US CEEM Remains Active with ISO 50001

During the week of Oct. 31 through Nov. 4, 2011, the International Standards Organization’s (ISO) Technical Committee (TC) 242 held their fifth plenary meeting in McLean, Virginia, to address follow up materials to the ISO 50001 Energy Management Standard, which was published in June of 2011. Several members of U.S. CEEM serve on the U.S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to the U.S. delegation to TC 242 and a couple of them participated as experts for the U.S. in this meeting.

US CEEM Members Get Involved

Although ISO 50001 is now available and is already being implemented by many stakeholders, there is much work for TC 242 to perform based on six new work item proposals related to guidance for the ISO 50001 standard. The new work item proposals cover the following areas, which were addressed using the working group structure that was approved at the plenary meeting:

• Measurement and Verification of Organizations –Principles and Guidance Energy Baseline General Principles and Guidance
• Energy Performance Indicators (EnPIs) General Principles and Guidance
• Guidance for the Implementation, Maintenance and Improvement of an EnMS 
• Energy Audits
• Energy Management Systems Audits and Auditor Competenc

Two U.S. CEEM members, Brad Reed of Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America and Joe Almaguer of the Dow Chemical Company, were present at the meeting and volunteered to work on two of the working groups. Both participated in the working groups on the EnPIs and energy baseline principles. DOE also represents U.S. CEEM and participated on the working groups for energy audits and measurement and verification ensuring that U.S. CEEM was represented throughout the working groups for TC 242.

For both Joe Almaguer and Brad Reed U.S. CEEM’s ongoing participation in these working groups and TC 242 is important because it gives U.S. CEEM a voice in the development of ISO 50001 Guidance Standards that will provide important insights for organizations that seek to implement the standard.

According to Almaguer, this guidance document “is intended to facilitate quicker and more complete implementation of ISO 50001 by providing additional insight into what the ISO 50001 standard intended. This will enable the user to implement 50001 more quickly and in a way that delivers value more rapidly.” U.S. CEEM’s continued support for ISO 50001 and this active participation by some of its members in TC 242 is another indication of the Council’s desire to develop meaningful materials that are immediately relevant to U.S. industry. By helping to develop substantive guidance documents, U.S. CEEM expects to enable greater adoption of ISO 50001 and enhance the ability of manufacturing plants to achieve certification under SEP.