World Standards Day 2022: Five areas where standards make a real difference
By 
By To mark World Standards Day 2022, we have gathered examples of how standards are essential to making change happen in areas of major importance to our transition to an environmentally sustainable world.
Cement, textiles, energy systems… Most sectors are set to undergo a profound transformation towards sustainability.
Policies, laws and standards are vital enablers of this transition. However, real transformation often depends on complex technical intricacies, and many of these make-or-break details are defined in standards – agreed at the international, regional, and national levels.
Let’s take an example. Electric vehicles can help reduce millions of tonnes of CO2 emissions if coupled with massive investments in renewable energy, public transport and active mobility.
But for electric cars to truly drive a positive change, we need standards ensuring that all manufacturers follow the same rigorous practices, making it possible to create a market for second-hand parts – especially for batteries. How can a buyer compare the condition of the batteries of two cars if each brand measures battery life using different methods? In Europe, a new standard under development will help harmonise that.
This is only one of countless examples where standards are essential to ensure that the efforts of policymakers and climate-conscious companies make a difference in real life.
How can standards make a real difference? Read on!
Electronics – Making our daily products longer-lasting and easier to repair
Published in 2020, the European EN 4555X series of eight standards should make it easier for consumers to compare circular features of products. These standards set common definitions and calculation methods for aspects such as repairability, reusability and durability for a range of electronics and ICT products.
When buying a new device, say, a smartphone, consumers should be able to compare the energy efficiency across different brands and models, how easy they are to repair or how long they generally last. This additional information should steer customers towards truly efficient and durable products.
Building on the series of standards created in 2020, the European Commission has recently proposed new ecodesign requirements and an energy label for smartphones and tablets, including a repair score. Standard EN 45554:2020 is the base for the development of this repair index.
The combination of standards and policy being pursued in Europe is a promising step towards the right to repair – if other regions follow in the same direction, we will be closer to making electronics truly circular!
‘We need a right to repair.’
Textiles – Standards can harmonise the definition for ‘circular textiles’
The textile industry is at a crossroads – the current model is just not sustainable. Textile is a resource-intensive sector with huge social and environmental impacts. Ambitious and long overdue changes in the textile industry are essential to stopping further environmental and climate breakdown, while securing human health and respect for human rights and decent work worldwide.
We need action. Unless we slow down, our planet will become the ultimate fashion victim!
We need binding and ambitious legislative measures to reduce textile production, bring it back within planetary boundaries, and, when new clothes are needed, changing how we produce and use them.
In this transition, standards will be essential. Standards can support legislation, harmonise definitions and help manufacturers make quality textile products that last longer. We need mandatory standardised ways to assess the characteristics and quality of textiles. Standards should measure durability, repairability, and recyclability. With the right standards in place, lawmakers have the tools to compare products on the market and identify the worst performers, which can be left out of the market.
‘We need clothes that we can love for a long time.’
Hydrogen – Tracking ‘green’ energy molecules
Hydrogen has quickly risen on the political agenda, portrayed as a silver bullet to decarbonise energy systems.
Many are eager to push the concept of ‘renewable hydrogen’. Unfortunately, hydrogen is hardly ever renewable. Today, more than 99.9% of all hydrogen produced globally comes from dirty fossil fuels, such as natural gas and coal, according to 2021 data by the International Energy Agency.
The situation could change soon: the IEA forecasts renewable-based hydrogen to grow substantially in the upcoming decade. But for hydrogen production to be truly renewable, it needs to be backed by new, additional production of renewable electricity. In other words, if we spend our current supply of renewables on making hydrogen… it won’t help.
Hydrogen is far from being a silver bullet. Every time we produce hydrogen, energy is lost during the conversion. When we produce electricity with renewables, it is always better to just use it directly. For example, hydrogen in home heating would be highly inefficient. Electricity-powered heat pumps, on the other hand, are a much better solution.
Hydrogen should be reserved for hard-to-electrify applications, such as industrial heat demand at very high temperatures – and for those sectors, we need hydrogen that is truly green, that is to say, produced from additional renewable electricity – and not just an industry-powered mirage.
Standards are essential to enable robust systems tracking the origin of hydrogen. European standard EN 16325 on Guarantees of Origin, and international ISO/AWI 13662 on Mass Balance Systems are two of the most prominent examples. They will allow us to track whether hydrogen supplies are renewable or not.
‘We need truly renewable hydrogen.’
Batteries – Powering long-lasting energy storage for our transition to clean mobility
Batteries are key to decarbonising transport, and support the deployment of renewable energy. However, they do come at a cost to the environment.
Batteries can have a serious impact on biodiversity, and water and air quality – linked to the mining and extraction of critical raw materials, as well as battery disposal and recycling. In addition, they have a significant carbon footprint if manufacturing processes prove inefficient and use carbon-intensive, non-renewable sources.
To reduce their environmental impact, batteries will need a longer lifetime: both an extended first life and a second, repurposed life. We will need ambitious policies and a coherent regulatory framework, supported by effective technical standards, which will ensure that batteries are reusable, and single-use batteries are phased out.
‘We need batteries that work for the planet.’
Cement – Boosting the adoption of low-carbon binders
Current cement production processes are responsible for 8% of global CO2 emissions. This is unacceptable in the light of today’s climate emergency.
Cement emissions can be attributed almost exclusively to the production of clinker, a process which involves the heating of limestone and other materials. CO2 is emitted from the energy used to fire up the kilns and the chemical reaction when this mixture is exposed to heat.
New low-carbon cement types require much lower levels of clinker, as such generating huge reductions in emissions. To date, however, standards are a barrier to the uptake of low-carbon cements.
Standards are overly prescriptive, stipulating what cement types and compositions can enter the market, locking-in high clinker cement types.
Performance-based standards, which define the final properties of a product without locking in the specific cement composition, could undo this trend, and embark the industry on a path to decarbonisation.
‘Standards on low-carbon cement should be the new normal.’
