbon footprint” of 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin, events – with obvious relevance to events Italy, made extensive use of certifi- “ISO’s collection of 17 000 like future Olympic Games. cation to the ISO 14001 standard for environmental management systems International Standards (EMS) in the selection of suppliers to Building and the event. infrastructure In turn, the Beijing Organizing offers practical tools Before an event like the Olym- Committee (BOCOG) has implemented pic Games can take place, a great deal an ISO 14001-certified EMS as part for the challenges of building and infrastructure con- of the Chinese authorities’ efforts struction work has to be planned and to ensure “ a Green, High-tech and facing the organizers of a global event carried out. From an environmental like the Olympics.”

1) Now being successively replaced by the ISO 80000 and IEC 80000 series.

ISO Focus July-August 2008 9 Main Focus perspective, construction is both a huge road traffic safety management system time format), and ISO 639 (language consumer of natural resources and a standard which will be particularly suit- codes). generator of large amounts of waste and able for coping with the large fleets of But ISO standards facilitate the pollution. In addition, buildings are sig- vehicles that serve a major event. sharing of information far beyond infor- nificant users of energy, with its related mation technology. ISO standards pro- emission of greenhouse gases. vide harmonized terminologies for many International consensus on ISO Information sectors of activity and these facilitate standards for climate change mitiga- understanding and cooperation between tion, environmental terminology, envi- For anyone attending a large event the business partners from different ronmental performance, environmental in a country whose language they do countries that may work together with- declaration of building products (ISO not understand, the existence of inter- in the context of an international event. 21930), building energy efficiency (ISO nationally standardized public informa- In so doing, terminology standards can 16818), sustainability in building con- tion symbols (ISO 7001) is not only a promote other qualities, such as safety struction (ISO 15392) and energy man- relief, but also contributes to their safe- and efficiency. agement systems provides a firm foun- ty and well-being. Another group of ISO standards dation for designers and architects, engi- The planning and realization of that can prove invaluable in the context neers, owners and government author- an event like the Olympics generates a of international projects where hard ities to develop sustainable buildings massive surge in information and data data needs to be exchanged is the STEP which will remain long after the initial of all kinds that need to be captured, series of standards, i.e. Standards for event. ISO standards on the treatment stored, retrieved and exchanged, often Exchange and Product Data (ISO 10303, of waste and the quality of water sup- worldwide. The information and com- Industrial automation systems and inte- ply and treatment services (ISO 24510 munication technologies (ICT) infra- gration – Product data representation series) are other invaluable tools. structure on which the modern world and exchange) for different functional increasingly depends – the Internet and areas, covering product design, analy- other networks, computer hardware, sis and manufacture. “ Alongside sport and software, interfaces, connections, pro- With thousands of goods and culture, the IOC considers tocols and good practice – has been items of all types being shipped to the largely shaped by standards developed site, swift and accurate stock control the environment as by ISO and its partners, the Internation- and traceability information is essen- the third dimension of al Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) tial and is increasingly being ensured and the International Telecommunica- by technologies based on Radio Fre- Olympism.” tion Union (ITU). The joint technical quency Identification (RFID). ISO has committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Informa- published or is developing a number of tion technology, has a current portfolio standards in this area, including: supply of nearly 2 000 ICT standards, many of Transport chain applications of RFID for freight which have become ubiquitous to mod- containers (ISO 17363), product pack- The transport of building mate- ern communication. aging (ISO/PRF 17366), and product rials before the Games – of food, goods In addition to standards used tagging (ISO/PRF 17367). and other supplies, and of athletes, spec- principally by the industry and by ICT tators, judges, organizers and support specialists, ISO/IEC standards such as staff – is a huge undertaking where ISO those defining the .jpeg and .mpeg for- Safety and security standards can contribute greatly. Apart mats for the coding of still and moving from people, almost everything that even- images are used on a daily basis by the An event such as the Olym- tually finds itself delivered to a major general public and the media for send- pics also has strong safety and securi- event like the Olympics will have spent ing photos and movies via e-mail. These ty implications, including the protec- some time being shipped by road, rail, standards allow photogenic and news- tion of sensitive information and the sea or air in freight containers, many of worthy events like the Olympics to be right to privacy of personal data given them meeting ISO standards for dimen- recorded and reported on by spectators by participants and visitors. ISO/IEC sions and handling points. and journalists and shared with families, 27001, which gives the requirements Road vehicles, which are often friends and the general public around for information security management the last link in the delivery of materi- the world. systems, provides a framework for plan- als and goods and the transport of peo- Even more intensive use no ning and maintaining the protection of ple, benefit from nearly 700 ISO stand- doubt takes place around an event like such information. ards developed by ISO/TC 22, while the the Olympics of four ISO standards that The physical safety and securi- interface between vehicles and road sys- are already commonly used in electron- ty of the thousands of people attracted tems is facilitated by nearly 70 standards ic data exchange – although their use is by the Olympics and other large-scale developed by ISO/TC 204 for intelligent not limited to that. The standards are: events are paramount. ISO standards transport systems. The new ISO project ISO 3166 (country codes), ISO 4217 answering such concerns range from committee ISO/PC 241 is developing a (currency codes), ISO 8601 (date and fire-retardant and resistant construc-

10 ISO Focus July-August 2008 Gold for safety in sports and leisure

tion materials and protective clothing nology related to hotels and other tour- for fire fighters to management system ist accommodations. Inevitably, no large event can standards for the security of the supply ISO 3591, which specifies the escape its share of illness and accident. chains (ISO 28000 series) that support wine tasting glass used by professionals At least a dozen ISO technical commit- the event, and for planning for, dealing before placing commercial orders, will tees deal with aspects of healthcare, with and mitigating the effects of any no doubt have been at the origin of the and to date they have produced more crisis that may arrive. In this last cate- supply chain that provides a celebratory than 740 standards which can help to gory are recent ISO or ISO/IEC publi- toast for many an Olympic victory. provide state-of-the-art treatment for cations for incident preparedness (ISO/ Some 720 standards developed the unfortunate. Within the context of PAS 22399), ICT disaster recovery serv- by ISO/TC 34, Food products, will help an international event, where medical ices (ISO/IEC 24762) and management ensure sustenance and the pleasure of a histories and other patient data might of drinking water utilities under crisis good meal for winners and losers alike, be needed to be transferred urgently conditions (IWA 6). as well as for their fans, while the ISO between countries and between dif- Such a highly attended and high- 22000 series for food safety manage- ferent ICT systems, the work of ISO/ profile event as the Olympic Games ment systems will make certain that the TC 215, Health informatics, which has makes the event a potential target for journey from farm to fork respects the already produced nearly 50 standards, professional criminals and people who highest standards of hygiene. could prove crucial. might be tempted to gain entry by fraudu- And when the event is over, what lent means. There- better moment than fore, means of ver- to circulate among ifying identities participants and and authentica- spectators – in the tion and of protect- spirit of contin- ing against identi- ual improvement ty theft are neces- – opinion sur- sarily high priori- veys meeting the ties. For this area, requirements of ISO too, ISO offers a 20252 on market, comprehensive opinion and social range of stand- research? ards that include, notably, the standards developed by Everyone a ISO/IEC JTC 1/ SC 37 that provide winner the basis for the As compre- development and hensive as the above application of bio- list is, it no doubt metrics for iden- only scratches tification, and the the surface. Many standards on iden- more connections tification cards and could be uncovered personal identifi- between a global cation developed happening like the by ISO/IEC JTC Olympic Games, or 1/SC 17. another major international sporting, Hospitality cultural or social event, and the often and health unseen but impor- Of course, tant role played by the necessary emphasis on security ISO International Standards. should not detract from the event as a “ The Beijing Organizing However, there is a clear differ- celebration. While ISO standards do ence between sports and ISO standards: not standardize joy, they can certainly Committee has in sports, medals go only to the victors, help to ensure that a good time is had implemented while ISO International Standards help by all. For example, ISO 18513 can help to make everyone who implements or to avoid any bad surprises due to mis- an ISO 14001-certified benefits from them a winner. understandings by standardizing termi- EMS.”

ISO Focus July-August 2008 11 Main Focus

Latest generation of artificial grass for sports and leisure.

Sand-filled systems were introduced in environmental management and techni- The growth of the 1980s, greatly reducing costs. By the cal standards to provide high-quality, 1990s, the addition of rubber infill to reliable artificial turf systems. fake grass artificial turf systems solved hardening issues with sand and provided additional shock absorbency. During the past sever- A critical factor by ACT Global Sports al years, infill-based artificial grass sys- ISO 9001 is a widely recog- tems generally feature excellent shock nized standard for quality manage- long with social development and absorption and soft polyethylene fibres ment in many industries. Thousands increased leisure time in recent that resist ultraviolet light. of companies in more than 150 coun- Adecades, individual participation tries have already adopted it, and many in sporting activities has increased around more are in the process of doing so. In the world. As demand for sports fields “With ISO 9001, ACT the artificial turf industry, ACT Global has grown, so has the challenge of build- Global strives to show Sports is among the handful of manu- ing and maintaining natural grass fields in how committed we are facturers applying the ISO 9000 series good condition. The increased number of of standards. players and hours on sports fields, coupled to quality, customers and ACT Global Sports initially decid- with differing climatic conditions around improving efficiency.” ed to follow this path because quality the world, have led sport organizations to is a critical factor in the selection of a focus on alternatives to natural grass. Technology and quality meth- synthetic turf supplier. The decision Since the 1960s, artificial turf ods have improved significantly just in grew to an organizational commitment has provided a durable surface that can the past three years, and so have users’ to control and improve the quality of be utilized in all weather conditions. As demands for better sports performance. its products, reduce the costs associat- the artificial grass industry has matured, The turf system must go beyond main- ed with poor quality, and increase com- so have the technological advances in tenance benefits or all-weather playa- petitiveness. the products. Each advance has added bility. Artificial turf must include safety ACT Global Sports and other features to benefit the buyers of artifi- features, shock absorbency, low abra- firms with ISO 9001-certified manu- cial grass. sion, speed, stable footing and trac- facturing facilities find these standards tion. It must also be designed and test- and systems to be key to successfully ed to perform under extreme conditions implementing consistent policies, proce- Focused on performance while maintaining durability and long- dures, records, technologies, resources For instance, in the 1970s, poly- term quality. and structures that will help us achieve propylene fibrillated fibres were intro- To meet these demands, manu- the standards of quality that our inter- duced to reduce skin abrasions caused facturers can utilize a combination of national customers demand from our by the original nylon-based product. the ISO 9000 quality system, ISO 14000 organization.

12 ISO Focus July-August 2008 Gold for safety in sports About ACT and leisure Global Sports

ACT Global Sports is In implementing ISO 9001, ACT headquartered in Texas, USA, Global strives to motivate its staff to with locations in Georgia (USA), define key roles and responsibilities, to China, Cyprus, Hong Kong and Stewards show how committed we are to quali- The Netherlands. The company of the environment ty and customers, and to demonstrate is one of the leading suppliers a willingness to work towards improv- of artificial turf, with sales in With artificial turf systems that ing efficiency. John Baize, Director of more than 45 countries around are purchased by schools, sports clubs, ACT Global Sports says, “sports play- the world. The company’s communities, universities, homeown- ers around the world may not be aware state-of-the-art manufacturing ers and government entities, stakehold- of our quality standards, but they sure- location and a dedicated ers of the artificial turf industry bene- ly benefit from quality consistency and research and development fit from environmental stewardship by product reliability.” centre have received ISO 9001 manufacturers. and ISO 14001 certifications. For more information : www.actglobalsports.com

ACT Global fully-integrated production centre in Asia Grass you can trust with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification. “ As the artificial grass During the manufacturing phas- industry has matured, so es, the ACT Global quality programme • product design and testing ; have the technological focuses on problem prevention in addi- • manufacturing processes which focus tion to problem detection. Depending on prevention ; advances in the products.” upon the order specifications, “we have up to 22 quality checks to verify fibre, • strict review and use of quality raw backing, coating and turf production,” materials ; ACT Global recognizes this and says Director Wil Ditzel. After the turf • processes to detect, record and resolve prides itself on being committed to envi- is produced, a final visual inspection any product quality matters ; ronmentally friendly products, as demon- is performed, including a check of key strated by the ISO 14001 environmental product characteristics to verify that they • sample retention ; certification of ACT Global’s main man- are consistent with specifications. ACT • final pre-shipment inspection ; ufacturing plant. Although the environ- Global Sports also retains samples of mental impacts of goods and services all products that are shipped to the job • installation workmanship ; receive due attention in many industries site for future testing and comparison • post-installation maintenance. and countries, few artificial turf makers with field performance. have achieved ISO 14001 certification. Quality is further assured when By implementing quality stand- ACT Global acknowledges that being the company adheres to a Total Quality ards in each phase of artificial turf man- good stewards of the environment does Management methodology. The phas- ufacturing (from research and develop- not result in many direct sales contracts, es include : ment through post-installation services), but as Mr. Baize notes, “ it is part of our • management commitment to quali- companies such as ACT Global are bet- corporate values. It costs money to invest ty ; ter able to deliver reliable artificial grass in proper environmental methods and systems that have been scientifically research, but with sales in over 45 coun- • employee training and procedures ; engineered to meet increasing demands tries, being a good corporate citizen is • research and development ; for performance and quality. also good for long-term business.”

