October 14 marks World Standards Day
Baku, October 14, AZERTAC
Each year on 14 October, the members of the IEC, ISO and ITU celebrate World Standards Day, which is a means of paying tribute to the collaborative efforts of thousands of experts worldwide who develop the voluntary technical agreements that are published as International Standards. World Standards Day is about our shared vision for a better world.
Celebrated globally, this day fosters awareness of the importance of uniform standards across sectors, addressing global challenges like health equity, sustainability, and technological advancement.
Since 1970, World Standards Day has been celebrated in various ways throughout the world. Conferences, exhibitions, seminars, TV and radio interviews, and even “World Standards Week" events take place annually on or around 14 October.
The goal of World Standards Day is to raise awareness of the importance of global standardization to the world economy and to promote its role in helping meet the needs of business, industry, government, and consumers worldwide. World Standards Day also pays tribute to the thousands of volunteers around the world who participate in standardization activities.
Standards are important, we all know that and were all raised with this concept, but it’s entirely possible that we aren’t truly cognizant of just how vitally important standards can be. In the days before international standards and industrialization things, there was no way to get a replacement part for a machine or piece of equipment that you owned without going to the original manufacturer. Even then it was entirely possible that they’d only be able to do a ‘best fit’ sort of fix. Without automation or a set of standards to work by, every piece of these machines was purpose-built, meaning they were unique to that device.
Standards systems are built on a collaborative effort. There is a strong relationship between the GSTC Criteria and the SDGs. Economic, environmental and societal dimensions are all addressed by the GSTC Criteria. The GSTC Criteria provide effective guidance to help face sustainability challenges and contribute toward the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The GSTC Criteria serve as the global standard for sustainability in travel and tourism. The two sets of Criteria, GSTC Industry Criteria and GSTC Destination Criteria, are used for education and awareness-raising, policy-making for businesses and government agencies and other organization types, measurement and evaluation, and act as a basis for certification. The Criteria are the result of a worldwide effort to develop a common language about sustainability in tourism.
The GSTC Criteria have been built on decades of prior work and experience around the world, and they take into account the numerous guidelines and standards for sustainable tourism from every continent. During the process of development, they were widely consulted throughout the globe, in both developed and developing countries, in several languages. They reflect our goal of attaining a global consensus on sustainable tourism. The process of developing the Criteria was designed to adhere to the standards-setting code of the ISEAL Alliance, the international body providing guidance for the development and management of sustainability standards for all sectors.
Other news in this section
