Get ready for ISO 50001, the energy management standard

Did you think you were done with standards  when you finished ISO 9000? Well, get ready for ISO 50001, the international standard for energy management. This standard is expected to achieve major, long-term increases in energy efficiency of 20% or more in industrial and commercial facilities.

In February 2008, ISO approved the establishment of a new project committee to develop the new ISO Management System Standard for Energy. The result, ISO 5000, will establish an international framework for industrial, commercial, or institutional facilities, or entire companies, to manage their energy, including procurement and use.

The standard will provide organizations and companies with technical and management strategies to increase energy efficiency, reduce costs, and improve environmental performance. Corporations, supply chain partnerships, utilities, energy service companies, and others are expected to use ISO 50001 as a tool to reduce energy intensity and carbon emissions in their own facilities (as well as those belonging to their customers or suppliers) and for benchmarking.

Researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization gave an overview of what to expect from ISO 50001 and what it covers last fall at the International Conference on Energy Efficiency in Motor Driven Systems. You can read their paper here:

http://www1.cetim.fr/eemods09/pages/programme/083-McKane-final.pdf