Citizenship INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR sTANDARDIZATION - IsO What is ISO? ISO is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies. It is a non-governmental organisation whose headquarters are in Geneva (CH): it comprises standards bodies from more than 160 countries with one standards body representing each member country. For example, the Ente Italiano di Normazione UNI represents Italy. ISO members collaborate in the development and promotion of international standards for technology, scientific testing processes, working conditions, societal issues and more. How are ISO standards developed? The International Organization for Standardization has a general six-stage process for developing standards. Proposal stage: when industry associations or consumer groups make a relevant request, ISO committee determines whether a new standard is required. 11 Preparatory stage: a working group composed of experts and industry stakeholders is set up to prepare a working draft of the new standard. Committee stage: this is an optional stage during which members of the parent committee review and comment on the draft standard. Enquiry stage: the draft standard is distributed to ISO members for comments and, ultimately, a vote. If it is approved, ISO publishes it as a standard. If not, it moves to the approval stage. Approval stage: the draft standard is submitted as a Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) to ISO members. They vote to approve the new standard. Publication stage: if ISO members approve the new standard, the FDIS is published as an official international standard. ISO participating members vote on standards approvals. A standard must receive affirmative votes from at least two-thirds of participating members and negative votes from no more than one fourth of participating members. grOUP WOrK go online, discuss the subjects and answer the questions. 1. Why were ISO standards created? 2. What is particular about ISO documents? 3. What does ISO 50001: 2018 offer to companies? 4. Why is an ISO certification important for a company? 5. Why is the International Standard Logo important for any company? 6. What does ISO 14001:2015 standard specify? Companies receive ISO certification from a certifying body which assures that a service, product or system meets the requirements of the standard. societal: sociale 316 EnErgy MechPower.indb 316 30/01/24 17:10