ISO Focus July-August 2008 13 Main Focus

The company is able to continually improve its environmental performance by implementing a systematic approach to setting environmental objectives and targets. ACT Global screens materials used in its grass fibres and has conducted environmental research within the artificial turf industry. ACT Global further encourages its employees to implement the best practices in energy and resource efficiency, waste reduction, renewable resources, and the use of cleaner production. The company also urges its customers to perform research on environmental issues. Environmental protection is of increasing importance and ACT Glo- bal encourages competitors to join in the effort to research methods for environmental improvement.

Main photo – Corinthians Paulista Brazil High acceptance installation with FIFA certification top right A green and standards (top left, original site). performance-based A number of other standards Top centre – Professional team installation future in The Netherlands. throughout the world provide metrics by Although artificial turf systems which to compare the many different types have developed a great deal since the of artificial turf available in the market. 1960s, the industry can expect newer Most notably, by better understanding Objective quality technologies and user demands to con- the player and ball interaction with nat- comparison tinue to raise the standards for the indus- ural grass, the soccer football governing Other standards have been devel- try. As buyers become educated, they will bodies, Fédération internationale de foot- oped around the world, many of which evaluate quality at both the manufacturer ball association (FIFA) and the Union of are similar to the FIFA requirements level (ISO 9001) and product level (cur- European Football Associations (UEFA), but may have additional standards for rently FIFA and sports standards). have established newer and higher accept- environmental testing or other quality From a sports performance per- ance standards for artificial grass. measurements. For instance, DIN (Deut- spective, despite the introduction of infill- The FIFA Quality Concept encour- sches Institut für Normung), the ISO based artificial grass fields, athletes have ages the artificial grass industry to devel- member for Germany, also encompasses still voiced preferences for natural grass op systems that replicate the natural grass testing for heavy metals such as lead, surfaces. Players have raised concerns experience. This includes player-to-sur- cadmium, chromium, zinc and mercu- about their interaction with the artificial face interaction standards in areas such ry, and for toxicity. ASTM 1) testing in surface and the behaviour of the ball on as shock absorbency vertical deformation the United States focuses on specifica- the surface. These concerns include foot (foot stability), slip resistance, traction and tions such as fibre weights, grass ten- stability, slipping, early fatigue, injuries skin abrasion. There are also ball-to-sur- sile strength, tuft bind, shock absorp- and unfavourable ball roll speeds. New- face standards as well as stringent quali- tion and grab tear strength. er technologies continue to address these ty criteria such as simulated wear and UV ACT Global Sports has conducted concerns, especially in areas such as ener- testing. Chris Clapham, Director of ACT extensive testing for FIFA norms, DIN gy restitution and injuries. Global, comments : “ FIFA has made sig- environmental standards and ASTM meas- Environmental standards like ISO nificant investments in understanding the urements. Understanding the complex- 14001 are also quickly becoming more performance of natural grass and synthetic ities of each system component would widespread in the industry. ACT Global and turf. These standards provide a roadmap for be rather confusing for most buyers of others are conducting research to develop artificial turf manufacturers to continually artificial grass, so Mr. Clapham sug- and diffuse environmentally friendly tech- improve our own research, products, instal- gests, “to evaluate that proper perform- nologies and energy-efficient production. lation and maintenance methods.” ance, safety and quality standards are As new methods and business practices met, a buyer should require the testing are identified, these can be implemented as part of short- and long-term environ- 1) ASTM International, formerly information from all of its prospective mental management initiatives. American Society for Testing and suppliers, so it can make an objective Materials. quality comparison.”

14 ISO Focus July-August 2008 Gold for safety in sports and leisure

workout to start the day, or rushing off to Pain ? Maybe, the gym from the office is increasingly This series truly embodies the a part of the daily routine of many. Yet, spirit of a “ global world ” as it is the but no danger as we step up and down or run on the result of ISO’s policy of collaboration – Sculpting the treadmill, what guarantees do we have with other standards bodies. Indeed, the that we are using the machine correctly standards were originally adopted from perfect body and avoiding unnecessary risks ? the European EN 957 series under the The solution lies with Interna- Vienna Agreement 1) – a series in turn tional Standards for training equip- inspired by Germany’s initiative to spark by Klaus Schneider, accredited ment, which can ensure that our efforts standardization in this field. and certified expert, and Juliane to stay fit and healthy do not end up in preventable drama. “ One world, one Jung, project manager at the dream, one standard ” is a motto speak- The risks of training German Institute for ing for a world increasingly brought In the early 1980s, Germans Standardization (DIN) closer together with the international began training at health clubs in ever- ties of globalization. Although, here we larger numbers. These users were often etting fit and staying healthy is talk not about one standard, but rath- not aware of the risks of training with happily becoming the realizable er about one extremely useful series of heavy weights, and did not know how Gdream of more and more of us in standards : the ISO 20957 series for to use the old training machines safe- today’s health-conscious society. An early stationary training equipment. ly, leading to a high rate of accidents and injuries. This trend led the German fitness industry, users and health club owners to begin work on a safety standard for stationary training equipment, based on the injuries they saw. The standard was developed and published by DIN (Deutsches Institut für Normung), the ISO member in Ger- many, and it was met with substantial success. Users enjoyed a much safer training environment, the total number of injuries decreased significantly, and the health club industry experienced rapid growth. “ Training equipment may be used for a number of activities including general fitness, competition and medical rehabilitation.”

In 1989, the idea of a European standard for stationary training equipment, based on the German standard, was born. This led to a series of standards developed by the working group Stationary training equipment under the CEN technical committee Sports, playground and other recreational facilities and equipment. The first parts of EN 957 became available in 1996.

1) Agreement on technical cooperation between ISO and CEN.

ISO Focus July-August 2008 15 Main Focus

Following a positive decision under the Vienna Agreement, ISO tech- Physical culture nical committee ISO/TC 83, Sports and and body recreational equipment, subsequent- building ly prepared the multipart series ISO 20957, Stationary training equipment (see Box). Physical education Step it, don’t sweat it Stationary exercise bicycle The ISO 20957 series specifies safety requirements for stationary Fitness training equipment during use. This Preventive includes equipment for use in super- treatment and vised training areas of organizations rehabilitation such as sports associations, educational establishments, hotels, sport halls, Training specific clubs, rehabilitation centres and health to competition clubs, where access and control is reg- and related sports ulated by the owner or another legally activities responsible person. Equipment for domestic use and Health fitness other types of equipment, including training motor-driven equipment, also comes under the safety requirements defined in ISO 20957. However, the series does Accuracy and usage not apply to stationary training equip- Figure 1 – Activities for which training classes ment intended for use by children. equipment is used A main element of this series Training equipment may be is the classification system. Station- used for a number of activities that ary training equipment is classified in can encompass general fitness, comment is required to conduct a specific accordance with accuracy and usage petition and medical rehabilitation (see risk assessment to determine safe use classes. The ISO 20957 series speci- Figure 1). and ensure that, if necessary, trained fies three accuracy classes from high to If the user has special needs, staff is available to supervise the dif- minimum accuracy. The usage classes such as medical rehabilitation or dis- ferent activities. are also subdivided into three classes abilities, the owner of the establish- as shown in Figure 2. In addition, Class S training equipment is intended for use in train- About the authors ing areas of organizations such as sport associations, educational establishments, Mr Klaus Ms Juliane hotels, clubs and studios, where access Schneider Jung works as and control is regulated by the owner or works as an technical officer another legally responsible person. In accredited and on the sports contrast to this, Class H is defined as certified expert equipment intended for use in the home. in the fields of standards com- Class I, as well as Class S, are medical training mittee of the applicable for professional and/or com- and sport and German Institute mercial use provided under supervision, leisure equip- for Standardiza- and for people with special needs such ment. He serves tion (DIN). Her as visual or hearing impairment and as the Convenor major task at physical or learning disabilities. of the CEN working group Stationary DIN is managing committees dealing training equipment and as a member with European standardization of sports, of ASTM International. He is also a playground and other recreational facili- A safe workout member of several other sports-related ties and equipment, small craft, and committees. cycles and motorized vehicles not intended Safety is, of course, of prime for use on public roads. She participates importance. Specified requirements in a number of sports-related ISO include stability of free-standing equip- committees and working groups. ment, external construction, equipment

16 ISO Focus July-August 2008 Gold for safety in sports and leisure

Row, pedal, run Classification system of the stationary The ISO 20957 series of training International Standards, under equipment the general title Stationary training equipment :

• ISO 20957-1:2005, Part 1: Accuracy Usage General safety requirements classes classes and test methods • ISO 20957-2:2005, Part 2: Strength training equipment, additional specific safety requirements and test methods • ISO 20957-4:2005, Part 4: Class A : Class B : Class C : Class S : Class H : Class I : Strength training benches, High Medium Minimum Studio Home – for additional specific safety accuracy accuracy accuracy – use domestic people requirements and test under use with methods super- special vision needs • ISO 20957-5:2005, Part 5: Pedal crank training equipment, additional specific Figure 2 – ISO 20957 classification system safety requirements and test methods access and escape, adjustment and lock- Always better ing mechanisms, ropes, belts and chains, The quality of a standard may • ISO 20957-6:2005, Part 6: pull-in points, gripping positions and be measured in different ways. One Treadmills, additional specific electrical safety. approach is to see how often the stand- safety requirements and test In addition to these safety require- ard is used in the industry and investi- methods ments, test methods for stability, deter- gate the effort made by the industry to ISO 20957-7:2005, Part 7: mination of breaking load of ropes, belts • follow the requirements. Rowing machines, additional and chains, testing of flywheels, determi- specific safety requirements nation of the removing force of applied and test methods handgrips, testing of access/escape, and “ Users enjoyed • ISO 20957-8:2005, Part 8 : testing of endurance load, squeeze and a much safer training Steppers, stairclimbers and shear points are also defined. environment.” climbers – Additional specific Furthermore, this series of standards specifies requirements for care safety requirements and test Another way to measure success and maintenance, assembly instruc- methods in moving toward safer products is by tions, and general instructions for use tracking statistics on accidents in rela- • ISO 20957-9:2005, Part 9 : and marking. Elliptical trainers, additional tion to the number of products. We can specific safety requirements also look at how many national stand- and test methods ards organizations publish the standard in their own markets. • ISO 20957-10:2007, Part 10 : Run in safety with ISO Exercise bicycles with a treadmill standard fixed wheel or without freewheel, additional specific safety Strength training requirements and test equipment methods

ISO Focus July-August 2008 17 Main Focus

Feedback received by the technical committee from the fitness industry and users is a strong indicator for the quality of a standard. Testing and worldwide implementation is aimed toward a single over- riding goal: providing the best possible protection for the user. Like athletes themselves, the fitness industry and the standards organizations are constantly striving to improve. During 2008, Parts 1 to 9 of ISO 20957 will be undergoing a systematic review, the first since their publication. Some parts have already entered this process. This could provide a good opportunity to implement the latest data and research results received from all over the world, and proceed further along an already successful path. Going to the gym might still cause pain for many of us, but at least we can be reassured that with the ISO 20957 series of International Standards our efforts to sculpt the perfect body using training equipment will not put us in danger. And you know what they say : “ no pain, no gain ”, so go book your next session.

Power up in safety

Once viewed as a somewhat Plotting the “exclusive” pastime, golf has become course for golf far more accessible with a correspond- ing increase in popularity over the last services decade. Golf resorts attract business meetings and vacationers, both as a primary motivating factor and as a second- by Guillermo Anívarro, ary activity for those visiting friends secretary of ISO/TC 228/WG 4, and family. Golf services The working group on golf services – under the responsibility of tech- olf provides lifelong recreational nical committee ISO/TC 228, Tourism opportunities and enjoyment and related services – was created fol- Gfor millions of people. Beyond lowing a proposal by the Asociación its sport and recreational value, golf Española de Normalización y Certifi- forms the nucleus of a larger industry cación (AENOR), the ISO member for cluster that generates jobs, commerce, Spain, in association with the Royal economic development, and tax revenues Spanish Golf Federation (RFEG) and for communities throughout the world. the Spanish Tourism Quality Institute Golf travel expenditures can be broken (ICTE), for a new work item to address down into four main categories: lodging, the quality of services offered in terms of transportation, food, and entertainment. both the course itself and related facili- 18 ISO Focus July-August 2008 Gold for safety in sports and leisure

ties. The aim is to ensure transparency Where standards can and reliability of all golf services. The help benefits should accrue to all stakehold- Teeing off for ers in the golf economy. The main objective of ISO/TC Understanding the scope of the 228/WG 4 is to standardize the provi- the environment – industry is the first step in estimating sion of services by golf courses. Pos- the size of the golf economy. When sible elements to consider are : The Carimate Golf people think of the economics of golf, • facilities requirements ; Club they are likely to visualize golf courses, equipment and apparel manufacturers, • equipment requirements ; and the highly visible golf tournaments, • specific requirements for disabled by Giuseppe Nava, Director, but they may not be aware of the vast people ; Carimate Golf Club, Amateur number of related industries that sup- Sports Association port or are enhanced by golf. • signposting ; For instance, an increasing • course structure and construction he Carimate Golf Club is a little number of business travellers extend requirements ; jewel immersed in the greenery of their trips to play a round of golf, so this Brianza, the area between Milan and • staff qualifications ; T branch of the tourism industry is also Como in the Lombardy region of Italy. enhanced by golf-related goods and serv- • game management ; The club was created in 1955 ices. And since golf has become more when the last descendant of the noble/ • booking tee time and selling green and more popular around the world, the patrician family that lived in the area fees ; availability of golf facilities has become sold the property, which included the a crucial element in the holiday choice • provision of information ; park and castle, to the Società Immo- of many tourists. In Europe, golf tour- biliare of Rome, with the objective of • reception desk services ; ism represents more than 1,6 million developing a residential complex. bookings annually, of which 60 % are • golf schools ; One part of the large property, international. which comprises around 60 hectares, • shops. The inclusion of golf courses in was destined to be made into a golf new residential areas is a trend which The first meeting of the work- course. The creation of the golf club can benefit the local real estate indus- ing group is scheduled to be held later was awarded to two famous personali- try. However, in some cases, these facil- this year in September. ties from the world of golf, Vico Mag- ities do not meet the minimum con- istretti, who built an extremely mod- struction and service requirements for ern, functional club house, and Piero a fully-developed golf course. Although Mancinelli, a celebrity in the world of such developments may be adequate for golf who planned the course. beginners and initiate an interest in the game, the differences of services provided can cause confusion. Transpar- ency in the offer is essential.

