British Standards Institution

Sector: Sustainability

Overview: Under the Direction of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee, is responsible for and national Standards and the UK input to CEN/TC 444 and ISO/TC 190, developing standards in the fields of soil quality, soil pollution and contaminated soil.

Committee standards activity

In Progress (87)

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Reference	Standards description	Status ? The standards development process is divided into chronological stages: Proposal; Drafting; Public comment; Comment resolution; Approval; Published standard.
PD ISO/TS 26548	Soil quality — Guidance on soil parameters contributing to climate change Categories: Unclassified documents Drafting begins : 2026-12-16	Drafting
PD ISO/TS 25672	Soil quality — Determination of phenol oxidase (laccase) activity in soil using micro-well plates Categories: Unclassified documents Drafting begins : 2026-08-03	Drafting
PD ISO/TS 25008-2	Soil quality — Responses of higher plants to environmental stresses —. Part 2: Methods to assess enzyme activities of antioxidant defence system Categories: Soils. Examination. General \| Plant growing Approval begins :	Approval
PD ISO/TS 25008-1	Soil quality — Responses of higher plants to environmental stresses —. Part 1: Physiological parameters Categories: Soils. Examination. General \| Plant growing Approval begins :	Approval
PD ISO/TR 26042	Evaluation of chromatographic data from the determination of hydrocarbon content in the range of C10 to C40 by gas chromatography Categories: Unclassified documents Drafting begins : 2025-11-21	Drafting
PD CENISO/TS 16558-2:2015/Amd 1	PD CENISO/TS 16558-2:2015. Part 2: Determination of aliphatic and aromatic fractions of semi-volatile petroleum hydrocarbons using gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC/FID) - Amendment 1 Categories: Soils. Chemical characteristics Drafting begins : 2017-12-15	Drafting
NWI to adopt ISO/TS 25008-2	Soil quality — Measurement of sublethal effects of pollutants on soil flora. Part 2: Antioxidant defence enzymes activities Categories: Information management \| Standardization. General rules Proposal begins : 2024-08-12	Proposal
NWI to adopt ISO/TS 25008-1	Soil quality — Measurement of sublethal effects of pollutants on soil flora. Part 1: Physiological parameters for stress evaluation Categories: Information management \| Standardization. General rules Proposal begins : 2024-08-12	Proposal
New Work Item to adopt ISO 11465	(merger with EN 15934:2012) Categories: Information management \| Standardization. General rules Proposal begins : 2024-01-02	Proposal
New Work Item Proposal - EN 12457:4	Granular waste materials, sludges, soil, soil-like materials and sediments – Leaching –Compliance test for leaching – Part 4: One-stage batch test a liquid-to-solid ratio of 10L/kg for materials with particle size below 10 mm (with or without size reduction) Categories: Information management \| Standardization. General rules Proposal begins : 2025-12-16	Proposal

Published (241)

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Reference	Standards description	Status ? The standards development process is divided into chronological stages: Proposal; Drafting; Public comment; Comment resolution; Approval; Published standard.
PD ISO/TS 5594:2022	Soil and water quality. Guidance document on designing an interlaboratory trial for validation of biotests Categories: Water. Examination. Biological properties \| Soils. Biological properties Published standard begins : 2022-11-29	Published standard
PD ISO/TS 22939:2019	Soil quality. Measurement of enzyme activity patterns in soil samples using fluorogenic substrates in micro-well plates Categories: Soils. Biological properties Published standard begins : 2019-08-14	Published standard
PD ISO/TS 22171:2023	Soil quality. Determination of potential cation exchange capacity (CEC) and exchangeable cations buffered at pH 7, using a molar ammonium acetate solution Categories: Soils. Chemical characteristics Published standard begins : 2024-01-09	Published standard
PD ISO/TS 20131-2:2018	Soil quality. Easy laboratory assessments of soil denitrification, a process source of N<sub>2</sub>O emissions. Assessment of the capacity of soils to reduce N<sub>2</sub>O Categories: Soils. Biological properties Published standard begins : 2018-07-13	Published standard
PD ISO/TS 20131-1:2018	Soil quality. Simple laboratory assessments for characterizing the denitrification in soil. Soil denitrifying enzymes activities Categories: Soils. Biological properties Published standard begins : 2018-07-13	Published standard
PD ISO/TS 18721:2026	Ecological soil functions — Characteristics, indicators and methods Categories: Soil quality. General Published standard begins : 2026-03-05	Published standard
PD ISO/TS 18718:2026	Soil functions and related ecosystem services — Definitions, descriptions and conceptual framework Categories: Soil quality. General Published standard begins : 2026-01-29	Published standard
PD ISO/TS 17182:2014	Soil quality. Determination of some selected phenols and chlorophenols. Gas chromatographic method with mass spectrometric detection Categories: Soils. Chemical characteristics Published standard begins : 2014-12-03	Published standard
PD ISO/TS 17073:2013	Soil quality. Determination of trace elements in aqua regia and nitric acid digests. Graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry method (GFAAS) Categories: Soils. Chemical characteristics Published standard begins : 2013-10-17	Published standard
PD ISO/TS 16727:2013	Soil quality. Determination of mercury. Cold vapour atomic fluorescence spectrometry (CVAFS) Categories: Soils. Chemical characteristics Published standard begins : 2013-11-08	Published standard

