The opening ceremony of the 27th Plenary meeting of The Technical Committee ISO/TC 207 “Environmental management” was held on June 03, 2019 in Berlin, Germany.
One of the speakers was the Minister of Environment Svinja Schulz, who expressed the main idea – the importance of interaction of government organizations with standardization institutions. The Executive Director of The German Institute for Standardization DIN Christoph Winterhalter said that it took 17 years to assemble the entire ISO/TC 207 Environmental management in Berlin and organize such an event. Chairman of ISO/TC 207 Sheila Leggett spoke about the importance of organizing a dialog site.
Executive Secretary of the Council for long-term Development Dr. Günther Bachmann spoke about the Sustainable Development Goals keynotes.
Daniel Trillos (Vice-Chairman of ISO/TC 207), Beatriz Martins Carneiro (United Nations Environment Program), Lorenza Jachia (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe), Bernhard Schwager (Robert Bosch GmbH) and Björn Erik Lönn, the Chairman of the GEN – World Association of eco-labeling participated in the public discussion on the theme “The Role of standardization in achieving Sustainable Development Goals.
The ISO/TC 207 Technical Committee set future CHALLENGES for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals:
Goal 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure;
Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities;
Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production;
Goal 13: Climate action;
Goal 15: Life on land.
Attention to social issues. Thus, the standards should be kept up-to-date in the areas of quality education, gender equality, access to clean water and sanitation (Goals 4, 5, 6). The representative of the World Association of Environmental Labeling expressed the idea of “greenwing”, that is, the environmental positioning of companies or goods / services without sufficient grounds for this. As is well known, around the world there are about 30 eco-labels covering carbon neutrality of the product. Thus, this sphere of development of the standardization system was recognized as one of the most promising.