About the author

Guillermo Anívarro is Standardization Manager of the Spanish Tour- ism Quality Institute (ICTE), and is also involved in the Spanish secretariat for tourism national committees. Mr. Anívarro acts as secretary for two working groups within ISO/TC 228, Tourism and related services: WG 2, Health tourism services, and WG 4, Golf services.

ISO Focus July-August 2008 19 Main Focus

Today, the golf club is situated in water in order to maintain the grass cov- the beautiful park of the medieval castle er in good condition. and is also integrated in a striking res- In order to minimize the impact, idential complex. The course, prestig- technical and scientific knowledge iously landscaped, is naturally undulat- was developed to favour low toxicity ing and boasts a rich and wide variety of phytochemicals, use of organic plant well-established trees: maples, birches, foods alongside synthesized, and the cypresses, acacias, pines and oaks. “Communication with definition of agricultural practices (for the surrounding areas example, coring and cross-seeding the grass cover) that reduce the quantity Integrated environment and residents has been of applied products. The redesign of and quality strengthened.” the irrigation plant and good mainte- The management of the Cari- nance of the grassy carpet also help to mate Golf Club has always adopted an ment, security and social ethics – con- limit the amount of irrigation required, environmentally-sensitive policy and structed a well-articulated course that, safeguarding the area’s water resourc- over the years has worked to constantly in October 2004, obtained UNI/EN/ISO es. Good management of the course is improve the ecological management of 140012) certification and, in February reducing the potential for damage to its activities. In 2003, the association, 2006, European EMAS3) registration. the environment. together with the Società Star S.r.l.1) – An integrated environmental and An Environmental Declaration, with its national network in the field of ISO 9001 quality management system developed in accordance with the EMAS consultancy in the development of qual- led to improved performance of both regulation, proved to be a valid instru- ity management systems, the environ- organizational and environmental man- ment for demonstrating the environmen- agement. Correct use of the tal commitment of the Carimate Golf territory and its resources Club, even beyond the narrow context was brought about through of those responsible for the work. analysis, control and reduction of the impact on the Native species adapted environment. The system in force to the site has resulted in a tool of real Among the activities carried out support which, through the to safeguard the flora and fauna was a application of its operation- botanical and plant health survey of the al procedures, also guaran- trees and shrubs along the course – the tees constant respect of legal objective being to monitor the state of requirements. Contacts and the park and to plan the substitution of communication, both in busi- some species with others that are native ness and with the surround- and adapted to the site. In those areas ing areas and residents, have not directly involved with the game, been strengthened. Further- the vegetation has been left to grow more, involvement of the club naturally so as to recreate a microhab- personnel in the project has itat for small animals and the growth encouraged team spirit and of fungi and herbaceous plant species. motivation. A guide has been produced on the species lining the course, for distribution to members and visitors. Safeguarding water resources The environmental study allowed identification of About the author the direct and indirect aspects Giuseppe Nava has been Director of the to be addressed and evaluation Golf Club Carimate for the past 22 years. of what they entailed. The proc- Previously he worked as Vice-Director at ess with major impact on the L’Albenza Golf Club in Bergamo for 15 environment is management years. Before taking this position he of the course, which requires attended the training course of Phytopa- the use of substances (phy- thology of lawn at Turin University and tochemicals and organic and completed the Golf Management Master synthesized fertilizers) and of the Italian Golf Federation.

20 ISO Focus July-August 2008 Gold for safety in sports and leisure

In addition, a survey was carried out of the bird species to be found on Moreover, as these activities are the course (both migrant and nesting), taking place in a growing number of and a buffer zone was created around the destinations around the world, catering little lake and irrigation ditches along to an equally global clientele, Interna- the course, inside which no chemical tional Standards are needed to ensure substances are used. that no matter where you travel – or jump from – internationally agreed requirements are met. Culture of environmental awareness On the trail of Indiana Monitoring plans have been Jones defined for evaluating the operations and restrictions, in order to ensure the Adventure tourism can be defined protection of the environment: to include any recreational activities organized by tourist service providers • safeguarding the flora and fauna; that involve inherent risk and are usually • tree planting along the course using offered in a natural environment. This type indigenous species, in keeping with of tourism falls within the outdoor travel the recommendations in the landscap- market, which ranges from nature walks ing studies; (classified as soft adventure or ecotour- ism) to expeditions in remote territories • reduction in the volumes of phyto- and extreme adventure activities. chemicals used in the treatment and

monitoring of the water; Photo © Pierre Granier • reduction in the consumption of resources, in particular water for irri- Photo © Pierre Granier gation; • continuously updating members and Adventure staff on environmental issues. The objective of the activities in tourism comes place is to encourage a culture of envi- of age ronmental awareness and transparency towards the club members and the community. In fact, the golf club manages a substantially-sized and particularly by Cláudio Guerreiro, prestigious green lung and intends to Brazilian Association work for its conservation and its further development. of Standardization (ABNT) ou are standing on the edge, and below you is an empty void 1) Star S.r.l. Sistemi Tecnologie Avanzate Ycrowned by a bed of rocks. Dare di Rischio (Advanced Risk Technology you jump ? Your feet are tied secure- Systems). ly to a thick elastic rope, but at that moment, all you can think about is : will 2) The prefix denotes equivalent adoption it break, will I hit the rocks, will I live of ISO 14001 at both national (UNI) and European regional (EN) level ; Ente Nazionale to tell the tale? Italiano di Unificazione (UNI) is the ISO The tale is sure to be exciting, and member for Italy. the experience will be that of a lifetime, but if something did happen, would it be 3) EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme. worth it ? As more and more people seek Participating organizations must implement “ The aspiration for a an environmental management system which in tourism strong emotions and experi- meets the requirements of EN/ISO 14001. ences associated with high risk activities, healthier lifestyle compels be they rafting down waterfalls, trekking tourists to search for in the Andes or diving with the sharks, it is increasingly crucial that adequate a more active travel safety standards are in place. experience.” ISO Focus July-August 2008 21 Main Focus

No precise year-to-year data yet exist on the adventure tourism and eco- tourism market, however, most studies indicate that: • nature and outdoor travel represents around 50 % of the travel market ; • the core market for active travellers is 15 % to 25 % of international travel ; • experience tourism (including adventure) is growing, evidenced by the increase in the number of modalities and practitioners ranging from soft to extreme.

A World Travel and Tourism Council report showed that ecotour- Photo © Pierre Granier ism (including adventure travel) generated USD154 billion in worldwide developed to consider the possibility Adequate treatment of safety receipts in 2000 and is growing by of international standardization in the issues will help promote the interna- 20 % annually. field of adventure tourism. tional market for adventure tourism, A number of factors can be cred- and in particular allow providers in ited for this rapid growth. The glo- developing countries to fully partic- bal interest in environmental themes A complex task ipate in the market. In this context, increases people’s desire to experi- The task is complex. The indus- standardization as a proven tool for ence outdoor attractions. The aspira- try encompasses a diversity of activi- successfully addressing safety issues tion for a healthier lifestyle compels ties, ranging from soft to hard adven- in a variety of activities has an impor- tourists to search for a more active ture, as well as a variety of business tant role to play. travel experience. models and levels of risk. Among the most common activ- Managing risk Addressing our worst ities are trekking, hiking, canyoning, rafting, climbing, mountaineering, Safety aspects depend primari- fears overland expeditions, kayaking, cav- ly on the interaction of three factors: Adventure tourism has come to ing, bungee jumping, kite surfing, wind people, procedures and equipment, represent an important segment of the surfing, diving, rope activities (rappel- although what might be called fortui- overall industry, but two very sensitive ling, zip line), biking, horseback rid- tous factors, such as the weather, also aspects could compromise this growth : ing and four-wheel drive tours. have an impact. safety and the sustainability of adven- These activities are themselves Service providers must accept ture tourism products. offered in a wide variety of formats, front-line responsibility for manag- Safety issues revolve around with variable physical demands, places ing risk. National initiatives in Aus- accidents associated with adventure (urban to remote), and duration. tralia, Brazil, Switzerland and the UK tourism activities. Risk of injury and The types of providers who offer have resulted in standards establishing loss of life provide the imperative to these services are also incredibly varied. requirements for some level of risk man- address these concerns. As adventure Ranging from one-person enterprises to agement. These initiatives contribute tourism grows in economic importance, listed corporations, the great majority are to the development of consistent safe- initiatives are arising in many countries small and medium-sized companies. ty management systems and long-term to establish standards, pass legislation Adventure tourism can also be promotion of safety awareness. and set up technical regulation. offered in diverse business models, from There are cases where stand- The ISO technical committee specialized companies on a specific activ- ardization (and certification) of the responsible for developing standards ity, to accommodation facilities offering skills of those involved directly in serv- for the tourism industry is ISO/TC 228, adventure among their other services, ice provision will have a substantial Tourism and related services. This rel- to tour and travel operators focused on impact on safety considerations. How- atively recent committee serves as a one or multiple destinations. ever, individuals’ competence alone is forum to discuss and establish stand- The common element that links not sufficient to control risks, and in ards on key issues affecting competitive- the entire industry is the presence of some many cases equipment standards are ness and the long-term development of degree of risk. Concerns about safety also needed. Finally, it is appropriate the industry. Within this committee, a are thus the most critical issue faced by to establish specifications focused on new project proposal is currently being the adventure tourism industry. safety management systems.

22 ISO Focus July-August 2008 Gold for safety in sports and leisure

In addition, there is also a need vider, are impacting the adventure tour- to provide an analysis and evaluation of ism business even outside Europe. This inherently unsafe operations, and ineffi- mechanisms to demonstrate the appli- directive, which is not yet completely ciencies in supply and distribution. cation of the standards (assessments of implemented, focuses on co-responsi- conformity). bility, particularly on the legal right to Where the adventure sue for compensatory damages. begins A growing current The ISO committee on consumer policy (COPOLCO) has established safety These debates and initiatives Despite the debate over safety, as one of the priority themes for standardi- indicate a need for standards with glo- adventure tourism continues to grow, and zation regarding the tourism sector. bal relevance for the sector. The need is in recent years many countries have introduced initiatives to organize and develop the sector. The development of standards within national standardization bodies has often been on voluntary terms 1). Costa Rica and New Zealand have introduced voluntary schemes, with classification systems based on the assessment of service providers. The United Kingdom and the state of Yukon in Canada have established regulatory schemes. All of these initiatives have common elements; all address, for instance, the skills of guides, procedures, safety management systems and equipment. Regional initiatives such as the European Union Directive 90/314/CEE, related to organized trips and which can be applied to any tourism service pro-

About the author

Cláudio Guerreiro is Manager of the International Standardization area of the Standardization Directory of the Brazilian Asso- ciation of Stan- dardization supported by the perception that Inter- (ABNT), the ISO member for Brazil. Terminology that saves national Standards are an appropriate A graduate in engineering, with focus in lives tool for facilitating the establishment administrative and logistic processes, he These initiatives, along with a grow- of safety requirements, sustainability has worked in standardization for more ing market demand, forecast a growth in than 10 years, mainly in connection evaluation tools and harmonization – with regional and international work. international trade. This will in turn impact issues that are essential for the con- Mr. Guerreiro, has responsibility for a the demand for harmonization of terminol- tinued growth of the adventure tour- variety of projects at ABNT, including ogy, safety requirements, procedures and ism industry. We will soon witness the management of the secretariats of AMN professional skills that can be applied by all emergence of a structure for the deliv- (Mercosul Association for Standardiza- interested parties in the supply chain. ery of these standards. This is where tion), COPANT (Pan American Standards There are currently substantial the adventure truly begins. Commission) under ABNT leadership, differences in terminology, procedures, and the Secretariats of some ISO management systems and competency technical committees, among which requirements for guides. The consequences 1) As in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, the twinned Secretariat of ISO/TC 34, of this situation include avoidable loss of Chile, Germany, Mexico, New Zealand, the Food products. human life, the perception by tourists of US and Venezuela.

