AHG 14: Inaugural meeting and open invitation

AHG 14 would like to invite you to attend the first meeting of the new ad hoc group. The topic is a valuable addition to our body of work: externalities. This group seeks a way to represent the negative (and positive) side-effects of agrifood system activities in a standardized way that can be used, for example, to support labeling claims regarding sustainable production of an agricultural product (e.g., cheese). The use case that the group will use as a reference involves the management of animal byproducts (e.g., whey, manure). This use case is very important by itself, but the group’s intent is for the work of the group to be applicable to externalities in general.

As mentioned above, the first meeting is coming up, and we will make it open, so you can visit and determine if this topic is of interest to you.

If you are already a member of AHG 14, please register via:

https://sd.iso.org/meetings/191474

Otherwise, please use:

https://iso.zoom.us/j/99912709833?pwd=EJV88Le4rbGbPzemiYUcILWzBSadtP.1

 

We asked the convenors to answer three questions that could help frame the conversation. Please find the questions and their answers below.

1. What underlying problem does modeling externalities help solve?

Farms generate value beyond their products that is non-monetary (e.g., rural jobs, landscape preservation, carbon reduction.) Methodologies for calculating impacts already exist, but today there is no standard way to measure or record these contributions digitally so they can be used with these methodologies.

Without a common data format, each positive (or negative) impact stays invisible to decision makers. AHG 14 creates that missing standard: a shared digital language so externalities can be captured at the farm level, verified, and compared, thus turning invisible contributions into actionable data.

2. How will AHG 14 create value, and for whom?

Standards emerging from AHG 14’s work will give each actor in the agrifood chain a standardized way to express what they contribute beyond the product itself. Farmers and processors get a digital record of their positive externalities (waste valorization, local employment, landscape stewardship) making invisible good practices verifiable. Rural communities benefit indirectly: when externalities become visible and measurable, the case for keeping production local strengthens.

Beyond direct producers, four groups of stakeholders need this standardized information:

1. Regulators need externality data to design fair policies and incentives.
2. Financiers need it to allocate capital based on social and environmental impact.
3. Consumers need it to make informed choices aligned with their values.
4. The agrifood and related industries (including bioenergy) need it to prove their net contribution to communities and obtain social acceptance.

A shared, digital standard turns this diffuse, unrecorded value into structured data that these actors can use to drive better decisions.

3. Why is this important and why does it represent a major step forward for the committee?

TC 347's mandate is to enable data-driven decision-making in agrifood systems. But data only serves decision-making if it reflects the full context, and right now, this critical piece is missing. Social, environmental, and climatic impacts are real, affect multiple stakeholders, and shape the decisions of regulators, investors, and consumers, yet they have no standard digital representation. The committee already has the technical foundations (entity models, event frameworks, etc) and AHG 14 builds on that work to fill the gap.

The timing is right. Regulatory demands (EU Green Deal, Scope 3...), ESG-driven finance, and consumer expectations for verified sustainability claims all converge on the same need: a credible, neutral, interoperable way to express externalities. ISO is the right body to deliver it because it is global, independent, and already working on the surrounding data infrastructure. AHG 14 is the missing layer that gives the committee's existing standards their full meaning.