Withdrawn (154)

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Reference	Standards description	Status ? The standards development process is divided into chronological stages: Proposal; Drafting; Public comment; Comment resolution; Approval; Published standard.
PD ISO/TS 16965:2013	Soil quality. Determination of trace elements using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) Categories: Soils. Chemical characteristics Withdrawn begins : 2025-09-26	Withdrawn
PD ISO/TS 16751:2018	Soil quality. Environmental availability of non-polar organic compounds. Determination of the potential bioavailable fraction and the non-bioavailable fraction using a strong adsorbent or complexing agent Categories: Soils. Biological properties Withdrawn begins : 2020-06-29	Withdrawn
PD CEN/TS 17883:2022	Environmental characterization of leachates from waste and soil using reproductive and toxicological gene expression in Daphnia magna Categories: Wastes. General \| Water. Examination. Biological properties \| Soil quality. Other Withdrawn begins : 2024-07-19	Withdrawn
PD CEN/TS 16675:2014	Characterisation of waste. Test methods for the determination of the monolithic status of waste Categories: Wastes. Solid Withdrawn begins : 2018-08-31	Withdrawn
PD CEN/TS 15864:2012	Characterisation of waste. Leaching behaviour test for basic characterisation. Dynamic monolithic leaching test with continuous leachant renewal under conditions relevant for specified scenario(s) Categories: Wastes. Solid Withdrawn begins : 2015-12-18	Withdrawn
PD CEN/TS 15863:2012	Characterisation of waste. Leaching behaviour test for basic characterisation. Dynamic monolithic leaching test with periodic leachant renewal, under fixed test conditions Categories: Wastes. Solid Withdrawn begins : 2015-04-07	Withdrawn
PD CEN ISO/TS 29843-2:2014	Soil quality. Determination of soil microbial diversity. Method by phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA) using the simple PLFA extraction method Categories: Soils. Biological properties Withdrawn begins : 2014-11-14	Withdrawn
DD ISO/TS 29843-2:2011	Soil quality. Determination of soil microbial diversity. Method by phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA) using the simple PLFA extraction method Categories: Soils. Biological properties Withdrawn begins : 2014-10-14	Withdrawn
DD ISO/TS 29843-1:2010	Soil quality. Determination of soil microbial diversity. Method by phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA) and phospholipid ether lipids (PLEL) analysis Categories: Soils. Biological properties Withdrawn begins : 2014-11-17	Withdrawn
DD ISO/TS 22939:2010	Soil quality. Measurement of enzyme activity patterns in soil samples using fluorogenic substrates in micro-well plates Categories: Soils. Biological properties Withdrawn begins : 2019-08-14	Withdrawn

Message Committee Become a committee member

Committee members

Nominating organizations

Association of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Specialists
British Geological Survey
British Geomembrane Association
C I W M -Chartered Institute of Wastes Management
Cardiff University
Chartered Institute of Environmental Health
Committee Manager
EIC – Microplastics Expert
Environment Agency
Environmental Industries Association
Environmental Industries Commission Ltd
Environmental Services Association
Geological Society - Contaminated Land Specialist Group
Institution of Environmental Sciences
Scottish Contaminated Land Forum
The James Hutton Institute
Vice Chair

Liaisons with other committees

Chair - EH/4/-/6
Expert - H&S aspects of site investigation
Individual Capacity - CEN/TC 444/WG 1 Expert
Individual Capacity - Soil Quality - Guidance on sustainable remediation
Individual Capacity - Sustainable Remediation
Liaison - B/546
UK Expert - ISO/TC 190/SC 3

BSI roles

Committee Chair
Committee Chair and liaison – AW/20

Standards Development

EH/4 - Soil quality

Committee standards activity