ISO Focus July-August 2008 23 Main Focus

prove that their services comply with the current state of the art; • to provide scuba instructors with an accepted qualification which opens the market for training service providers.

Worldwide interest Initially developed by the Euro- pean Committee for Standardization technical committee on tourism services, CEN/TC 329, the wide interest created by the standards caused them to be forwarded to ISO for possible publication as International Standards. Under the responsibility of ISO/TC 228, Tourism and related services, the ISO standards for recreational scuba diving training were published in 2007. They comprise two series for training divers and instructors respectively, plus a stand- tial if the participants are to be able to ard covering service providers. Diving with carry out the activity safely. Although • ISO 24801, Recreational diving recreational diving is potentially hazard- services – Safety related minimum confidence into ous, the risks to its participants and to the requirements for the training of rec- natural and cultural resources of the dive the deep blue reational scuba divers, is in three sites can easily be reduced by adopting parts, each distinguishing a level of appropriate precautions. Furthermore, diving instruction. Level 1 (super- impact to the marine environment, and 1) vised diver) is for instructors teach- ecreational scuba diving has particularly fragile marine ecosystems ing basic diving knowledge, level 2 become a popular sport and lei- such as coral reefs, can be reduced through (autonomous diver) covers teaching sure activity. In this day and age, proper education and training of scuba R of more advanced divers and level 3 with millions of practitioners – mainly instructors, dive leaders and divers. (dive leader) specifies the competen- recreational divers – it has come a long In 1999, work began on develop- cies required to be demonstrated in way from its beginnings in the latter part ing European standards to address safety order for a training organization to of the 19th century and its early practice requirements. Scuba diving training organ- award this level of certification. in predominantly military spheres. izations, dive centre operators, consumer For the would-be diver, tempted representatives and representatives of • ISO 24802, Recreational diving serv- to explore the fascinating world beneath authorities jointly participated to specify ices – Safety related minimum require- the waves, the burning question is : where competency requirements for both scuba ments for the training of scuba instruc- to begin ? The marketplace features a host diver and scuba instructor training pro- tors, is in two parts – level 1 and level of different service providers – diving grammes. Health requirements for the 2 – specifying the competencies that schools and dive centres of many sizes, diver are also included. These standards a scuba instructor must achieve in offering a variety of training programmes equally serve both the recreational diver order to obtain scuba instructor cer- and experiences. Besides the level of train- and scuba diving professionals. tification and specifies assessment ing, reliability and safety are prime con- For the diver, the objectives of these competencies. Among other siderations for the consumer. Choosing are : requirements, for example, a certified the right training organization and dive instructor needs to be able to recov- • to ensure a high level of quality and centre is no easy task. er casualties from depth, to perform safety for an activity which demands first aid and apply oxygen in emer- proper training ; Reducing risks gencies, as well as to be able to dem- • to create recognized diver qualifica- onstrate the necessary diving skills. Standardization is important for tions enabling the consumer to pur- The conditions under which training recreational activities such as diving, chase services from dive centres. must be provided are also specified. where training and experience are essen- For diving professionals : • ISO 24803, Recreational diving serv- 1) Scuba is an acronym for «self-contained • to provide a benchmark for training ices – Requirements for recreational underwater breathing apparatus». organizations and service providers to scuba diving service providers, speci-

24 ISO Focus July-August 2008 Gold for safety in sports and leisure

fies safety practices and requirements for diving schools or dive centres with Quick-release for • a trapeze attachment hook fixed to the harness to hook into the ring. regard to rental of diving equipment, sailing trapeze organized and guided diving for certi- Sailing trapeze systems have been fied divers and training and education. around since the mid-1930s. Sir Peter Scott, It is required that a risk assessment be the renowned naturalist and Olympic bronze conducted before every dive, taking by Ken Kershaw, Convenor medallist sailor, is believed to be one of into account the underwater visibil- the first people to have used a trapeze sys- ity, pollution and emergency action of ISO/TC 188/WG 9, Main dimensions of the craft and tem. Since then, thousands of people have plans. The standard also specifies used the system with little evidence of emergency equipment which must be identification of the hull problems, accident, injury or death. available and emergency procedures which must be put into place. any models of sailing dinghy and small sailing catamarans carry Rapid action in Since divers and diving profes- trapeze wires. These allow the sionals travel and operate worldwide, it M emergencies crew to hang outside the boat on a har- is not surprising that interest in the stand- ness and wire attached to the upper mast. Sailing is statistically one of the ards has been shown by dive tourism serv- Trapezing increases the righting moment safer leisure activities. Even so, a few doc- ice providers all over the world. of the boat in strong winds, which keeps umented accounts of injury and death have the boat flatter in relation to the water to been reported from trapezing – usually of Plunging into new depths increase speed. sailors trapped under water and unable to There are three key components detach themselves from the trapeze wire, Within ISO/TC 228, working for each trapeze (Figure 1, overleaf) : and in some cases not able to release them- group WG 1, Diving services, takes care selves from the boat itself. • a wire attached high up the mast with of the maintenance and further develop- In order to address these concerns, a ring at its lower end ; ment of standards in this field. In this ISO technical committee ISO/TC 188, respect, two new International Standards • a trapeze harness worn by the crew; Small craft, with participation of recrea- are under development and have been and tional craft user groups and the industry, circulated to the ISO members for vote and comment: ISO 11107 on diving training using nitrox as breathing gas, and ISO 11121 on introductory scuba experience programmes. The voting period for both draft standards closes mid- August 2008.

The rise in dive tourism It is encouraging to note that important diving markets like Egypt, Cyprus and Greece have endorsed these International Standards, citing them in their national legislation with the aim of protecting the interests of diving tourists coming to these countries. Dive tourism has, in fact, wit- nessed a virtual explosion in popularity in recent years. Specialist operators offer attractive holiday packages to exotic or interesting diving destinations, often with some level of local training services included. By implementing the requirements of the ISO standards on recreational scuba diving, training organizations and divers alike can ensure their sport continues to provide them with safe, magical experiences.

ISO Focus July-August 2008 25 Main Focus

to introduce specific issues relating to in the time limit. Another important fac- Wind Heeling actual incidents and the views of sail- tor is that the release must not be capable Force ors. of being activated inadvertently and must As an example, during develop- be easy to operate by users after minimal ment of the standard, it became apparent familiarization with the mechanism. from first-hand accounts that entrapment due to hooking to a part of the boat other than the trapeze wire was an issue. This About the author necessitated additional research into tests Ken Kershaw, of full rotational release, to simulate applied I.Eng FRINA, loads not in line with the normal trapeze is a technical wire pull. While certain windsurfing har- representative ness designs were able to release quickly for the Europe- throughout a greater range of load angles, an Boating Figure 1 – Trapeze system and standard some conventional dinghy trapeze harness Association. trapeze hook hooks were seemingly more difficult to As the Royal release if the pull was not straight in line Yachting Asso- is currently developing a new Internation- with the sailor. ciation Techni- al Standard, ISO 10862, Small craft – Crews also pointed out problems cal Manager, Quick release system for trapeze harness. with sand getting into the release mecha- he has more than 30 years’ experience This standard will establish the essential nism when launching from a beach, and representing both the RYA and the Euro- criteria for quick-release systems for tra- that it is important to be able to release pean Boating Association in Brussels and peze hooks. These systems enable the quickly when not under load. the UK Government. Mr. Kershaw has intentional immediate release and sepa- been involved in the constructional control ration of the attachment hook when under of small boats since 1973. An experienced dinghy sailor, past British National critical emergency load conditions. Critical seconds Champion and Senior British Coach for Among the criteria for the stand- International 420s and 470s (still a current ard is that the release time should be less Views of sailors Olympic class) for over three years, he than five seconds from the user becoming has first-hand experience of entrapment A number of existing standards aware of an emergency. It also stipulates from the UK 420 circuit – he was trape- have been used in the development of ISO that good practice maintenance should be zing when a boat capsized, trapping him 10862, among them the French national sufficient, the system should be operation- underneath. He is currently the Convenor standard for kite surfing release systems, al with one hand and with full finger neo- of ISO/TC 188/WG 9, which covers as well as standards for mountaineering prene gloves used in cold conditions. aspects for small craft equipment, and equipment, lifejacket and deck safety har- Following repairs, the release must sits on a number of other working ness. These contributions were expanded still be able to work efficiently and with- groups representing boat users.

26 ISO Focus July-August 2008 Gold for safety in sports and leisure

Once back on board the boat following release, it must be possible for the Slaloming towards sailor to safely resume trapezing. A test safety in alpine Some slippery slopes to demonstrate reassembly of the system International standardization work within 30 seconds has been included to skiing on the safety of ski boots and ski bind- meet this requirement. However, this rais- ings began in 1972 when ISO technical es issues for the activation of the mecha- committee ISO/TC 83, Sports and rec- nism, which must fire cleanly and leave reational equipment, created two new no bent or disabled parts in the hook. To by Otto Harsányi, Chair, subcommittees: SC 3, Ski bindings, and meet this performance criterion, it might and Kirsten Riebel, Secretary, SC 4, Skis and snowboards. be necessary for spare parts to be carried ISO/TC 83/SC 3, Ski bindings The basis for the work on ski within the harness so that the hook can be bindings were the test results of the restored to full operational use. kiing as a sport, and particularly International Association for Safety in Another specified test checks for alpine skiing, is thought to have Skiing (IAS). However, the work itself corrosion resistance. Sstarted in the second half of the 19th was not easy because of the two differ- century in Norway, from where it spread ent test methods used in Europe and the Adapted to the market relatively rapidly across the world. The US. Although the different loads and tor- First Olympics Winter Games in 1924 ques applied by the boot on the leg were Testing has been carried out to featured just one alpine event – a slalom not in question (see Figure 1, overleaf), ensure that the standards are appropriate – but alpine skiing as such had to wait the test methods of applying these com- to products currently available on the mar- until 1936 before becoming part of the bined loads were in conflict. ket. Angles were calculated within a nor- Olympic programme. mal working range with linear load, as Since then, skiing has become a well as out-of-line tests to 90 and 180 popular and far more accessible sport. “ International degrees on either side. Testing was also Innovations and advances in ski equip- carried out on a standard trapeze dinghy ment have abound, making those ear- standardization work on to ensure that the release worked on both ly boots and skis look highly primitive the safety of ski boots tacks, i.e. both sides of the boat. This guar- in comparison. Today’s skiers have a antees that the workings of each of the wide choice of sophisticated equipment, and ski bindings began in quick-release mechanisms tested are not designed to high performance and safe- 1972.” compromised by other working activities ty standards. in the dinghy.

At the Olympics Of the 11 sailing classes competing in the 2008 Olympic Games in Qingdao, China, four regimes currently require the use of trapeze systems. These Olympic classes include male and female crews with a weight range from around 50 kg at the lower end for a female crew member in the 470 class to around 90 kg at the upper end for a male crew member in the Tornado Sport catamaran class. In the future, it is expected that Olympic and other sailors will benefit from trapeze systems complying with ISO 10862. Indeed, the new ISO 10862 should prove to be an important tool for designing safer and more efficient quick-release systems for trapeze harnesses, improving still further the safety record of small boat sailing.

ISO Focus July-August 2008 27 Main Focus Figure 2 – Method A

• In method A (common in Europe, see of skiers was deemed necessary for the Figure 2), the ski is rigidly connect- correct adjustment of ski bindings (see ed to the test frame and the torque Mz Table 1). or My is progressively applied to the • Type 1 : cautious skiing on smooth sole until the binding releases. slopes of gentle to moderate pitch. • In method B (common in the US, see This type also applies to entry-level Figure 3), the sole is rigidly connect- skiers uncertain of their classifica- ed to the test frame through a sensor tion. Skiers who designate themselves which measures the torques Mz and Figure 3 – as type 1 receive lower than average My. Forces are progressively applied Method B release/retention settings. This corre- to the ski until the binding releases. sponds to an increased risk of inad- vertent binding release, in order to gain increased capacity for release in the event of a fall. • Type 2 : skiers not classified as either type 1 or 3. • Type 3 : fast, aggressive skiing on slopes of moderate to steep pitch. Standardized human Skiers who designate themselves as type 3 receive higher than average beings ? release/retention settings. This cor- The subcommittee for ski bind- responds to decreased capacity for ings also set about the somewhat unusual release in the event of a fall, in order Figure 1 – Definition of the loads and task of standardizing human beings, inas- to gain a decreased risk of inadvert- torques much as a description of target groups ent binding release. A hot issue ISO/TC 83/SC 4 was able to make Type 1 2 3 * good progress developing a series of test Speed Slow to moderate Skiers that do not meet all Fast standards from the mid 1970s, e.g. ISO Terrain Gentle to moderate the descriptions of either Steep 5902, Alpine skis – Determination of Style Cautious (or smooth) type 1 or 3 Aggressive the elastic properties, ISO 8364 deal- * ing with the binding mounting area, Type 3 settings should not be used by skiers of 34 kg or less. and ISO 6004 and ISO 6005 concerning requirements and test methods for Table 1 – Determination of skier type ski binding screws. However, the conflict in test methods caused the work of ISO/TC 83/SC 3 to proceed more slow- About the authors ly until the end of the 1980s. Standards for this safety-related Ms Kirsten Otto Harsányi and hot issue were not only needed for Riebel works as works as a the European and international market a technical consultant and generally, but were in urgent demand by officer in the is President of the German market. National standards Sports Equip- OHB Consulting, on ski boots, ski bindings, ski poles and ment Standards supplying ski brakes were thus developed by the Committee of consultancy German mirror committee on sports, with the German services to the participation of all European manu- Institute for several sports facturers and test houses. These stand- Standardization manufacturers, (DIN). She is especially in the ards were subsequently applied not only Secretary of various German mirror field of winter sports equipment, in which in Europe, but also partly at the inter- committees in the field of sports, he has worked for 36 years. He is national level. In the meantime, stand- playground and other recreational Chair of the National German Standards ards for the US market had been devel- facilities and equipment, some CEN Committee (NASport) for “ winter sports ” oped by the American Society of Test working groups and the subcommittee and Chair of subcommittee ISO/TC 83/ 1) and Measurement (ASTM) . ISO/TC 83/SC 3, Ski bindings, with SC 3, Ski bindings. In addition, he is a several subordinated working groups. member of ASTM in the “ winter sports 1) Now called ASTM International. equipment ” working group.

