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Standards Development
This document defines key terms, establishes a vision and principles for a circular economy, and gives guidance, including possible actions, for an organization to implement. It is applicable to organizations seeking to understand and commit or contribute to a circular economy while contributing to sustainable development. These organizations can be either private or public, acting individually or collectively, regardless of type or size, and located in any jurisdiction, or position within a specific value chain or value network.
This NWIP on ISO 59004: Vocabulary, principles and guidance for implementation, is submitted in conjunction with other 2 NWIPS on “59010: Guidance on the transition of business models and value networks”, and “59020: Measuring and assessing circularity performance”, call(s) for the adoption of the ISO 59000 family of standards as ISO EN standards. Globalisation represents a major challenge to circularity, as supply and value chains are stretched across the globe. The ISO 59000 family of standards, developed by ISO TC 323, will help organizations transition toward a circular economy by providing common terminology, approaches, and indicators needed to break the linearity deadlock, with its associated unsustainable loss of resources, pollution, and non-regenerative ecosystems. Shared responsibility, and innovation in relationships (commercial or contractual, etc) between actors in value networks, and other stakeholders, be they in proximity, or cross-border, will greatly benefit from these harmonised ISO 59000 family of standards. These are the product of the contribution of experts from17 liaison organizations and 100 countries from all over the world. Written to be regulatory-agnostic, and non-sectoral, they can be readily used by all countries representing different realities, and bound by different regulatory frameworks. Because of this, and to uphold the spirit of collective action and compromise which characterised the work in ISO TC 323 committees, the recognition brought by an ISO EN 59000 would greatly bolster the dissemination and adoption of the 59000 family of standards, avoid EU-27 divergences, while recognising the positive vote by the majority of EU MS for the ISO 59000 family of standards. The adoption as ISO EN would also bring immediate effect. This is the first series of standards, in an area which remains largely uncharted. Gathering experience is essential for the revision of the ISO 59000 in 2026. Some complementary NWIPs are also on the table for 59010 and 59004. These intend to develop more specific guidance with respect to the EUs’s policy regulatory environment. This additional guidance will supplement and not substitute the ISO EN 59000 series, and shall shape CEN’s TC 473 future contributions to the revision of the ISO 59000 family of standards. Adopting the ISO EN 59000 will also ensure that CEN guidance will use the ISO 59000 as its core structure, and not multiply circularity standards that may hinder the international accomplishments by ISO TC 323, and potentially create new barriers to trade, and disrupt the communication channels designed by the ISO 59000 family of standards.
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