The ISO standardization system ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is a global network that identifies what International Standards are required by business, government and society, develops them in partnership with the sectors that will put them to use, adopts them by transparent procedures based on national input and delivers them to be implemented worldwide. ISO standards distil an international consensus from the broadest possible base of stakeholder groups. Expert input comes from those closest to the needs for the standards and also to the results of implementing them. In this way, although voluntary, ISO standards are widely respected and implemented by public and private sectors internationally. ISO – a nongovernmental organization – is a network of the national standards bodies of some 160* countries, one per country, from all regions of the world, including developed, developing and transitional economies. Each ISO member is the principal standards organization in its country. The members propose the new standards, participate in their development and provide support in collaboration with ISO Central Secretariat for nearly 3 280 technical groups that actually develop the standards. ISO members appoint national delegations to standards committees. In all, there are some 50 000 experts contributing directly to the work of the organization each year, plus an estimated 300 000 who follow the work and provide input to national “ mirror ” committees. When their work is published as an ISO International Standard, it may be translated and adopted as a national standard by the ISO members. The ISO system’s output ISO has a current portfolio of over 18 600* standards that provide practical solutions and achieve benefits for almost every sector of business, industry and technology including agriculture, construction, mechanical engineering, manufacturing, distribution, transport, healthcare, information and communication technologies, food, water, the environment, energy, quality management, conformity assessment and services. They make up a complete offering for all three dimensions of sustainable development – economic, environmental and societal. The ISO 9000 (quality) and ISO 14000 (environment) families of management system standards have spearheaded a widening of ISO’s scope to include managerial and organizational practice. (ISO does not carry out accreditation or certification to these or any other of its standards, nor does it control the certification business, although it provides standards to ensure consistency and good practice in this activities.)

Complementing the above are ISO standards and guides for conformity assessment – verifying that products and services, systems, processes, material and personnel meet the requirements of standards and other specifications. Conformity assessment is becoming vital component of business transactions, global trade and regulatory requirements. ISO’s partners ISO collaborates with its partners in international standardization, the IEC