Recap Day 3

It began with a diamond and a question: how can we trust the story of a product as it moves through a complex supply chain? A brief demonstration of traceability brought Digital Product Passports to life, showing how information about a product’s origins and journey can be captured, checked and shared.

Then the conversation widened. What would it take to make that approach work across industries? And how can product data travel between systems and markets without losing its meaning or credibility? Industry and standards perspectives brought the practical hurdles into focus, with International Standards offering a way to connect the pieces. Soon, a product passport could do more than tell a product’s story. It could help that story travel – and be trusted – wherever the product goes.

I think, to succeed, everybody needs to be around the table.

Read more from panellist Laura Lindsay of Microsoft on how standards build trust in emerging technologies:

La confianza es la infraestructura de la expansión

La innovación puede comenzar por la capacidad técnica, pero su capacidad para crecer depende de algo más amplio: la confianza.

How can standards serve everyone if the people most affected cannot help write them? Opened by Andrea Khoshkhou, France’s Interministerial Delegate for Accessibility, this workshop put that question to participants from across the ISO membership. In a World Café format, mixed tables and rotating conversations brought experiences from different countries into a lively exchange.

The discussion turned the lens on standardization itself. Meeting arrangements, document formats and working methods can all create barriers, even unintentionally. Participants explored how to remove them and strengthen the involvement of people with disabilities. Around the tables, inclusion became something concrete: changing how standards are made so that more people can help shape what they contain.

When students meet standards
How does standardization look when you’re encountering it for the first time? Students from two French universities joined workshops on accessibility and the circular economy to find out. With no background in standards, they brought curiosity and fresh questions to discussions with people already working in the field. This was a chance to discover what standards are by stepping into the conversations that shape them.

Climate adaptation can begin in a city office, but it has to make sense at the farm gate. That was the thread running through this fireside chat. A city resilience expert from ICLEI, a global network of local governments working on sustainability, explored how communities can plan for growing risks, while a young farm manager, sharing photographs from her own world, brought those risks into everyday focus. Together, they asked what it takes for a plan to reach the people making decisions on the ground.

The discussion followed a practical path: understand the risks, decide what matters most, then secure the investment to act. International Standards can help communities build plans that partners can trust and support, while allowing those plans to reflect local needs. The choice at the heart of the session was clear: prepare together now, while there is still time to shape what happens next.

We need youth and grassroot perspectives to build a climate-resilient future and International Standards to turn climate risks into practical action.

Read more about ICLEI’s work on ground:

Por qué la resiliencia climática comienza en el ámbito local

El cambio climático es global, pero la resiliencia se forja a escala local. La planificación estructurada de la adaptación y las Normas Internacionales pueden ayudar a municipios, regiones y comunidades …

From the clothes we wear to the food we eat, water lies at the heart of our everyday lives. It can no longer be thought of in isolation, but as part of a cross-sectoral ecosystem. In this session, voices from civil society, industry and the global water community came together to discuss how we can build a water-resilient future, emphasizing the global nature of this problem. A shift has occurred: we are no longer stakeholders in this discussion but shareholders.

International standardization offers an open table for cross-sectoral consensus building, giving everyone the opportunity for their voices to be heard and providing practical solutions. This builds trust and allows these solutions to be scaled globally. The system is in place – what we need is the will and the participation, to ensure that no-one is left behind.

We don’t talk about stakeholders anymore. Everyone is a shareholder. It’s a peer-to-peer relationship now. You’re no longer standing at the doorstep but on the inside.

This session came at just the right moment. With the World Water Congress and the UN Water Conference on the horizon, the challenge is to carry what works beyond one community – and get it to the people who need it most.

Learn how standards shape water management from Isabelle Vendeuvre, Director of Group Standardization at SUEZ.

How standards shape sustainable water management

In a world plagued by climate, health and economic crises, the water sector is among the first to feel the effects, making water a strategic priority for the decades ahead. Protecting this vital resource …

Building trust in circularity

Making circular approaches work on a much bigger scale is no small feat. Around 100 participants took up the challenge in a workshop introduced by Catherine Chevauché, Chair of ISO’s technical committee on circular economy, ISO/TC 323. The discussion connected three parts of the picture: diverse value chains, consumers and users, and the finance and policy that can help circular business models grow.

Trust ran through all conversations. Businesses need common frameworks to collaborate across sectors and markets, including developing and emerging economies. Consumers need reliable information about circular products and services. Investment needs supportive mechanisms and policies. Together, participants explored how standards can strengthen those connections, helping circular solutions gain wider traction.

Putting trust to work

A promise made is one thing. A promise kept, time after time, is where quality earns trust. This principle set the pace for the discussion on trust as a strategic advantage. Leaders from standardization, industry and conformity assessment explored how quality creates confidence in the people an organization serves.

The conversation moved beyond the quality department to a culture that cuts across all levels of an organization. Strong companies align in what they say, what they do and what they demonstrate. That consistency earns customer confidence and allows trust to travel throughout supply chains.

What’s new in ISO 9001:2026? Discover what businesses need to know.

Sam Somerville, who led the ISO 9001:2026 revision, tells us why trust cannot be left to chance.

La confianza no puede dejarse al azar: por qué ISO 9001 es más importante que nunca

En un mundo en constante evolución, la confianza depende de la capacidad de una organización para cumplir sus compromisos, adaptarse y aprender. ISO 9001:2026 refleja lo que esto significa hoy en día en …

Trust comes from organizations doing what they say they will do. Where confidence grows, trust follows.

Trade talk with the WTO

Behind every cross-border deal is a leap of faith: that the rules will hold, partners will deliver and markets will remain open. WTO Deputy Director-General Jean-Marie Paugam joined us for an intimate one-to-one conversation about what sustains that confidence when geopolitical tensions and economic fragmentation are pulling in the opposite direction. The exchange moved easily from the resilience of global trade to the choices confronting governments. Predictable rules, cooperation and International Standards emerged as essential points of connection, giving countries room to pursue their priorities without losing the common ground that allows trade to flourish.

Standards enable trust to travel.

Talking strategy

Behind every International Standard is a system that must keep evolving. In six focused fireside chats held in the ISO Village, members took a close look at the strategic initiatives moving ISO forward – from embedding climate action in standards and strengthening African participation to transforming standards into more connected digital assets.

The talks also covered new resources helping members promote and implement standards, as well as ISO’s efforts to adapt how standards are accessed, licensed and used in a digital age. Clear signs of progress emerged: the six projects are gathering momentum, with new resources already in use, pilots underway and the next phase of implementation taking shape.

The format was as forward-looking as the content. AI-powered interpretation and captions allowed members to follow the conversations in their own language, opening the discussion to voices from across the ISO community.