WHAT IS ISO?

A new ISO standard for fire safety engineering should help to save lives, reduce costs due to fire damage and bring substantial economic savings through improved fire safety design.

ISO 23932:2009, Fire safety engineering – General principles, provides general principles for a performance-based methodology for engineers to assess the level of fire safety for new or existing built environments.

Fire safety is evaluated through an approach based on risk assessment and on knowledge of the behaviour of fire and of people and the consequences of such behaviour on human safety, property and the environment.

The standard provides an overview of how fire safety engineering analyses and assessments are conducted, with links to more specific standards, including those already published or under development.

The basic principles in this International Standard are covering any phenomena associated with fire (including fire growth, hot gases and movement of effluents, structural and compartmentation behaviour) to reach any related fire-safety objectives including:

• Safety of life
• Conservation of property
• Continuity of operations
• Protection of the environment
• Preservation of heritage.

Furthermore, these basic principles can be applied to all configurations of the built environment – building, transportation systems and industrial installations.

The document is primarily targeted at fire safety scientists and engineers who participate in, are affected by, or need to understand better the context of the standards developed by ISO Technical Committee ISO/TC 92, Fire safety, Subcommittee SC 4, Fire safety engineering; it is also very valuable for practicing fire engineers.

Joël Kruppa, Chair of ISO TC 92/SC 4, comments: “Our goal is to provide fire safety engineering documents for supporting performance-based design to:

• Develop engineering design and evaluation methods for verifying appropriate fire safety objectives are achieved
• Contribute to sustainable development with a more appropriate approach than prescriptive regulation
• Standardize necessary verification and validation of calculation models, or other assessment methods
• Elaborate guidance documents for best engineering practice.”

SC 4 supplements the wide scope of ISO/TC 92 and reflects the growing importance of the professional discipline of fire safety engineering, which is applicable to most situations where a fire may occur. Its work concerns safety, health and environmental issues.

The future International Standard ISO 26000, Guidance on social responsibility, has reached an important phase in its development with its publication as a Draft International Standard (DIS).

A five-month balloting period (from 14 September 2009 to 14 February 2010) has now begun during which the national member bodies of ISO will be able to vote and comment on the text. Participating liaison organizations can also comment. The comments will be discussed at the next meeting of the ISO Working Group on Social Responsibility (ISO/WG SR), which is developing ISO 26000, in May 2010. If the DIS vote is successful, the document, with eventual modifications, will then be circulated to the ISO members as a Final Draft International Standard (FDIS). If that vote is positive, ISO 26000 will then be published as an International Standard in late 2010.

ISO 26000 will provide harmonized, globally relevant guidance based on international consensus among expert representatives of the main stakeholder groups and so encourage the implementation of best practice in social responsibility worldwide.

The introduction to the draft standard includes the following key messages, stating that ISO 26000:

• Provides guidance on the underlying principles of social responsibility, the core subjects and issues pertaining to social responsibility and on ways to integrate socially responsible behaviour into existing organizational strategies, systems, practices and processes
• Is intended to be useful to all types of organizations in the private, public and non-profit sectors, whether large or small, and whether operating in developed or developing countries
• Is not a management system standard. It is not intended or appropriate for certification purposes or regulatory or contractual use.
• Is intended for use by those beginning to address social responsibility, as well as those more experienced with its implementation.

Ninety-one countries and 42 organizations with liaison status are participating in the ISO/WG SR under the joint leadership of the ISO members for Brazil (ABNT) and Sweden (SIS). Six main stakeholder groups are represented: industry; government; labour; consumers: nongovernmental organizations; service, support, research and others, as well as a geographical and gender-based balance of participants.

The guidance in ISO 26000 draws on best practice developed by existing public and private sector SR initiatives. It is consistent with and complements relevant declarations and conventions by the United Nations and its constituents, notably the International Labour Organization (ILO), with whom ISO has established a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to ensure consistency with ILO labour standards. ISO has also signed MoUs with the United Nations Global Compact Office (UNGCO) and with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to enhance their cooperation on the development of ISO 26000.

• For more information on ISO 26000 and the ISO Working Group on Social Responsibility, see the dedicated Web site: www.iso.org/sr. This Web site includes documents giving the background to ISO’s SR initiative, documents and press releases on the progress of the work and how it is being carried out, the membership and structure of the WG SR, how to participate in the development of ISO 26000, a newsletter, development timeframe, FAQs, contacts and other information. Many are available in several languages.
• Working documents including the DIS can be accessed at: www.iso.org/wgsr

When the large majority of products or services in a particular business or industry sector conform to International Standards, a state of industry-wide standardization exists. The economic stakeholders concerned agree on specifications and criteria to be applied consistently in the classification of materials, in the manufacture and supply of products, in testing and analysis, in terminology and in the provision of services. In this way, International Standards provide a reference framework, or a common technological language, between suppliers and their customers. This facilitates trade and the transfer of technology.

ISO standards provide technological, economic and societal benefits.

For businesses, the widespread adoption of International Standards means that suppliers can develop and offer products and services meeting specifications that have wide international acceptance in their sectors. Therefore, businesses using International Standards can compete on many more markets around the world.

For innovators of new technologies, International Standards on aspects like terminology, compatibility and safety speed up the dissemination of innovations and their development into manufacturable and marketable products.

For customers, the worldwide compatibility of technology which is achieved when products and services are based on International Standards gives them a broad choice of offers. They also benefit from the effects of competition among suppliers.

For governments, International Standards provide the technological and scientific bases underpinning health, safety and environmental legislation.

For trade officials, International Standards create “a level playing field” for all competitors on those markets. The existence of divergent national or regional standards can create technical barriers to trade. International Standards are the technical means by which political trade agreements can be put into practice.

For developing countries, International Standards that represent an international consensus on the state of the art are an important source of technological know-how. By defining the characteristics that products and services will be expected to meet on export markets, International Standards give developing countries a basis for making the right decisions when investing their scarce resources and thus avoid squandering them.

For consumers, conformity of products and services to International Standards provides assurance about their quality, safety and reliability.

For everyone, International Standards contribute to the quality of life in general by ensuring that the transport, machinery and tools we use are safe.

For the planet we inhabit, International Standards on air, water and soil quality, on emissions of gases and radiation and environmental aspects of products can contribute to efforts to preserve the environment.

ISO standards:

• make the development, manufacturing and supply of products and services more efficient, safer and cleaner
• facilitate trade between countries and make it fairer
• provide governments with a technical base for health, safety and environmental legislation, and conformity assessment
• share technological advances and good management practice
• disseminate innovation
• safeguard consumers, and users in general, of products and services
• make life simpler by providing solutions to common problems

Standards make an enormous and positive contribution to most aspects of our lives.

Standards ensure desirable characteristics of products and services such as quality, environmental friendliness, safety, reliability, efficiency and interchangeability - and at an economical cost.

When products and services meet our expectations, we tend to take this for granted and be unaware of the role of standards. However, when standards are absent, we soon notice. We soon care when products turn out to be of poor quality, do not fit, are incompatible with equipment that we already have, are unreliable or dangerous.

When products, systems, machinery and devices work well and safely, it is often because they meet standards. And the organization responsible for many thousands of the standards which benefit the world is ISO.

When standards are absent, we soon notice.