ISO 14034 the new environmental management standard on Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) has been published! WG5 Convenor, Benoit Desforges, explains further...
(View ISO 14034:2016 Environmental management -- Environmental technology verification (ETV) at the ISO Store.)
Innovative environmental technologies can provide solutions to environmental challenges. But, innovations by definition cannot demonstrate a successful track-record. This standard was designed to help innovative technologies, by providing a process to communicate credible information about their environmental performance claims. ISO 14034 reflects an international consensus that standardization of the performance verification process is an effective way of establishing the global credibility of innovative environmentally sound solutions.
Thanks to the great work of SC4/WG5, the development of ISO 14034 successfully progressed over the last few years through the different mandatory milestones and international approvals. October 5, 2017, was the closing date of the final international vote by all ISO member bodies to approve the publication of ISO 14034. The standard was approved unanimously (100% approval) being endorsed by 42 countries with no countries casting a negative vote, which is exceptional in the ISO process and a great achievement for WG5. The ISO Central Secretariat officially published ISO 14034 on November 15, 2017. Now with proof of performance credibly assured, innovations can expect an easier market access and/or a larger market share and the technological risk is reduced for technology purchasers. With ISO 14034, standardization of the ETV process will facilitate global market access for all verified technologies.
But now that ISO 14034 has been published, it does not mean the work of WG5 is coming to an end. For many countries, ETV and the application of ISO 14034 are a completely new activity and concept. Furthermore, although the requirements of ISO 14034 are precise and well described, verifiers would greatly benefit of additional information and guidance to apply the standard in their business and countries. With that in mind, during the last TC207 Plenary in September 2016 in Seoul, WG5 initiated the development of a Technical Report (TR) to provide Guidance for ISO 14034. Preliminary discussions occurred in Seoul. Then WG5 met in Ottawa, Canada, in February 2017, to start the development of the document. Many sections of the TR (now at the Working Draft stage) have been drafted and were distributed to WG5 for comments. The group will meet in Halifax in June 2017 to review and revise the TR, with the main objective of developing an updated version of this key document…
See you all in Halifax!
Best regards,
Benoit
Benoit Desforges, ing., M.Sc.
ISO/TC207/SC4/WG5 Convenor