Page 52 - angleška varianta sist - ODDANO-FINAL 4_1_2022_FLIPBOOK-spread

AN ANALYSIS INTO THE IMPACT OF STANDARDS ON THE OPERATION OF SLOVENIAN COMPANIES

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND TRANSITION TOWARDS CIRCULAR
ECONOMY BY PLASTIKA SKAZA
The UN Agenda 2030 and the enforcement of the sustainable development
goals have visibly encouraged companies to implement sustainable development in
their operations. Anyway, this field is relatively new and the standards providing
greater control over operations with the aim of sustainable development are
yet to be created. Especially climate change with its complexity and globality,
exerts pressure on common efforts to find appropriate long-term solutions.
The involvement of stakeholders at all levels is therefore the fundamental
stage of development. Standards can be part of the solution, provided that they
prioritise inclusion rather than exclusion of stakeholders.

Within this framework, European standards are gaining a crucial role. It is no
longer a matter of making sure that products in daily use – from toys to more
sophisticated things, e.g. smart phones – are safe and reliable. In a not so far
away future, standards will also cover areas such as:

. traceability: how things are made, also from the social responsibility point of

view, and how they help reduce carbon footprint and other negative effects on

.the environment;
ethics: by providing new voluntary codes of practice, which are based on

.consent, standards generate instructions on how to operate accountably;
design standards: through circular operation they enable industrial
symbiosis, reuse of materials and energy, new value chain linking,

.and accelerate the transition to a “greener” and circular economy;
energy connectivity and transmission: future development will bring the
enforcement of new standards in the transmission of renewable sources of
energy (e.g. power generator connectors, chargers for different users, etc.,
integration of atypical electricity producers such as households into electricity

.and other power transmission networks, and power storage),
savings: compliance in terms of energy and materials saving is an important
sustainability issue.

52 SIST - SLOVENIAN INSTITUTE FOR STANDARDIZATION