28 ISO Focus July-August 2008 Gold for safety in sports and leisure

Reaching consensus International consensus was reached at the beginning of the 1980s, when the first editions of ISO 5355, Alpine ski-boots – Requirements and test methods, and ISO 7331, Ski-poles for alpine skiing – Requirements and test methods, were published. Standards on other topics followed towards the end of the decade: • selection of release torque values (ISO 8061) ; • requirements and test methods for alpine ski bindings (ISO 9462) ; • retention devices for alpine ski bindings (ISO 11087) ; • assembly, adjustment and inspection of an alpine ski/binding/boot (S-B- B) system (ISO 11088) ; and • test devices for the setting of the functional unit ski/boot/binding (ISO 11110). In order to have uniform standardization across Europe, all the Europe- an countries that participated in ISO/TC 83/SC 3 and ISO/TC 83/SC 4, agreed to adopt the ISO standards without modifi- cation. Efforts are being made to achieve similar adoption of ISO standards in the Many of the standards under the US. During the revision of ISO 9462 deal- Man overboard ! responsibility of ISO Technical coming with alpine ski bindings, and the cor- mittee ISO/TC 188, Small craft, have responding ISO 13992 on alpine touring Prevention and been developed since the late 1990s to ski bindings, consensus was reached for recovery support implementation of the Europe- the first time between the European and an Recreational craft directive 95/25/ American members to accept the addi- EC, usually referred to as RCD. The tion of both test methods A and B in two work of the committee is also applied different informative annexes. by Grégoire Dolto, Convenor of in markets outside the EU and its stand- ISO/TC 188/WG 3, Deck fittings ards are adopted nationally by countries From downhill upwards and rigging parts around the world. The International Standard ISO Like the sport itself, standardi- here is nothing – absolutely noth- 15085, Small craft – Man-overboard “ zation of ski equipment is not confined ing – half so much worth doing as prevention and recovery, published in to alpine skiing. International Stand- simply messing about in boats,” says 2003, is no exception. One of the new T 1) ards have also been developed for cross Ratty in The Wind in the Willows . Which, elements introduced with the RCD, and country skiing and touring skiing. The at least for many, is certainly true. Boating used in most ISO small craft stand- needs of snowboarders have also been accounts for a very large slice of the lei- ards, is the classification of all craft addressed since the 1990s. And the reviv- sure and recreation market, with enthusi- into four design categories. These are al of interest in telemark skiing has seen asts coming from all walks of life and craft defined as ocean, offshore, inshore and the development of ISO standards for ranging from modest to impressive. But sheltered waters, according to the wind the needs of enthusiasts. Practitioners of boats, or, for the purposes of this article, speed (Beaufort scale) and significant all forms of skiing can be confident that “ small craft ”, are also serious business, wave height. ISO/TC 83 will continue to respond to used commercially as well as for pleasure. their needs in developing ski equipment Safety is of paramount importance and is standards with performance and safety the main objective of International Stand- uppermost in mind. ards developed for this field. 1) Classic tale by Kenneth Grahame.

ISO Focus July-August 2008 29 Main Focus Safety first

Among the safety devices Huge variety ISO 15085 takes into account and usually cannot avoid strong weather when it arrives unexpectedly). ISO 15085 is a tool for boat build- for sailing and non-sailing For all these reasons, requirements ers and users. It specifies the design, craft are : for a sailing boat are somewhat higher construction and strength requirements • slip resistant surface ; than for a comparable motor boat. for safety devices and arrangements intended to minimize the risk of fall- • foot-stop ; ing overboard and facilitate reboarding. • handholds ; The means described can be used indi- low and high guardrail or “ ISO 15085 is a tool for vidually or combined to achieve these • guard line ; objectives. boat builders and users.” Although applying only to small • hooking points ; craft of up to 24 m length of hull, the • jack-line attachment points ; Helpful dummies variety of craft from 2,5 to 24 m is huge, ranging from sailing dinghies to ocean • body support on high speed This standard has proved to be crossing yachts, including racing craft. boat ; particularly helpful as one of the few that can be used as a tool to categorize On the motor side, the range is equally • means of reboarding. wide, from open day-cruisers to large a boat in one of the four design cate- power yachts. gories. As an additional aid, drawings, with a modifiable dummy, are used to explain a requirement in a number of • list the requirements on safety elements cases, as can be seen in Figure 1 2). Flexibility for all crafts that may be used separately or togeth- In the context of supporting the In view of this variety of usage, er in two tables : sail and motor ; RCD, ISO 15085 is one of the few small- the working group foresaw that applica- • give specific requirements for each craft standards, along with standards for tion of the standard would be facilitated of the safety elements. stability and owners’ manuals that must if the requirements were presented in the be applied on all boats. form of options from which the builder This approach resulted in a list could choose according to the craft con- of some 15 internationally-agreed defi- cerned. Structuring the standard in this nitions covering types of craft and com- Continual improvement way also allowed for the fact that cer- ponents, together with a set of tables An amendment to ISO 15085 is in tain requirements can be used individ- allowing a builder or user to choose his preparation which will require that sin- ually or combined. It was decided that options according to, for example : gle-handed boats shall have a means of the standard would : • nature of the boat (sailing or non-sail- reboarding deployable from the water, or always deployed while sailing. • define specific terms, concepts and ing) ; This standard is now five years old elements ; • design category ; and undergoing its periodic review in line • list all possible safety elements ; • length ; with ISO procedures. New concepts concerning design categories, working deck, • usage (day boat or non-day boat). etc., may lead to improvements which will make it even more useful. The standard acknowledges that About the author sailing boats and motor boats are not only quite different in their design, but also in Grégoire Dolto their behaviour (for example, a sailing obtained a Mas- 2) Figure 1 is reproduced from ISO 15085:2003 ter of Mechanics monohull heels) and usage (sailing boats from Paris Uni- are slower, hence used for a longer period, versity in 1969. After becoming a Graduate Engineer ENSM, Nantes, in 1972, he worked as a naval architect, designing mainly sailing yachts, cruising and racing mono and multihulls (Group “Graal”) until 1999. He is currently a technical consultant. a) Step b) Long obstacle b) High obstacle Mr. Dolto is Convenor of ISO/TC 188/ WG 3, Deck fittings and rigging parts. Figure 1 – Diagram illustrating some requirements of 4.4

30 ISO Focus July-August 2008 Gold for safety in sports and leisure

mid-1850s provided weather protection as Personal flotation Staying afloat – well as served as a flotation device. The devices term personal flotation device, or PFD, is From Norwegian derived from this innovation. During the 1980s, it became appar- cork to Olympic By the early 1900s, lifejackets ent that there was a need for an Interna- were being made from kapok, a fibrous tional Standard covering PFDs, but no sailing vegetable material that soon fell out of international consensus was reached at use, as the material lost its buoyancy that time. when squeezed or when saturated with In the 1990s, the European Com- water. The original inflatable lifejacket mittee for Standardization (CEN) thus cat- by Tricia Grady, Technical design, patented in the early 1930s, was egorized PFDs, including lifejackets and Standards Co-ordinator nicknamed the “Mae West” 1) by Ameri- buoyancy aids, using the EN 390 series of of Britain’s Royal Yachting can fighter pilots. Inflatables were later standards. This was in place until 2007, Association developed for sailors and submariners. when the main parts of the ISO 12402 stand- During the 1960s, synthetic foam ard on PFDs (see Box, overleaf) had been he earliest lifejackets, developed was developed, leading to the invention reviewed internationally and was adopted for Norwegian fishermen and sea- of foam lifejackets and buoyancy aids. by ISO for global application. Tmen, were made from either wood- These developments and inventions fil- en blocks or corks. A more standard cork tered through for leisure water use, mak- 1) Reportedly because of its shape which vest supplied to lifeboat crews around the ing the products readily available for the was bulkier in the front. coast of the United Kingdom during the average yachtsman. (Mae West was a well-known actress)

ISO Focus July-August 2008 31 A series to keep your Main Focus head above the water

The ISO 12402 series is Levels of buoyancy divided into 10 parts ; the first Standards for Olympic was published in 2005, and ISO 12402 buoyancy levels – sailing the remaining ones in 2006. levels 50, 100, 150 and 275 – each pro- Of the 11 classes competing in the vide an equivalent amount of buoyan- • ISO 12402, Personal sailing events at the 2008 Olympics in cy measured in Newtons 2) for a person flotation devices – Qingdao, China, all regimes require the weighing 75 kg. • Part 1 : Lifejackets for use of a personal flotation device allow- seagoing ships – Safety ing unrestricted movement. Since safety requirements craft and assistance will be nearby, this means that the sailing athletes will wear Part 2 : Lifejackets, • a level 50 PFD, more commonly known performance level 275 – as a buoyancy aid. Safety requirements This level of buoyancy is intended • Part 3 : Lifejackets, for those who are competent swimmers performance level 150 – and who are near to a bank or shore, or Safety requirements who have help and a means of rescue • Part 4 : Lifejackets, close at hand. The garments have mini- performance level 100 – mal bulk, but are of limited use in dis- Safety requirements turbed water and cannot be expected to keep the user safe for a long period of • Part 5 : Buoyancy aids (level time. They do not have sufficient buoy- 50) – Safety requirements ancy to protect people who are unable to • Part 6 : Special purpose help themselves and require active par- lifejackets and buoyancy ticipation by the user. As can be seen in aids – Safety requirements the Box, the ISO standard applicable to and additional test methods this level is ISO 12402-5. • Part 7 : Materials and It is recommended that, as a min- components – Safety imum, all users in open boats should requirements and test wear a level 150 lifejacket. This would methods include all coaching and support craft operators on the water, as well as race • Part 8 : Accessories – Safety organizers and safety craft operators for requirements and test methods About the author • Part 9 : Test methods Part 10 : Selection and Tricia Grady is • application of personal the Technical flotation devices and other Standards Co- relevant devices ordinator and RCD Deputy Quality Manager for the Technical Department of While these performance levels Britain’s Royal provide a specified minimum lift, the Yachting Asso- difference between a lifejacket and a ciation (RYA). buoyancy aid relates to the functional- She heads up the RYA’s activities as a ity of the individual product. In simple Notified Body for the European Recrea- terms, a lifejacket, no matter what per- tional Craft Directive, and oversees formance level, will have a buoyancy technical aspects of boats that might distribution in test conditions capable of become involved in the association’s turning the average user face up, even if prime objective. This includes the RCD unconscious. A buoyancy aid will pro- and other international and European vide lift up to a specified performance standards. Ms. Grady taught computer level, without necessarily being able to electronics and engineering prior to turn the user face up. becoming involved with the RYA, and holds a Competent Crew and Level 2 rib qualifications. 2) Newton – Unit of force

32 ISO Focus July-August 2008 Gold for safety in sports and leisure

the Olympic sailing competitions. This level is intended for general offshore and rough weather use, where a high standard of performance is required. A level 150 lifejacket – addressed in ISO 12402-3 – will turn an unconscious person into a safe position and requires no subsequent action by the user to maintain this position.

