ISO News: ISO workshop to develop guidance for sustainable business districts

An invitation has been launched to public and private sector organizations worldwide to participate in the kick-off meeting of a project to develop an ISO International Workshop Agreement (IWA)* on sustainable business districts.




The meeting is being held on 28-29 January 2010 in Paris-La Défense, France, hosted by the ISO member for the country, AFNOR, which is providing the secretariat for development of the IWA.



The workshop will address the following issues related to business districts:



■Sustainable construction throught the entire life cycle

■City planning and quality of the living and working environments

■Energy, waste and water management

■Transport, accessibility and safety.

The objective of the workshop will be to launch the development of an IWA that will include best practice, general principles and a framework for the performance appraisal of sustainable development at the district level.



To ensure the global relevance of the IWA, the workshop organizers are keen to ensure participation by representatives of stakeholder organizations worldwide including the following:



■Companies with relevant activities such as banking, construction, energy, engineering, insurance, transport, water and waste management, and security

■Municipalities and local government

■City planners

■Research centres

■Universities.

Participants in the workshop will include members of the Sustainable Network – Rethinking Business Districts. This not-for-profit association includes members from the central business districts of Beijing, Cape Town, Liverpool, Montreal, Moscow and Paris-La Défense, as well as companies such as Bouygues, Dalkia, GDF Suez, Hermitage, Oger International and Unibail Rodamco.



If you wish to participate in the ISO international workshop on sustainable business districts, please contact:





Bernard Leservoisier

AFNOR Normalisation

Tel. +33 1 41 62 82 72

E-mail bernard.leservoisier@afnor.org







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* An International Workshop Agreement (IWA) is one of several ISO alternatives to International Standards for cases where swift development and publication takes priority. Compared to the usual ISO process of developing International Standards through its technical committee structure, IWAs are developed in open workshops and organized by a national standards institute. The documents are approved by consensus among participants in these workshops.