Next month, on October 14th, we celebrate World Standards Day. This day allows us the opportunity to reflect on the vital role standards plays in our communities as well as recognising the work of our members, contributors, stakeholders and staff.

This World Standards Day, I’d like to take a moment to express my appreciation of the dedication everyone has shown to our shared vision of delivering trusted solutions that improve life and empower communities. Especially during such a challenging time, with many of our contributors in extended lockdown.

Despite lockdown and borders being closed, we were able to virtually attend ISO Week 2021 in September. The General Assembly provided many insightful discussions on how we can utilise international standards to create a better world for us and future generations. I know I left this event with a drive to continue collaborating internationally to deliver our best work locally and globally.

It is worth noting, also, that in order to pave the way for the new normal, IEC and ISO have jointly prepared a new guide on how to plan and run meetings to ensure the highest level of participation (taking into account the different time zones), build the best consensus and speed up progress for the standardization projects. Over the coming weeks our team will be providing our international experts with opportunities to learn more about this guidance document and promote its broad uptake.

While on the topic of international standards and ISO, I was very pleased to be elected to the Council of the International Organization for Standardization for a three-year term with the strong support of ISO members.

As a founding member of ISO, Standards Australia has a strong record of leadership and engagement in the organisation’s technical, policy and governance work. As a member of the ISO Council, I will work on behalf of Australia and in collaboration with others to strengthen ISO’s role and effectiveness as the preeminent global standards body.

I’m grateful for the excellent work of a very dedicated Standards Australia team, the support of the Commonwealth government and most particularly the strong vote of support and confidence from ISO members.

I’m looking forward to contributing to the implementation of ISO’s Strategic Plan over the next three years and representing the views and insights that Australia brings to this important global body.

I look forward to the work we’ll continue to deliver.— Adrian O'Connell, Chief Executive

ISO Week was hosted by the British Standards Institution (BSI) as a virtual event with the theme of The Future Has Begun. The ISO Committee on developing country matters (DEVCO) met on 16-17 September to discuss topics like digitalisation, engaging with the next generation and the role of standards in supporting regulation. The General Assembly (GA), made up of all ISO members, met from 22-24 September. In addition to governance updates and election results, members discussed topics like innovation, diversity and inclusion, and climate and governance. The GA approved the London Declaration, outlining the ISO community’s climate commitment in support of the Paris Agreement and the broader UN Sustainable Development Goals. ISO Council and TMB also met alongside the GA meetings. An update from the TMB sessions will be provided in October’s update.

Announced late last month, the newly revised AS 2560.2 provides guidance on appropriately lit facilities for a number of different sports.

The standard aims to guide safely lit indoor and outdoor sporting venues and support sporting clubs and communities in maximising their use and time when playing sports.

Standards Australia has revised AS 1742.1, the first part of a fourteen-part series. The revision includes more than 250 new road signs used for regulating, warning and guiding road users.

Find out more in our recent media release.

During September we were a premium partner of the prefabAUS  2021 virtual conference: Merging to Mainstream | Offsite: Building blocks for a sustainable future.

The virtual event was a great success with attendees hearing about industry change, research and innovation. Thank you to prefab, the attending speakers and hosts for putting together such informative sessions. We’re looking forward to next year’s conference, remaining connected with the industry and continuing to help facilitate sharing valuable insights from respected industry professionals Australia and overseas.

Peter has been a lighting design professional for nearly 40 years, with a particular passion for sports lighting. He is a Fellow of the Illuminating Engineering Society of Australian and New Zealand and has been actively involved in producing standards both in Australia, through Standards Australia, and internationally with the International Commission on Illumination.  

Some of his proudest achievements across his career include designing the floodlighting of Stadium Australia for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, and the original sports lighting system at stadiums like Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane and AAMI Park in Melbourne to name a few. In 2019, Peter retired from corporate life and set up his own consulting business, Peter Jones Lighting Design.  

‍‍How did you first become involved in standards development?

‍I‘m not entirely sure, but I think I first got involved in standards in the early to mid 1990s. Initially I was a representative for the Illuminating Engineering Society of Australia and New Zealand working on LG-001, but with the formation of the peak body for the Australian lighting industry known as Lighting Council of Australia, I transitioned to represent them which I continued to do until my retirement back in 2019. However, I felt I still had something to contribute so since then I’ve been involved as an independent chair for one Standards committee.

When I first started working with Standards Australia, there was a real need for standardisation and development in the industry. We had limited guidance and benchmarks, and there was a definite gap when it came to standards for lighting designers.

Over the past 30 years, I’ve worked across a number of standards committees, mainly LG-001, LG-009 and LG-010 with a small stint on LG-002 and LG-007, but most recently as chair for LG-009 Sports Lighting.

I’ve always worked towards the goal of creating engaging and developing standards that impact multiple disciplines and sports to benefit the lighting industry and the sporting community and I hope this continues into the future.

‍Why is having access to standards important?

‍Standards provide a real benefit for the lighting industry; they set our benchmarks and show lighting designers, engineers and end users the ‘how’ as well as the ‘why’.Not only do standards guide us, but they also help us provide a lit environment that is safe, comfortable, and energy efficient.

Standards give us the opportunity to bring all interested parties together and set the benchmark for lighting across activities, such as sports.

‍What is the future of standardisation in your area of work?

‍Standardisation will be ever-changing in the lighting industry. With innovation in technology, methodology and light sources, comes new, unique challenges and the standards will need to continuously update to meet these.

The constant need to refresh will see standards evolve and develop. I expect there will also be a need to continually assess the lighting standard set, to see how to work together and how they can adapt to allow for best practice outcomes.

To keep our catalogue contemporary and relevant, we will be seeking feedback on a number of Aged Standards (documents over ten years old), belonging to inactive Technical Committees.

A list of these aged documents will be released from 15 October 2021 until 17 December 2021 and will be available on our Aged Standards Review page.

Standards Australia represents Australia on the two major international standards development bodies, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Our activities are reported on our International Updates page.

‍Click here to view our highlights from September (PDF)  

• Guidance on effective virtual and hybrid meetings
• Small hydropower plants (SHP plants): New Field of Technical Activity
• IEC efforts to curb e-waste

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The IEC 1906 Award was established in commemoration of the foundation of the IEC. It honours technical experts around the world whose work is fundamental to the IEC.  

A total of 207 experts from 67 TCs (ISO/IEC JTC 1 included), originating from 24 National Committees, have been nominated to receive this year’s IEC 1906 Award, which recognises exceptional recent achievements contributing in a significant way to advancing the work of the IEC. Two Australian standards experts were nominated this year.

Congratulations to:

‍Mr David Dart – Expert of the IEC Technical Committee 17, High-voltage switchgear and controlgear.

‍Mr Alex Baitch – Expert of the IEC Technical Committee 99, Insulation coordination and system engineering of high voltage electrical power installations above 1,0 kV AC and 1,5 kV DC.  

You can find out more about the awards on the IEC website.

Access the latest standards development news in your industry sector via our Sectors page.

The public comment process provides an opportunity for stakeholders and members of the public to make valuable contributions. With the launch of our new public comment platform, draft standards currently open for comment are now available via Connect.

Chain of Custody of Forest and Tree-based Products – Requirements

‍In September 2021, Responsible Wood published the latest version of the AS 4707 standards for chain of custody.

Reviewed by Responsible Wood every five years, the standard was approved for publication following review by the AS 4707 standards reference committee and working group chaired by Peter Zed.  

Businesses that achieve AS 4707 chain of custody certification are able to identify and provide Responsible Wood and/or PEFC certified wood or wood products.

You can find out more here.