Mixing fire and water To take a quick tour through other parts in this series of standards : • Part 8 focuses on accessories, dealing with performance specifications for items such as PFD lights and spray hoods ; • Part 7, on materials and components, includes requirements for construction and product marking with the relevant tests ; Taking a dive with This comfortable gear may be used • Part 6 takes into account the require- by anyone, for professional or leisure ments for special-purpose PFDs used immersion suits activities, from truck drivers to fisher- by fire fighters and police, as well as men, pilots and passengers. The clothing other applications such as personal industry creates and markets this apparel watercraft, water skiing, or even white- as useful fashion wear, but in many cases water rafting where general-purpose by Rolf Popp, Convenor of it comes close to qualifying as personal PFDs would not be suitable in terms ISO/TC 188/WG 14, Personal protective equipment (PPE). of design or construction materials. safety equipment

Specialist areas within the stand- ecent years have seen a revolution A deadly trap ard specific to fire fighters require that in clothing. The boom in outdoor Field trials have proved the value the PFDs must not interfere with the Rand leisure industries has brought of these garments above water. Howev- breathing apparatus and that the exter- sophisticated designs and fabrics to pro- er, they are often used on or near water, nal fabric and webbing which may be vide comfort under all weather conditions and when accidents happen, it is possi- exposed to direct flames must be tested and situations. ble for users to be placed in danger by to ISO 15025:2000, Protective clothing These clothing systems com- their clothing. – Protection against heat and flame – bine several layers to keep heat in and A deck worker washed overboard Method of test for limited flame spread, moisture out, while still allowing per- or a fisherman who falls in the water achieving a limited flame spread of at spiration to escape – a defence widely can quickly encounter serious trouble. least index 1 of the European standard used in the cold Nordic climate. Such In an instant, they can be transformed EN 533:1997. systems can be fine-tuned to individu- from active workers to passive victims, al needs for varying weather conditions facing the risk of drowning, cold shock, and workloads. loss of mental and physical control and A long way from cork Cold weather clothing can be the creeping death of hypothermia. Water The 10 parts of ISO 12405 togeth- designed in layers to wick perspiration drains heat from the human body about er offer the leisure and commercial away from the surface of the skin. Wind 25 times faster than air. water user an internationally-accept- breakers can shut out wind and rain while The practical and efficient gar- ed operational and functional standard. allowing sweat to evaporate out of the ment that has protected the user in dry This is applicable for all types of use on clothing. Intelligent fabrics balance heat conditions can turn into a deadly trap. water, whether racing in the Olympics or input and heat loss while also protecting Foam or fibre used for protection from working commercially at sea, fishing or against ultraviolet radiation. These mate- cold may cause unpredictable buoyan- operating large ships and tankers. It is rials, used in an ergonomic and comfort- cy. Unsealed fabrics can absorb large a long way from the original cork life- able design, create a new generation of amounts of water, leading to loss of body jackets that kept Norwegian fishermen all-weather gear far more effective than heat. Water trapped in foam can act as safe at sea. the old oilskin or long john. ballast, hindering rescue efforts. ISO Focus July-August 2008 33 Main Focus

Casualties, including deaths, Balancing requirements The standards are subject to regu- have been reported in Scandinavia from lar reviews and will be upgraded to take Immersion suits must be appro- incidents involving such weaknesses in account of new designs and techniques. priate as constant-wear clothing similar outdoor clothing. Use on or near water to a normal work suit. This requirement clearly requires additional features. Man- references various workloads with regard ufacturers, who are responsible for eval- Mandatory risk to heat stress and immersion risks such uating risks, must spell out clear warn- assessment as hypothermia and cold shock, and thus ings regarding such use, and also the also requires balancing of the different There is currently no mandatory requirement to wear a lifejacket. demands. In addition, a minimum sur- requirement to wear an immersion suit vival time must be considered. in hazardous conditions. Under Europe- an law, manufacturers and employers are When facing drowning To align with SOLAS rules, a maximum survival time of six hours for insu- responsible for risk assessment of per- and hypothermia lated suits and a minimum one-hour sur- sonal protective equipment. For commer- International standardization for vival time for non-insulated suits was con- cial applications, this risk assessment is immersion suits began at the European sidered. Between these two values were mandatory ; in leisure applications it is regional level in the early 1990s, when defined four different levels of protection, strongly recommended. a CEN 1) working group identified the from which the user can choose. Unfortunately, most manufactur- need for a standard on immersion suits ers currently avoid testing in accordance parallel to existing SOLAS 2) rules. with ISO 15027 due to the high costs of The working group aimed for Rather a frozen subject testing. Instead, they fall back minimum standards of performance and mannequin than a human on mandatory SOLAS approvals. But it must be clearly stated that SOLAS gear quality for immersion suits in leisure Testing procedures are currently a or ship equipment for emergency use is and commercial applications, to be worn main area of concern. The classification not suitable as personal protective equip- in normal work conditions when facing of survival time is derived from SOLAS ment. With the revision of the standards, the risk of drowning and hypothermia. subject testing in cold water – procedures the ISO working group seeks to improve These essentials for personal protection that are painful to the subjects and require the situation. equipment deviate substantially from the intensive medical monitoring before, dur- SOLAS rules for equipment on ships ing and at least 24 hours after the test. used in case of emergency. The working group strives to sub- Based on a mandate from the stitute or minimize testing with subjects, 1) European Committee for Standardization (CEN). European Commission, the working instead applying procedures based on man- group focused on European commer- nequin testing or templates to determine 2) International convention for the safety of cial and leisure applications, and on heat transfer, and assembling an interna- life at sea (SOLAS). European ships not under SOLAS rules. tional task force for verification. A rea- 3) Agreement on technical cooperation However, the group chose not to limit sonable correlation between human and between ISO and CEN (Vienna Agreement). the work to CEN only. Using the close mannequin testing can be expected in the links between CEN and ISO, the mem- future, which will both ease the proce- bers decided to produce the standard in dures and reduce testing costs. partnership with ISO under the Vienna Agreement 3).The work was therefore About the author carried out in collaboration with ISO “Water drains heat from technical committee ISO/TC 188, Small the human body about 25 Rolf Popp craft, working group WG 14, Personal holds degrees in safety equipment. times faster than air.” mechanical engineering, A set of three International Stand- The combination with a lifejacket naval architec- ards was developed to cope with the ture and off- will be another milestone. Past experience complex nature of the task : shore engineer- has revealed a contradiction between ther- ing from the • ISO 15027-1:2002, Immersion suits – mal insulation and performance in water. Technical Uni- Part 1: Constant wear suits, require- This will be solved either by design or versity Aix la ments including safety through mandatory use of a lifejacket. Chapelle. Since To date, field trials have proved that the 1985, he has served as Health and Safety • ISO 15027-2:2002, Immersion suits buoyancy created by thermal protection – Part 2: Abandonment suits, require- inspector at the Institution for statutory can only be compensated by a lifejacket insurance and prevention in the vehicle ments including safety with a high turning momentum as specified operating trades, Germany. Since 1993, • ISO 15027-3:2002, Immersion suits in ISO 12402-2:2006, Personal flotation he has been Convenor of ISO/TC 188/ – Part 3: Test methods devices – Part 2: Lifejackets, performance WG 14, Personal safety equipment, and level 275 – Safety requirements. CEN/TC 162/WG 6, Lifejackets.

34 ISO Focus July-August 2008 Developments and Initiatives How can consumers influence a sustainable energy future ?

by Sondra Bruni and Susan Winter, Standards Council of Canada (SCC), representatives to ISO/COPOLCO

his was the compelling question that the 30 th annual ISO Com- Tmittee on consumer policy (ISO/ COPOLCO) plenary and workshop sought to answer during the week of 26–30 May, 2008, in Seoul, Repub- lic of Korea. The events were hosted by the national ISO member, Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS), with the support of Consum- ers Korea. Sponsorship from a Korean government agency, the Ministry of Knowl- program_workshop_korea_08.indd 2 edge Economy (MKE), facilitated the holding of an additional event, Interna- 15.07.2008 10:28:06 tional Conference on Climate Change, Challenges of developing quent. He went on to explain that this CSR and Capacity Building, and increased had a number of consequences, such as attendance of developing country rep- countries deforestation as a result of foraging, and resentatives to all events. Mr. Samuel Ochieng, President, compromises to women’s time, labour In the workshop’s keynote address, Consumers International (CI), discussed and health, as well as inflated energy Mr. Chul Sik Ahn, representing MKE, CI’s views on developing countries, spe- costs for the poor. noted the timeliness of the discussions cifically as they relate to: access, sus- “ Under-pricing discourages con- surrounding sustainable energy, par- tainability, affordability and governance/ servation and is not sustainable. There- ticularly in the face of escalating oil representation, and called for access fore supply-side solutions are needed prices. He highlighted the Republic of and the development of an affordable with attendant quota-setting for renew- Korea’s dependence on imports, and the energy charter. ables. Rather than indiscriminate subsi- impact of energy efficiency, labelling According to Mr. Ochieng, two dies on consumption – which don’t help and standards programmes to the coun- billion people, or 56 % of the global the poor – there is a need for subsidies try’s economic and social well-being. rural population, do not have access to on connections,” noted Mr. Ochieng. He went on to add that, in order to work energy services. Coverage ranges from Adding : “ Off-grid networks can pro- toward achieving a sustainable energy 98 % in China to 41 % in South Asia mote sustainable sources, as can the future, consumers must be empowered and 23 % in Sub-Saharan Africa. Where recognition and licensing of small pro- and educated on these issues. service does exist, interruptions are fre- viders, including cooperatives.”

ISO Focus July-August 2008 35 Developments and Initiatives

He also cited several examples Ms. Jai Ok Kim, Chair of where consumers are involved in regula- COPOLCO, seated with tions and indicated that consumer trust Dr. Jerome C. Glenn, and responsibility can be built through Director, The Millennium regulatory reform and consumer partici- Project, World Federation of pation. UN Associations.

the life cycle of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) could happen again. Shufuren is work- emissions of goods and services. ing to educate consumers about energy Drawing on ISO 14064 on green- saving measures, such as the use of pow- house gases and other standards in the ISO er bars, hybrid cars, household insula- 14000 series on environmental manage- tion and fuel cells. She called on government, PAS 2050 is designed to be applied ment to promote technology that secures to everything from a washing machine clean energy. to a bag of coffee beans or online bank In the area of appliance technolo- account. It is intended for use by organi- gy, Dr. JoAnn Emmel, Associate Professor, zations of all sizes, within all sectors of Virginia Tech, USA, noted that residential industry. Ms. Ferguson stated that for appliances consume almost one-third of Prime Minister Han Seung-Soo gave consumers, PAS 2050 will bring a com- all electricity generated in OECD coun- an address in honour of COPOLCO’s 30 th mon basis for communication of impacts tries, producing 12 % of the energy-relat- anniversary, at the opening ceremony. and improved understanding of life cycle ed CO2 emissions. This usage is expect- GHG emissions. ed to grow by 25 % by 2020. Water heating accounts for 80 % of energy in some The need for collective Promoting energy appliances. intelligence “ Manufacturers are making large efficiency investments in research and the develop- In addition to the usual sugges- Ms. Yoshiko Arita, Director, Envi- ment of eco-innovations, and improving tions for addressing climate change, Dr. ronmental Section of Shufuren, a Japanese consumer communications,” she said. Dr. Jerome C. Glenn, Director, Millennium consumer group, explained that following Emmel discussed various energy-saving Project, World Federation of UN Asso- the first oil shortage of the 1970s, Japan initiatives, adding that mandatory and vol- ciations, advocated for a global climate has been acutely aware that such a crisis untary efforts with respect to standards change collective intelligence. “ Consumers can use the collective intelligence to make informed choices and standards can be modified as the About the authors collective intelligence evolves,” he said. “ Policy makers and the general public Sondra Bruni Susan Winter need a new global system to identify, is a well- is the Manager analyze, and assess consequences, and respected and of Committee develop a synthesis of options to address senior consumer and Consumer climate change.” representative Services for the He revealed a real-time Del- with the CSA. CSA with phi model for collecting and assigning Ms. Bruni is a responsibility information by issue, energy source member of the for Consumer and usage. CSA Standards Services, Mem- Policy Board ber Services, and the Board Procedures and Carbon footprint – of Directors – CSA Group – and is on a Best Practices and the CSA Awards and from washing machines CSA Strategic Steering Committee. She Recognition Program. She represents is Chair of the Canadian Advisory Com- Standards Council of Canada (SCC) at to coffee beans mittee, Standards Council of Canada, to ISO/COPOLCO on the Consumer partici- Ms. Anne Ferguson, Manager, ISO/COPOLCO, as well as a member of pation committee. Ms. Winter is a mem- Consumer and Public Interest Standard- the Chairs Priority Committee. She is ber of the Consumer and Public Interest ization, BSI British Standards, described also the former Chair and the current Committee (CPIC) Task Force, SCC, as the evolution of the United Kingdom’s Vice Chair of the Consumer and Public well as of the CPIC Consumer Repre- Publicly Available Specification PAS 2050, Interest Committee (CPIC), Standards sentation Task Force. She is on the Advi- the aim of which is to provide a stand- Council of Canada. sory Committee for the Consumers ard and consistent method for measuring Council of Canada.

