The Spanish Association for Standardization, UNE, has created the UNE 343 Committee on the Management System of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with the aim of participating in and establishing the national position in the development of the ISO 52001 standard, which will lay out the requirements for a United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) management system.
The Director of the CEOE's Industry, Energy, Environment and Climate Department, Cristina Rivero, chairs this committee, whose Secretariat is headed by UNE. It is made up of 70 working groups involving relevant entities - many of them UNE members - such as business associations, companies, SMEs, consultancies, certification bodies, laboratories, technology centres, administration and universities, and others.
For some time, Spanish companies and economic sectors have demonstrated their commitment to achieving the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda. Right now, they have the opportunity to participate in the development of an ISO standard on the management system of these objectives that has the backing of the United Nations and its SDG Impact Standards, which can be the key to achieving a net impact in a transparent, truthful, verifiable and reliable manner.
To develop this standard, in addition to the vision of companies and the administration, it is necessary to have the experience of the certification entities that will audit the system; consultants that will help implement it; academia and professional associations of the different disciplines; as well as of technology centres and representatives of groups with a holistic vision of these objectives, or specializing in specific goals of the various SDGs.
Companies are increasingly committed to the application of management system standards and to the certification of their compliance because it helps them promote the organization's strategy and establish their policies in the medium and long term. It also lets them showcase their management's commitment through their knowledge of the needs and expectations of their customers and stakeholders; knowledge of and respect for their environment; identification of risks and opportunities; and management linked to continuous improvement in different disciplines, such as quality (ISO 9001), environment (ISO 14001), information security (ISO/IEC 27001), energy (ISO 50001) and compliance (ISO 37301).
