Sustainability Network for Standardisation celebrates launch as independent organisation
As of the 1st October 2014, the UK sustainability sector boasts another, brand-new organisation engaged in the fight for the representation of environmental and social sustainability interests.
This newest member of the club was born out of an initiative launched in 2012 by Keep Britain Tidy as part of its Waste Watch programme, following the merger of the two organisations.
It originated in a collaboration in 2010 between Waste Watch and ECOS, the Brussels-based European Environmental Citizens’ Organisation for Standardisation, to secure funding from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation to develop a long-term UK initiative focusing on the role of standards in environmental protection.
The project established a UK coordination point to facilitate the systematic representation of sustainability interests within technical and other committees of the British Standards Institution (BSI).
Four years on, not only has the project succeeded in developing effective working relationships with BSI to ensure the participation of environmental experts in a number of its committees, but, reflecting the unique and highly specialised nature of its activities, the SNS has established itself as a standalone organisation.
Paramount among the strategic aims of the new organisation are the ambition to become a representative national members’ network and to take an active role in influencing the wider policy areas covered by standardisation so as to make an effective link between policy, legislation and standardisation.