36 ISO Focus July-August 2008 and labels are indeed having an impact. 224, Service activities relating to drink- While uptake varies around the world, 54 ing water supply systems and wastewater countries, representing 80 % of the world’s systems – Quality criteria of the service population, now have standards and label- and performance indicators. Reference to ling for domestic appliances. existing ISO standards or work-in-progress Dr. Sung-Ho Shin, Senior Research- should also be made. er, KATS, presented options for a sustainable world, including wind power, solar energy and biofuels. “ In Korea,” he said, Information issues “ efforts are directed to alternative fuels, The second group considered possi- standardization, certification and conform- ble new areas of standardization, including ity assessment.” He added : “It is impor- energy or gas emissions in cars. A problem tant to promote high quality to protect with product labelling is the lack of com- consumers.” parability between countries. For example, one country could rate a product as energy efficient but another country might Heating or eating ? not. Standards are not reflecting techni- In search of a better deal cal progress in this area. For example, the A panel discussion chaired by European Directive for energy labels has Ms. Linda Golodner, President emeritus, supply is oil, 16 % is nuclear and 13 % is not been revised in the last 10 years. National Consumers League, USA, tack- liquefied natural gas (LNG). Mandatory led three subjects : labelling of appliances and automobiles • consumer access to energy; sets energy efficiency grades. An E-Stand- by programme for technology products • information issues including label- resulted in performance improvements ling for energy efficiency; of 60 % over 11 years. • the contribution of alternative ener- Professor Chang-seob Kim, Korea gies to a sustainable world. Polytechnic University, Graduate School of Energy, said that Consumers Korea is working toward more standards and energy efficiency. There are campaigns to encourage manufacturers and push gov- ernments. There are standards and labelling for refrigerators, air-conditioning At the COPOLCO plenary, (from right) units and cars, while competition encour- Mr. Håkan Murby, ISO President, Ms. Jai Ok ages technical innovation. Kim, COPOLCO Chair, Ms. Dana Kissinger Following the workshop, three and Ms. Micheline Lebreton, COPOLCO break-out groups each tackled one of Secretariat. the themes addressed by the panel dis- Ms. Anne Ferguson, Moderator (BSI, United cussion. With respect to carbon footprint- Kingdom), and Mr. Guillermo Zucal (IRAM, ing, technical methods for measurement Argentina), leading a break-out group on exist, but labels may not be useful. Can energy labelling. Consumer access to consumers, for example, really understand energy what 75g of CO2 means to them? Allan Asher, Chief Executive, Ener- Several problems emerged regard- gywatch, UK, cited the trend towards opening consumer access to energy, such as the ing markets to competitive supply. “A bet- challenges presented by natural disasters Alternative energy ter deal is needed,” he said, “ when some and the needs of disadvantaged consum- The third group examined the consumers have excess energy supply and ers such as seniors and the poor, espe- merits and drawbacks of various alterna- 2,5 billion people have almost no access. cially in developing countries. Consum- tive energy sources. Wind power, while The poor must choose between heating ers lack awareness of complaints and/or regarded as the “ renewable of choice ” and eating.” He also called for accurate redress mechanisms. for policy makers, has drawbacks. An information so that consumers can make Standards can help ensure safe- onshore wind turbine is only useable a informed choices. ty, quality and sustainability on non-net- third of the time requiring conventional Youngrae Kim, Manager, Energy worked energy supplies. There should also generation as a back-up. Off-shore wind Efficiency Management Department, Korea be guidelines to address consumer prob- turbines are very expensive, difficult to Energy Management Corporation, report- lems, as has been done with respect to maintain and transmission lines are needed that in his country 44 % of the energy water by ISO technical committee ISO/TC ed to transport the energy.

ISO Focus July-August 2008 37 Developments and Initiatives

Nuclear power, another alterna- ces. COPOLCO identified the need Resolutions tive, produces almost no carbon but the for consumer standards for the instal- At its plenary meeting, COPOL- construction of power plants is extremely lation, repair and maintenance of new CO passed resolutions which confirmed demanding in carbon production terms fuel source vehicles, standards for dis- support for a recommendation to ISO and there are hidden costs associated with playing efficiency information in cars to to develop guidelines on the assess- decommissioning and storing nuclear encourage good driving techniques, and ment and improvement of energy serv- waste for long time periods. research into ways of motivating con- ices to users (particularly for disadvan- Biodiesel can be more efficiently sumers to make better, more informed taged populations); and recommend- produced, but as forests are destroyed choices. ed the establishment of a task group to for production land, this choice seems The group also recommended implement the findings of the workshop. irrational. Furthermore, as food crops an international standard for the oper- Finally, COPOLCO expressed its sup- are diverted to fuel, social disruption ation of “smart meters” as there is evi- port for recommendations emanating can result. Some crops such as corn are dence that feedback to consumers about from the International Conference on inefficient sources of ethanol production, energy consumption encourages better Social responsibility, Climate Change while others such as sugar cane require use of energy resources. Taxation and and Capacity-building. These includ- crop burning, which creates additional tariffs are also influencing consumer ed: assistance to developing countries environmental concerns. behaviour, and the user-pays option was to respond to climate change, support to considered to be more encouraging of the development of international stand- responsible consumer behaviour than ards on GHG measurement and label- New areas of high-volume discounts. Finally, the par- ling as well as global energy efficien- standardization ticipants strongly supported the develop- cy parameters, and improved consum- The group generally conclud- ment of international standards on carbon footprint, or GHG labelling. er education to promote informed and ed that standards requirements should responsible energy consumption and cover lifecycle assessment of products, sustainable lifestyle choices. accurate labelling, quality, and conver- sion of vehicles to use new fuel sour- Participants to the ISO/COPOLCO plenary and workshop 2008.

38 ISO Focus July-August 2008 ISO IT Strategy 2010 and beyond by Daniele Gerundino, Strategic Adviser to the ISO Secretary-General

he design and implementation of IT applications and services sup- Tporting ISO’s international standardization processes have, during the past several years, been devoted primarily to standards development, addressing: • the electronic development and dissemination of documents ; • the management of users, groups and roles ; • the automation of core sub-processes (such as electronic balloting) ; and • the introduction of tools supporting collaborative work for experts engaged in the development of International Standards.

These developments have con- tributed to the substantial improvement in efficiency of the standardization system. From a user perspective, however, the needs for developing richer content (well beyond the current document format), and for accessing that content in ever more convenient and flexible ways, have so far been covered to a limited extent. This is a new key priority area that ISO is committed to address in the near future. To review these issues and discuss current and future challenges concerning the use of information technology within ISO, 61 participants from  21 ISO member bodies, plus invited representatives from IEC and CEN, ized in conjunction with the Information gathered in Milan, Italy, in May 2008, An open, forward-looking Technology Strategy Implementation forum for a workshop entitled ISO IT Strat- Group (ITSIG) plenary meeting. The 1) egy 2010 and beyond . ISO/ITSIG workshop brought togeth- The workshop was organized The workshop was hosted by er managers from the ISO community in two sessions. The first, Adding val- UNI (Ente Italiano di Unificazione), (national standards bodies, standards ue to standards users, considered pri- the ISO member for Italy, and organ- users and partners) who are most con- marily the development of new types cerned in the design and operation of of content and modes of delivery. The second, Standards development proc- 1) The programme of the workshop, with IT services. copies of all presentations, is available on ess automation, focused on analysis of ISO Online at : www.iso.org/iso/conferences? how to further improve the standards llNodeId=149235&llVolId=-2000 development process.

ISO Focus July-August 2008 39 Developments and Initiatives

An impressive panel of speakers XML How, if at all, will this trend affect updated participants on major trends. standards content and the mode of deliv- Structuring documents, and in Panel discussions allowed open and ery to users? A number of different opin- particular ISO standards documents, constructive interaction between speak- ions were expressed and the matter will in XML serves several objectives. Key ers and audience. certainly be rediscussed within ITSIG among these are: Both the presentations and the and other ISO fora. Workshop partici- discussions among speakers and audi- • supporting the document authoring pants shared the view that ISO must be ence provided good insight into the future and publishing processes (consistent more open and receptive in understand- key areas to be covered by ISO. application of typographical rules; ing new attitudes and trends of interest re-use of data and document compo- to all types of stakeholder. nents such as graphics files; import Consensus was reached on the Key areas for standards and exchange of data items, such as view that : users project data from databases, through Three key areas to be addressed automated procedures) ; • the main area of interest from the ISO perspective most probably con- emerged from the session Adding val- • supporting the automated extraction cerns informative content of stand- ue to standards users – all with a view of text and data to feed documents ards, which helps to clarify the nor- to developing richer content and more and information delivery systems mative content and its implementa- advanced and flexible ways of content (catalogues, Web stores, etc.) ; delivery : tion. For example, informative multi- • creating a powerful and flexible foun- media content (such as graphics, vid- • standards as databases ; dation for the development of new eos, simulations, etc.) could be asso- • structuring of documents and related features and products (collections of ciated to International Standards ; standards; content extractions across metadata in XML ; • another possible area could be to keep multiple standards; incorporation of • Web 2.0 trends. track of key exchanges of information or link to different data types, such and milestones associated with stand- as multimedia objects, or to compu- ards development, for example, video Standards as databases terized services through active com- recording meetings or otherwise cap- ponents like Java applets or ActiveX turing information that would be useful The database-centred approach components). for the development and maintenance for clarifying the reasons behind spe- of standards content will become much For both of these first two key cific technical decisions. Such infor- more common in the future, contrib- areas, existing ISO/ITSIG projects pro- mation could contribute to resolving uting to stronger harmonization and vide a good framework for addressing problems of interpretation or applica- consistency. In addition, the current- ISO’s current and future needs. tion of standards at a later stage. ly separate approaches to the develop- ITSIG should monitor development of concepts applied by different ments in this domain and investigate communities, such as terminology and further to more precisely identify the graphical symbols, are also likely to Web 2.0 trends possible application of some of these converge. As a result, the existence of Web 2.0 is the term commonly approaches and techniques with regard a standards document, paper or elec- used to characterize the second gener- to informative content. tronic, will become only one form of ation of Web-based communities and rendering standards content. hosted services designed to support col- New types of services can be laboration and sharing of information Key areas for standards envisaged whereby content is assembled and experiences among users. Examples from a set of source standards and pro- include social-networking sites, video- development vided as a customized product containing sharing sites, wikis, folksonomies (tax- For continuing progress in the only relevant elements from standards. onomies developed by users to classify area of Standards development proc- References to the full texts of the source and retrieve Web content), etc. ess automation, two key areas should documents could be included to give the Many of the speakers empha- be addressed : possibility of retrieving the full content sized the rapid growth and use of Web • business process reengineering; of the standards when needed. 2.0 technology and services by an ever- Other services could include the increasing multitude of users, both pri- • new developments to further enhance the provision of standards content for com- vate and business. In particular, the lit- efficiency and quality of ISO’s stand- puter access with a much higher degree erally exploding role of multimedia ardization process, identified as : content was underlined as the primary of granularity than is available today. – collaboration (with consideration means of communication, along with Customers may have many more options of Web 2.0 trends), in defining the package of standards increased varieties of virtual communi- content they wish to obtain in order to ties and interactive approaches (blogs, – virtual meetings, and best fit their needs. wikis and similar). – workflow management.

40 ISO Focus July-August 2008 Business process re-engineering The electronic infrastructure supporting the development of Internation- al Standards is nearly completed. This covers ISO’s core business processes through a highly structured and con- trolled environment. Once the use of the National Mirror Committee server by the entire community of ISO members becomes consolidated, all parties concerned will have automatic and real-time access to ISO documents and related information, at any stage of the standards develop- Managers from the ISO community discuss the future of ISO’s IT strategy. ment process. The key procedural steps of notifications and balloting, including collection and management of comments, are already supported by other existing ISO eServices. To achieve further improvements, we need to re-think the standards development process so as to take full advantage of the ISO computerized infrastructure. The ISO/IEC Directives 2) were developed at a time when the primary means of communication were ordinary mail and telephone. A fully computerized infrastructure, allowing instant access to information and documents and real-time electronic interaction between actors, provides a promising framework for supporting further opti- mized processes. Procedural and technical improvements should now be considered to allow for innovations, such as : • harmonization of standards development cycles across different sectors and geographies ; • parallelization of tasks ; • more extensive use of automated workflows.

ITSIG will be deciding on setting up specific initiatives to address these topics, in collaboration with other relevant ISO bodies.

2) Core documents describing basic procedural and drafting rules to be followed by ISO technical committees.

