Introduction

This document is intended for project developers carrying out urban building and construction projects within the holistic sustainability management framework of sustainable development in communities (the subject of ISO 37101), where a local government either has implemented the standard or has not implemented the standard but intends to do so. It also gives guidelines to decision-makers and managers responsible for authorising, promoting, financing, planning, designing, procuring, managing, reviewing, and implementing a project or programme.

For details on key terms and concepts of sustainable cities see the Bibliography at the end of this document, in particular “The ABC for Sustainable Cities”, Reference [20] and “Rethink cities” Reference [19].

This document:

— supports a top-down approach where a specific project or programme is required to meet a community’s ISO 37101 management system requirements and both a community and a developer need to be guided in the way in which the project or programme would be expected to meet the requirements;
— supports a bottom-up approach where a community does or does not have a formal ISO 37101 framework in place and developers can face several types of situations, for example:
- — where a community has adopted the ISO 37101 management system framework with accompanying procedures which place requirements on urban project stakeholders;
- — where a community has not adopted ISO 37101, but intends to align projects with the standard’s holistic approach for ensuring that action in different areas contributes to the purposes of sustainable development;
- — where a community does not have an authority charged with implementing an ISO 37101 framework, but nonetheless, projects initiated and planned by private, public or mixed entities aim for alignment with ISO 37101 principles and procedures without formal reference to an ISO 37101 management system.

The context, within which the ISO 37101 approach is implemented, is as follows:

— Sustainable development is considered as an international consensus formalized in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs);
— Engagement at the community level is a major issue for the sustainable development of society since issues such as climate change, biodiversity, job creation, and health are often more effective and relevant at the local level;
— Local authorities face a wide and complex variety of related issues (economic, social, cultural, financial and environmental), and sustainability needs a holistic approach;
— A relevant and effective sustainability strategy for communities needs to imply a wide diversity of interested parties and these interested parties expect accountability for the issues arising and the actions undertaken;
— A wide set of standards already exists, at the local, national or international level, that responds to regulations and to voluntary undertakings such as certifications and ratings prescribed by project owners;
— Integrating sustainable development in community strategies and management systems is a real management challenge; it needs leadership and a strong management system framework;
— Sustainability strategy requires a long-term and a life cycle approach and needs to be assessed using a “total cost” approach which takes into account, in the long term, both positive and negative impacts; monitoring systems need to be designed in that context.

To help implement the management system standard, this document is consistent with the various management methods and tools, including strategy analysis; gap analysis; materiality assessment; capacity projection; stakeholder management; change management; maturity analysis; performance monitoring; reporting.

These tools are compatible with ISO quality management systems (QMSs) for quality or environmental management (e.g. ISO 9001 and ISO 14001) and the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle based on ISO 9001.

The structure of this document is shown in Table 1.

Table 1 — ISO 37109 (this document) structure

Document structure		Integration of sustainability in community principles in the Project Management stages and processes throughout the project life cycle
Scope	Clause in this document	Initiating and planning	Implementation and follow-up	Monitoring controlling closing
A. General	1. Scope	A summary of each main generic tool functionality is presented in the clauses of the main document, while a detailed overview is detailed in A.4 or Annex B. NOTE: This document covers the stages of the project until its closing stage, which includes the transfer of its deliverables to future stakeholders.
	2. Normative references
	3. Terms and definitions
B. Context	4. Context of the organization
B. Context	5. Leadership
C. Implementation	6. Planning
	7. Support
	8. Operations
D. Operation	9. Performance and evaluation
D. Operation	10. Improvement

Tools described in this document:

— Mapping of the territory actors: Clause 4 and details in Annex B;
— Relevance analysis of a project (relevance analysis, updated relevance analysis, performance assessment): Clause 4 and details in B.2; for an example of relevance analysis methodology, see Reference [22] in the Bibliography.
— Method to align a project: Clause 6 and details in B.3;
— Project governance and management (e.g. project management, resource management, ensuring changing situations, commissioning): Clause 7 and details in A.4;
— Transfer of the project: Clause 8 and details in B.4.

Each type of tool is presented according the following headings:

a) Tool description
- — Purpose?
- — Nature?
- — What is the benefit?
- — Who can take advantage of the tool?
b) Tool action (the process for using the tool):
- — What are the inputs?
- — What are the outputs, deliverables, and output use?
- — What is the process for using the tools?
- — At what point in the project cycle can the tool be applied?
- — What capabilities are needed to implement the tool?

This document is consistent with the World Bank "Urban Sustainability Framework" (USF). See Reference [24] and A.2.

BS ISO 37109:2023

Sustainable cities and communities. Recommendations and requirements for project developers. Meeting ISO 37101 framework principles

Current

Published:

31 Jan 2023