Thanks a million - the Special Edition 2020 BSI Standards Awards

The COVID-19 pandemic has made 2020 a challenging year, but some organizations and individuals have made outstanding efforts to help manage the pandemic and mitigate its impacts. On 19 November 2020, an e-conference in the Special 2020 Edition BSI Standards Awards celebrated those whose efforts made this unprecedented year a little easier.

Why were these awards special?

Awards were presented to both standards developers for the first time, as well as standards users. In previous years, the awards have typically been given to leaders, newcomers, committee managers, consumer experts, educators, and representatives to international or European committees and nominating organizations.

Standards makers deserve to be celebrated because they volunteer their time and knowledge to ensure that standards make our lives better, safer and more sustainable. Exceptional standards users are recognized for their work in unlocking the potential of standards to improve important factors such as trust, safety and innovation, pointing the way for other standards users to follow.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread disruption and upheaval, rapidly changing the way we work and live. The rapid change made standards development harder in many areas, while new guidance was required in other areas to help people adapt to the immediate challenges brought by the pandemic.

Let’s look at some of the stars who stood out during the last 12 months.

Standards Users

Keeping roads open - Area 9 SRN (Strategic Road Network) Alliance

Area 9 SRN Alliance used the ISO 44001 Collaborative business relationship management systems standard to keep the roads open during the darkest days of the pandemic. Road transport was essential to keep the country going - whether it was delivering medical supplies, ensuring frontline workers got to their place of work or bringing essentials to people who were self-isolating or shielding.

A single reference point for COVID-19 standards - UK Defence Standardization

The UK Defence Standardization develops policy both domestically and internationally, with various civil and military partners to support software and systems and effective acquisitions. Under tough conditions, you need relevant information at your fingertips. To support Defence personnel involved in the UK Government response to the pandemic, UK Defence Standardization built a single reference library on the BSOL platform bringing together relevant standards. Rather than having to search for individual standards, identify and download them, the relevant material was easily accessible for people doing this vital work.

Calum Sim, UK Defence Standardization (DStan) Team Leader said: “Having a single reference of essential COVID-19 standards helped defence play it’s part in responding to the pandemic, I am extremely proud of DStan’s contribution.”

Takeaway lifelines for struggling businesses: Colpac Packaging

Sustainable food packaging company Colpac stepped up to the plate (or should that be container?) during the pandemic, finding safe ways to provide cafes, pubs and restaurants with food containers that enabled them to convert to takeaway for desperately needed income. Colpac also manufactured Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) using BSI standards to help workers in their company and in the food sector to stay safe in the pandemic.

Don’t lose our loos - the British Toilet Association

Being unable to access a public toilet can be enough to deter some people from leaving their homes - especially groups such as older people, women and people with some health conditions. The British Toilet Association used standards to support government and local authorities during the pandemic, ensuring these vital conveniences were able to remain open and stay safe for users.

Standards Makers

Using blockchain to fight fraudster opportunists - Caroline Thomas

The pandemic provided opportunities for criminals to try to profit from disaster through supplying fake and counterfeit medicines at a time of increased need. Caroline led an expert team within her Working Group, developing international use cases to show how blockchain technology could increase transparency and trust in global medicine supply during the pandemic. The collaborative international networks resulting from this work helped keep many fake goods from reaching the marketplace and causing harm.

Using standards to bring people together - Professor Duncan Shaw

People want to help others, but in a pandemic it’s far from clear how individuals can help others effectively and safely. Duncan worked hard to deploy standards as important guides on how to organize, for example through BS ISO 22395 - Supporting vulnerable people in an emergency and BS ISO 22319 - Planning the involvement of spontaneous volunteers. As a result of Duncan’s efforts in bringing local and global authorities together, a new international standard, ISO 22392 - Community Resilience - Recovery is to be created.

Duncan said: “Communities support each other during crises, creating new ways of being resilient to its impacts. Resilience professionals can help communities to know what to do and how to do this safely. Standards have a valuable role to play in assisting resilience professionals to support communities, coordinate recovery and renewal, and create stronger resilience to future crises.”

Standards Committees are open to everyone. To find out more on how to become a standards maker, visit our standards maker page:

https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/about-bsi/uk-national-standards-body/how-to-get-involved-with-standards/become-a-committee-member/

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