Introduction

The seventeen UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. ISO, IEC and other standards development organizations (SDOs) are making efforts to contribute to SDGs through the development of international standards and deliverables.

Sustainability is important for many reasons including environmental quality; to have healthy communities, clean air, natural resources, and a nontoxic environment. Sustainability is most often defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. It has three main pillars: Economic, Environmental, and Social. These three pillars as shown in Figure 1 are informally referred to as people, planet and profit. However, it refers to four distinct areas: Human, Social, Economic and Environmental.

Figure 1 — The triple nested dependency model of sustainability


Three overlapping circles model	Triple nested dependency model

In this triple nested dependency model, the three sectors are co-dependent and it is recognized that the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the society which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment. They not only co-exist but interact. Rather than the three sectors competing, this model reminds us that without clean water, fresh air and healthy ecosystems the society and the economy cease to function.

The importance of environmental issues (e.g., climate action) is widely recognized around the world, and many international standardization and international initiatives are trying to resolve these issues. This, however, does not expand quickly since it requires fundamental behavioural changes which are difficult to scale beyond individuals, and across organizations and nations. One of the major reasons for this difficulty is that some of the actions for achieving sustainability goals have conflicts with each other, which are called issue linkages, typically between human-centred aspects and environmental sustainability aspects which need to be resolved and harmonized.

Human needs are a powerful explanation of human behaviour and social interaction. All individuals have needs that they strive to satisfy.

Technologies such as Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and Internet of Things (IoT) have the potential to help create a society in which people enjoy their lives without feeling any restrictions, while contributing to the improvement of social, environmental and economic sustainability.

However, there is a concern that CPS can have adverse effects, which is an issue to be considered when a CPS is introduced into society.

Issues related to human-centred aspects and other sustainability aspects have been discussed in documents developed by ISO/TC 207, Environmental management, in International Standards such as ISO 26000, and in initiatives led by international organizations such as the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the World Economic Forum (WEF). However, there is no current area of standardization which addresses a holistic view of this landscape and how to resolve those issues enabled by CPS, which also consider any adverse impacts.

Humans need to radically change our relationship, not just with the planet, but with the objects with which we fill our lives to advance the progress we can make towards sustainability. We need to change how we think about technology and innovation. Rather than allowing technological advancement to steer our narratives, innovation and technology should help us build bridges between the worlds we inhabit now and the ones we imagine for tomorrow.

This document was developed at a series of workshops whose participants conducted a gap analysis between the existing areas of standardization and the goal of achieving human-centred sustainability.

This document is the result of an open and transparent multi-stakeholder process involving experts from different countries representing a variety of different perspectives. It is a voluntary guidance document intended for global use.

IWA 39:2022

Gap analysis for standardization on sustainable and human-centred societies enabled with cyber physical systems

Current

Published:

19 Jul 2022