At the 1st plenary meeting of ISO/PC 343 the committee resolved to work closely with UNDP to develop a new ISO MSS 53001 Sustainable Development Goals management systems.
For the next 6-12 months PC 343 will work on developing two ISO PAS (Publicly Available Specification) documents based on the UNDP Impact Standards for SDGs.
The ISO PAS documents will serve as a steppingstone for the development of full ISO international standards. The publication of the ISO PAS documents is expected around August 2024, and revision to convert them to full ISO international standards will start immediately afterwards.
The PAS track has been chosen due to the need for:
The work of developing both the PAS 53001 documents and later ISO 53001 will be carried out in a working group under ISO/PC 343. If you wish to join the work please contact your NSB and ask them to register you.
As the ambition is to publish ISO PAS 53001- 2 Guideline for implementation of the SDGs before COP 28 (November 2023), the 1st draft to be developed and send out for comments will be for ISO 53001-2: Sustainable Development Goals management systems – Guidelines for implementation of ISO 53001-1 (Type B MSS)
This draft is expected to be circulated July-August 2023 and the comments will be discussed at an online meeting August 28th-September 1st.
In October 2023 the development of ISO 53001- 1: Sustainable Development Goals management systems – Requirements to contribute to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development goals (Type A MSS) will start with several (online) meetings with an estimated publication of August 2024. The transformation of ISO PAS 53001 into full international standards will start immediately after August 2024.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have signed a landmark Statement of Intent, signaling their commitment to the role of International Standards in addressing global development challenges.
They will collaborate on initiatives geared towards enhancing international standards that advance sustainability actions by both the public and private sectors, including the prospective development of the first international standard for the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) based on UNDP’s SDG Impact Standards and relevant ISO standards.
Join the workshop on ISO/UN SDG MSS and how to broaden the participation of developing countries in the development work of ISO guidance and requirements on how to manage the impact on the UN SDGs.
ISO and the UN will be hosting a workshop that focuses on getting more stakeholders from developing countries involved in the development of requirements and guidelines for the SDG MSS.
Developing countries face disproportionately large consequences from issues the SDGs aims to reduce. Therefore, the active involvement of these countries in drafting the requirements and guidelines to improve the organizational contribution to achieving the SDGs and not maintaining the status quo is particularly important.
In a world where confidence and trust are essential for organizations there is a need for ISO to develop a systematic approach to work and document the organizations efforts with the UN SDGs.
Therefore, ISO proposes to make a new management standard (MSS) for the UN SDGs. The MSS will help organizations improve their performance by specifying required steps to achieve SDG-goals, -policies, and -objectives. The purpose is to provide one framework for all types of organizations to work effectively with a relevant selection of the UN’s SDGs.
This enables an organization to improve its sustainable development performance, shape the organization for the future and create a solid, value- and business-based foundation for sustained success.
ISO has decided to create a new MSS for SDGs as the sustainability agenda will continue to be a relevant strategic business driver in the future.
To build confidence the market needs verifiable standards. The national schemes developed by Certification Bodies and private entities emphasizes the need for having a broadly accepted international standard suitable for accredited certification. The standard aims at creating a connection between organizational strategies and the SDGs resulting in business advantages as well as making the SDGs an integrated part of the daily work.
Even though certification may not be needed by many of the users yet, the standard provides a framework and tool for systematic effort with the SDGs. The requirements will be generic and flexible so that each individual organization defines its scope, objectives, and possible improvements.
ISO is a non-profit organization based on users all over the world participating in developing standards.
ISO aims to unite all relevant existing work for SDGs in an international standard by inviting all stakeholders to join the developing process to achieve the best possible standard with a high level of consensus. It takes around 3 years to develop a standard using ISO’s four key principles
You can participate either as a member through your national standardization body or as a liaison representing a non-profit organization
For further information please contact your national standardization body or Danish Standard.
You can find more about the background for the proposal in the justification study and find the scope, proposed content and a list of examples of relevant work the new SDG ISO standard will be developed from in the ISO Form4 under “Study and proposal”.
Kasper Mühlbach
Chief Consultant
kahm@ds.dk
+45 31318261
Mette Sandager
Standardisation Consultant
mjs@ds.dk
+45 21200386