ISO Focus July-August 2008 41 Developments and Initiatives

Collaboration • meeting preparation (e.g. meeting ITSIG should support exchange notification, agenda builder, upload of information among ISO members in The computerized infrastructure of documents and presentation mate- this important area, with a view to devel- supporting ISO standards development rials); oping a specific initiative. This could has been primarily devoted to supporting be based on the UNI experience, and and managing key data (e.g. concerning • in-meeting support (visible agenda possibly result in re-usable code, to be technical bodies, experts and their roles and attendee list, attendance track- shared by the ISO members through the in technical bodies, standards projects, ing, view of items under discussion, iSource platform. together with all their attributes) as well floor speaker management, support as structured processes such as docu- for participant interaction, support ment dissemination, balloting and stand- for automated, real-time translation, The road ahead ards authoring. simple group polling/management of Elio Bianchi, Chairman of ITSIG, Other functionalities supporting resolutions); noted: “It was a pleasure for UNI to host the work of technical experts at various • post-meeting support (semi-auto- this intense and constructive brainstorm- stages of the standards development mated meeting minutes, archival of ing, which was found highly informa- process so far have been only margin- documents and of recorded meeting tive and enlightening by all the partic- ally addressed. actions). ipants (including myself). An important aspect to consid- The open exchange of views er is how to more effectively promote ITSIG should initiate analysis has confirmed that, with the strategic and support collaboration – especially and experimentation on virtual meetings, ITSIG projects, we are heading in the informal collaboration – while taking linking new developments in this area to right direction, but also that we need to into account the nature of the ISO sys- the ongoing work of the ECOM 4) project address new challenges: facing a fast- tem, which is a structured and control- team on meeting management. changing reality, being open to innova- led environment, rather different from tion and adopting a flexible and proactive other types of communities. approach – something that may require In this context, and taking into Workflow applications 3) a change of culture for the Organiza- account Web 2.0 trends, “wik ” tech- 5) Workflow applications are an tion, and to which ITSIG is keen to nologies were considered with signifi- important area of development with sig- contribute.” cant interest. nificant potential for further increas- ITSIG should initiate analysis ing the efficiency of standards devel- and experimentation of both models and opment. 3) Hawaiian word for “fast”. A wiki is tools supporting collaboration mecha- Developments made by UNI in a collection of Web pages designed to nisms suitable for ISO. A pilot project this area were presented during the work- enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content. Often used to create in collaboration with experts in wikis shop, including examples of implementa- could be a useful first step. collaborative and community Web sites, wikis tions like the workflow application used are used in businesses to provide affordable to collect, register and forward docu- and effective intranets and for knowledge Virtual meetings ments received from ISO and CEN, to management. either UNI national mirror committees or (Source : Wikipedia www.wikipedia.org) Organizing virtual meetings is internal process units. This application 4) Electronic committee. another important possible develop- uses pre-identified rules that allocate (or ment to support collaboration, at both 5) Requiring various applications, directly discard) documents to the cor- components and people to be involved in the formal and informal levels. rect workflow based on document type. processing of data to complete an instance ISO’s eServices should be extend- The workflows can be easily modified of a process. A workflow process involves ed to support virtual meetings, includ- or adapted. The same rules define, for constant change and update. One can ing functionalities such as: each document, the data coming from introduce new components into the operation CEN or ISO that need to be associated without changing any code. with the document. (Source : Wikipedia)

42 ISO Focus July-August 2008 New on the shelf

• examples of typical applications of ISO advises managers the documents ; New ISO standard will how to get the best • information on the ISO 9000 family help safeguard privacy out of the ISO 9000 of standards. of financial data in family The experts of ISO/TC 176 give computer systems this advice to users : “ It is highly rec- by Roger Frost, Manager, ommended that you use ISO 9000 to by Janet Maillard, Acting Communication Services, become familiar with the basic concepts Communication Officer, ISO Central Secretariat and the language used before you adopt ISO Central Secretariat ISO 9001 to achieve a first level of performance. The practices described in ISO 9004 may then be implemented to make SO has published on its Web site a your quality management system more new electronic edition of its advice effective and efficient in achieving your for managers, Selection and use of the I business goals and objectives. The ISO ISO 9000 family of standards. 9001 and ISO 9004 standards have been The ISO 9000 family, which cur- written to enable you to relate them to rently consists of 17 international quality management standards and guidelines other management systems (e.g. environmental), or to sector-specific require- (plus a corrigendum), has earned a glo- new ISO standard will help to safe- ments (such as ISO/TS 16949 in the bal reputation as a basis for establishing guard the privacy of people’s financial automotive industry) and to assist you effective and efficient quality manage- data when being processed by auto- in gaining recognition through national A ment systems. mated, networked information systems or regional award programmes.” The best known standard is ISO 22307:2008, Financial services ISO Secretary-General Alan 9001, which specifies the basic require- – Privacy impact assessment, defines Bryden comments : “ ISO not only devel- ments for a quality management system a methodology to help organizations in ops standards for organizations operat- (QMS) that an organization must fulfil private and public sectors identify pri- ing in global markets ; it also provides to demonstrate its ability to consistently vacy issues and mitigate risks associat- informative documents and advice to provide products (which include served with processing the financial data of help these organizations get the best ices) that enhance customer satisfaction customers and consumers, business part- out of ISO standards.” and meet applicable statutory and regu- ners and citizens. Selection and use of the ISO latory requirements. The standard can be Rapid advances in the perform- 9000 family of standards, which can be used for certification/registration and con- ance of computer systems and network- accessed free of charge from the ISO tractual purposes by organizations seek- ing, along with a lowering of their cost, Web site (direct URL: http://www.iso. ing recognition of their quality manage- allow financial institutions to record, org/iso/iso_9000_selection_and_use), ment system. It is estimated that a million store and retrieve vast amounts of data is the latest edition of the highly suc- ISO 9001 certificates have been issued in faster and more efficiently than ever cessful brochure, first published by ISO 170 countries. before. Advanced data processing, stor- in 1994 as Implementing ISO 9000. The However, ISO technical commit- age, collection, and retrieval technology brochure will be updated further once the tee ISO/TC 176, Quality management and is now available to all sectors of busi- next edition of ISO 9001 is published – quality assurance, which is responsible ness and government. expected before the end of 2008. for developing and maintaining the ISO With these new abilities, private and 9000 family, and which has updated the public sector organizations can effortless- e-brochure, states : “You will obtain the ly process information in ways that, inten- greatest value by using the entire family tionally or unintentionally, may impinge of standards in an integrated manner.” on the privacy rights of their stakeholders. The e-brochure provides a gener- These capabilities raise concerns about the al perspective on the ISO 9000 family of privacy of individuals in large networked standards. It is an overview of the stand- information technology environments. ards and demonstrates how, collectively, “ The financial services commu- they form a basis for continual improve- nity recognizes how important it is to ment and business excellence. The e-bro- protect and not abuse their customers’ chure includes: privacy, and not just because it may be • an overview of the ISO 9000 core required by law,” says Mr. John M. Fer- standards ; ris, Convenor of ISO/TC 68/SC 7’s working group WG 5, Privacy impact assess- • a step-by-step process to implement ment standard. “As systems are devel- a quality management system ; oped or updated, there is an opportuni-

ISO Focus July-August 2008 43 New on the shelf ty to enhance business processes and to The framework comprises defini- provide improved services to customers. tions, principles and a model. It sets out However, new ways of using existing six principles for good corporate govern- technology and new technologies also ance of IT that express preferred behav- bring new or unknown risks. It is advis- iour to guide decision-making : able that corporations handling finan- • responsibility ; cial information be proactive in protecting and not abusing the privacy of their • strategy ; consumers and partners. ISO/IEC standard for • acquisition ; “ One way of proactively address- • performance ; ing privacy principles and practices is corporate governance to follow a standardized privacy impact of information • conformance ; assessment process for a proposed finan- • human behaviour. cial system, such as the one recommend- technology ed in ISO 22307.” The purpose of the standard is to The standard describes the privacy by Sandrine Tranchard, promote effective, efficient, and accept- impact assessment (PIA) which should be Communication Officer, able use of IT in all organizations by: carried out at an early stage in the devel- ISO Central Secretariat • assuring stakeholders that, if the stand- opment of a proposed financial system. As ard is followed, they can have confi- well as helping to identify optimal privacy dence in the organization’s corporate options and solutions, it provides a way ecause inadequate information governance of IT ; to ensure that the system complies with technology (IT) systems can hinder applicable laws and regulations governing the performance and competitive- • informing and guiding directors in B governing the use of IT in their organ- 10.07.2008 10:41:56 customer and consumer privacy. ness of organizations or expose them to It is a tool that, when used effec- the risk of not complying with legisla- ization ; NSBs in Developing countries 2008.indd 1 tively, can identify risks associated with tion, the new ISO/IEC 38500 standard • providing a basis for objective evalua- privacy and help organizations plan to provides broad guidance on the role of tion of the corporate governance of IT. mitigate those risks. ISO 22307 : top management in relation to the cor- • describes the PIA process in general ; porate governance of IT. Alison Holt, Chair of the IT Governance Working Group comments : • defines the common and required com- François Coallier, Chair of the “ This standard is targeted at the Board ponents of a privacy impact assess- ISO subcommittee, Software and sys- of an organization, to assist the Board ment, regardless of business systems tems engineering, that developed the in delivering the maximum value from affecting financial institutions ; standard comments : “ Most organiza- IT and information assets across the tions use IT as a fundamental business • provides informative guidance, includ- organization.” tool and few can function without it. ing frequently asked questions (FAQs) The standard is aligned with the IT is also a significant enabler in the on PIAs and their implementation, definition of corporate governance that future business plans of many organi- together with a number of questionnaires was published as a Report of the Com- zations. ISO/IEC 38500 will help the designed to help users assess their needs mittee on the Financial Aspects of Cor- governing body to evaluate, direct and and develop an effective PIA. porate Governance in 1992, also known monitor the use of IT. as the Cadbury Report. The Cadbury “ It will assist directors in assuring Bearing in mind that the legal Report provided the foundation defini- conformance with obligations – regula- framework for privacy protection differs tion for the Organisation for Economic tory, legislative, common law, contrac- from country to country, this internation- Co-operation and Development’s Prin- tual – concerning the acceptable use of ally agreed standard on privacy impact ciples of Corporate Governance. IT and to have a proper corporate gov- assessments is an important step forward. ISO/IEC 38500:2008, Corporate ernance of IT.” The internationalization of PIAs is critical governance of information technology, was ISO/IEC 38500:2008, Corporate for global banking and, in particular, for developed by the joint technical commit- governance of information technology, cross-border financial transactions. tee ISO/IEC JTC1, Information technol- is applicable to organizations of all siz- ISO 22307:2008, Financial serv- ogy, subcommittee SC 7, Software and es, including public and private compa- ices – Privacy impact assessment, was systems engineering. It is available from nies, government entities, and not-for- developed by ISO technical committee ISO national member institutes and from profit organizations. This standard pro- ISO/TC 68, Financial services, subcom- the ISO Central Secretariat through the vides a framework for effective govern- mittee SC 7, Core banking. It is available ISO Store (www.iso.org/isostore) or by ance of IT to assist those at the highest from ISO national member institutes and contacting the Marketing & Communica- level of organizations to understand and from ISO Central Secretariat through the tion department ([email protected]). ISO Store (www.iso.org/isostore) or by fulfil their legal, regulatory, and ethical contacting the Marketing & Communica- obligations in respect of their organization department ([email protected]). tion’s use of IT.

44 ISO Focus July-August 2008 Coming up

Developoments and Initiatives

ISO committees Chairs’ conference Leaders of the technical committees that develop ISO International Stand- ards met in Geneva, Switzerland in June 2008 for the fourth edition of a conference to improve further the efficiency and global relevance of the organization’s standards development system. The September issue of ISO Focus provides the highlights of the conference, which this year emphasized the themes of sustainability and standards and public policy. ISO Secretary-General Alan Bryden put this work in context by declaring: “Not only is business global today, but so is the response to a number of challenges, such as climate change…” “If we add to these global challenges 10.07.2008 10:41:56 Main Focus the pervasiveness and need for connec- NSBs in Developing countries 2008.indd 1 tivity and inter-operability of information and communication technologies, Developing countries and procurement. Seventy-five percent of you can understand why the need for emerging economies ISO’s 157 members are developing consensus-based International Standards countries. No surprise therefore that has never been so great.” It is often said that it is better for a hun- ISO is implementing an ambitious gry man to learn how to fish, than to be Action Plan to help developing coun- given fish. By implementing International tries benefit fully from the advantages Standards and participating in the stand- of standardization. ardization process, developing countries can learn how to fish for themselves. In our next issue, we explore the latest The September issue of ISO Focus looks developments of the Action Plan, and at how developing countries can use how it is providing awareness, capacity International Standards as tools to building, promoting national and region- promote sustainable development. al cooperation, developing IT expertise and increasing participation in the gov- By providing global consensus on ernance and technical work of ISO. In requirements for goods and services, this context, the issue looks at the initia- International Standards facilitate access tive of “ twinning ” and offers some case ISO’s current portfolio of more than 17 to markets. They also support the transfer studies. 000 voluntary standards is the output of of technology and good business prac- stakeholders in business, government, tices in a wide variety of issues ranging In this issue, national member bodies international organizations, consumer from transportation to water quality to will tell us about their organizations and associations and other groups, working responses to climate change to name a their experiences with standardization. in over 3 000 technical bodies under few. By disseminating innovation and Donors, regional bodies, and other key more than 700 ISO committees. Every state-of-the-art technical know-how, players will discuss progress on projects working day, seven or more ISO meet- ISO standards offer developing countries currently in place to help developing ings are taking place in different parts practical solutions, so they do not have countries help themselves through of the world, not counting the virtual to reinvent the wheel or be kept out of participation in standardization and the meetings and contacts using ISO’s Web- the game. This is particularly important adoption of standards. based IT tools for its technical work. where resources are scarce and must be ISO has partnered with international, invested with care. Because this system is decentralized, regional and national development agen- ISO instituted a conference for the ISO standards provide tools for ensur- cies involved in promoting sustainability chairs of its technical committees, sub- ing the performance, safety and security and trade. In this issue we find numerous committees and project committees to of products and services, and thus rais- statements from key players in the provide them with an opportunity for a ing the quality infrastructure and pro- development arena who provide their face-to-face exchange of views, experi- tecting local populations. Moreover, the views on how International Standards ences and ideas with their counterparts implementation of International Standards contribute to and support the work of from other committees. Learn all about also encourages foreign investment and their organizations. this conference in our next issue.

ISO Focus July-August 2008 45 Ad complaints handling.indd 1 31.01.2008 14:24:21