Energy Management and ISO 50001:2011
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ISO (International Organization for Standardization) issued a new standard ISO 50001 - Energy management systems – Requirements with guidance
for use in June 2011. This standard defines requirements for energy management
systems including energy efficiency, energy performance, energy supply, measurement
and continual improvement of energy usage. ISO 50001 was created by a TC 242 (Technical
Committee) that was established in 2008.
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Centauri Business Group (formerly QPRC) invited
 , chair of ISO TC 242,
to answer our questions:
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: I am currently the
Chief Sustainability Officer for Veolia Water North America, a global water services
provider. With over 30 years of experience, I have worked in the sustainability,
environmental, and energy field both in the private and public sector. I am a geologist
by education. In 2008, I became the chair of the newly created ISO 50001 Energy
Management System committee (Technical Committee 242). That role involves facilitating
and shepherding the work of approximately 50 nations in developing the energy management
system standard and related documents.
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: The main factor was
the realization that energy management is a key component of addressing the energy
global energy issues. Sound energy management would lead to improved efficiency,
smarter energy-related decisions by organizations regarding process and capital
improvements, and mo use of renewable energy. Related to this point was the fact
that organizations realized that holistic management system approach, using the
plan, do, check, act model, would make robust energy management more feasible. With
these beliefs in mind, it was clear that ISO should play a leadership role and develop
a management system standard in the spirit of ISO 9000 and ISO 14000.
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: As with other ISO standards,
several reference documents were consulted. For ISO 50001, I would contend that
the US ANSI standard, Management System for Energy (MSE 2000) and the EU standard
(PrEn 16001), were the main documents.
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: Now that ISO 50001
is published, the TC will embark on work on a series of documents that deal with
energy auditing, energy management system auditing, energy measurement, among other
topics. Work will begin in earnest at the 2011 plenary meeting in Washington, DC
in early November.
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: Energy management is
a key element of sustainability. Considering the many implications of using energy,
such as: cost, resource consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and pollution.
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