Against a backdrop of political shifts, competing interests, and the stark realities of a changing climate, 2024 was challenging – but still a year when ECOS expanded its reach and grew influence in new, key sectors. Be it Green Public Procurement, soil or critical raw materials, we helped shape the agenda and pushed for ambitious solutions, building new programmes and powerful alliances along the way. Read on to learn which new areas you can get involved in with us!

Biodiversity – restoring nature one standard at a time

Biodiversity is collapsing due to human activity and climate change­. We need to focus on protecting and restoring nature – but to be able to do this, first we need to properly assess the condition of our ecosystems. The details of what to monitor, and how, matter immensely. Without robust measurement methodologies, regular data collection, clear timelines for reporting, and tools to ensure transparency, laws and policies mandating nature protection and restoration will simply fail to deliver.

Standards will be of great importance here, as they set out the technical rules for data collection and analysis related to forests, soils, and ecosystem restoration. And who is better placed than ECOS to make sure these standards truly support environmental ambition? Bridging the gap between policy and standardisation, we make sure the two converge towards the same goals and ultimately contribute to protecting our planet.

Be it the EU Forest Monitoring Law, international standards on biodiversity and wood, or a vibrant NGO campaign, in 2024 ECOS engaged on all fronts, fully applying our holistic work method. 2025 should bring first positive results, and we are impatient to see them materialise!

Healthy soils for a healthier planet

Every day we take soil for granted – but there is a whole world beneath our feet, hidden from our view, that is not only teeming with life but provides invaluable support to human existence. Healthy soils perform critical functions and provide essential ecosystem services, all of which sustain life on Earth.

Sadly, the status of our soils is alarming: around one-third are degraded, and in the EU alone this percentage is as high as 60%. This is why we need robust policies, backed by global standards, to both protect and restore healthy soil to elevate its life-sustaining power. Assessment methods, terminology, indicators… all of these are set in policies and standards, with ECOS closely following – and effectively contributing – to these processes.

 Our expertise and recommendations to policymakers and international and EU standardisers, have helped secure the ambition of new laws and tools, such as the EU Soil Monitoring Law or the currently developed ISO standard on Soil Quality. The processes have not yet concluded, but we can already see how our calls and inputs, drafted jointly with our informal environmental NGO Soil Task Force, have resonated with the decision-makers. More to come in 2025!

Critical raw materials – new partnerships for a better future

Critical raw materials are essential for renewable energy, clean technologies, and modern industries, yet their extraction and use have significant environmental and social impacts. Without proper oversight, we are risking exacerbating biodiversity loss, human rights violations, and ecosystem degradation. We must ensure that all relevant policies and standards include robust environmental criteria, and are created involving key voices like environmental groups and Indigenous Peoples. At ECOS, advocating for both inclusiveness and sustainability is our bread and butter; we ensure that diverse perspectives are heard and considered in these high-stakes discussions.

Without effective participation of organisations like ECOS, standards may fall short of ensuring stringent environmental protections, enabling harmful practices, greenwashing, and misleading claims. As the only environmental organisation actively engaged in the development of new ISO and EU standards on raw material supply chains, ECOS ensures that strong environmental safeguards remain central to these processes.

We do this by providing technical expertise, promoting rigorous sustainability criteria, and enabling marginalised voices to take part in standardisation discussions, leveraging and expanding our global network of experts, members and partners. Through leadership in a global coalition and active participation in new ISO and CEN committees, ECOS is shaping the governance of CRMs while expanding partnerships and growing our network. It is only the beginning – but we are very much looking forward to growing our influence in this critical area.

Pushing for credible voluntary sustainability standards

Voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) are certification schemes and labels that set sustainability requirements for producers, processors, and manufacturers. They are used by organisations to bolster the credibility of their sustainability efforts. There are hundreds of VSS schemes and labels across different sectors ranging from cotton to timber – and they all vary in levels of environmental ambition and quality assurance. This inconsistency creates a whirlwind of confusion and, in some cases, inaccuracy and even deception.

In 2024, ECOS worked to ensure that VSS truly help to improve sustainably instead of legitimising greenwashing. Together with other NGOs, we have pushed against bad-faith and unambitious VSS practices, raised awareness about the pitfalls of overreliance on VSS and shared good practices in reaching sustainability goals. Closely cooperating with our network of members and experts, we have ensured our voice was heard, and positions taken up, in international discussions on the topic.

Data centres – getting digital transition right

Digital technology contributes significantly to global carbon emissions and electricity consumption. To address this, infrastructure underpinning the digital transition – like data centres – must be developed and used responsibly, transparently, and with respect to our limited resources. We must urgently limit the negative environmental impacts, which include high energy and water use, and place stress on vulnerable local communities.

Yet despite the growing need (from, for example, AI), we lack coherent policies on energy and sustainability challenges arising from digital technologies. Environmental impacts and circularity requirements must be high priority in all relevant standards and policies, integrating sufficiency and environmental justice principles. This is why ECOS has decided to expand our work to this area, creating synergies within the civil society community, contributing to standardisation projects on the topic, and closely monitoring all relevant policy developments, all the while providing the much-needed environmental perspective.

Are you active in one or many of these areas? We’d love to hear from you!