6 - 7 April 2017, Moscow, Complex of office buildings of the Government of Moscow
Honorary President of the Russian Industrial and Environmental forum «RosPromEco-2013», Member of the Council under the Chairman of the Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on agriculture and nature management Nikolay Churkin has prepared the piece for publication in the leading Russian journals: Standards’ harmonization as an element in sustainable development of Russian economy.
Standards’ harmonization takes a great importance in international industrial development and cooperation within the solving of scientific and technical issues within the costs’ and energy efficiency’s optimization, increasing the effectiveness of measures on labor safety and environmental protection, assurance’ improvement and quality maintenance. It is essential for the expansion of mutually beneficial exchange of goods and services, which has special importance in accordance with WTO’s conditions, the Customs Union in general and the prospects of Russia's entry into the OECD.
According to definition of the International Standards Organization (ISO) «standardization is establishment and implementation of rules in order to streamline the activities in certain areas for the benefits and with the participation of all stakeholders, in particular for achieving optimum savings, subject to the functional environment and safety».
At the modern stage of development of the Russian economy standardization should be considered as an effective element of the mechanism of products quality management, works and services. This is confirmed by the fact that the creation and application of harmonized standards gets you closer to the goals of sustainable development and promptly remove from the agenda the challenges are many, including:
1. policy challenges: to support the Russia’s competitiveness on the world markets; economic integration within the common European space and the Customs Union; protection against the greenhouse effect and global warming; illegal waste export and other;
2. economic challenges: the need to optimize the processes of primary raw materials’ and energy resources’ use; secondary resources use; natural resources, renewable sources of energy, products’ and services’ quality; activities for production control and risk management optimization;
3. environmental challenges: environmental conservation and protection; the need for standards aimed at protecting life and health, environmental management and resource saving;
4. social challenges: improving the quality of products and population living standards; expanding the range of services and products; ensuring the affordability of products and services;
5. technological challenges: energy efficiency and power management; optimization of product life cycle; the need to prevent the waste formation; maximum use of secondary resources; technological modernization.
Modern approach to products’ and services’ standardization of the government and manufacturers is determined by the division of the state’s and manufacturer’s responsibility: the state's responsibility for ensuring the protection of the environment, life and health of the population supported the of the manufacturer liability, who is required to produce competitive products, being responsible for it on all stages of the life cycle, including the conversion of this product to waste.
In practice, countries of the world community, including Russia, confirm the identity of their positions to the process of standards’ harmonization, realizing that in practical terms harmonized standards provide the quality products and services, environmentally friendly industries and goods, work safety, interoperability of products and, when necessary, its interchangeability. For example, we see this on the example of the chargers unification process for mobile phones with preservation of their reliability and efficiency.
The process of harmonization of standards is in order:
- productivity and efficiency of production management systems of quality management (ISO 9000), environmental management (ISO 14000) and safety (OHSAS 18000);
- increase the reliability and quality of products on the basis of specifications recognized at the international level;
- reducing the costs of raw materials and energy, as well as to expand environmentally safe use of secondary resources;
- eliminate the need for testing of products by each manufacturer and reducing time for development and introduction of new designs in production;
- reduce capital and operational expenses;
- create a unified and clear mechanism for communication between designers and manufacturers, buyers and sellers of goods.
Since the 90s of the twentieth century, developing intensively used by businesses standards of the management system, i.e. the company standardized methods plans and organizes its activity, including control of technological processes and delivery (primary and secondary) resources. In Russia it is widely distributed certification of enterprises on conformity to standards of series ISO 9000 (quality management), ISO 14000 (management of environmental protection) and OHSAS 18000 (safety management safety and health). Observance of requirements for these standards guarantees product quality and environmental protection, which fully corresponds with the goals of sustainable development.
In this case, mention should be made of the emergence of a voluntary standard ISO 26000:2010 Guidance on social responsibility, with the same success can be used for large, medium and small enterprises. However, in contrast to the standards ISO 9001 and 14001, this standard is not a part of the management system and is not intended for certification purposes.
The use of environmental management elements is defined as the best available techniques (BAT) in all European BAT reference books for various industries: the scope (e.g. level of details) and nature of the environmental management system (for example, standard or non-standard) is linked with the technical and technological peculiarities, the scale and complexity of the installation, as well as its effects on the environment.
In the conditions of the our country’s planned transition to technological rationing model on the basis of the best available technologies, creation of Russian BAT on the basis of European BAT is difficult to overestimate the role of standardization. So the most preferred methodology for implementation of European BAT reference books in the Russian normative field methodology is based on the preparation of European BAT for use in the national system of standardization: in other words, the development and adoption of a set of rules or national standards on the basis of European BAT in accordance with the procedures established by the Federal law «On technical regulation». If necessary national standards series «Resource. Best available techniques», which have already been adopted, you can use as a basis for the development of Information technology materials.
And in conclusion I would like to clearly highlight the following thesis. In the Federal law «On technical regulation», there are provisions, which clearly indicates that standardization is a function of the state, despite the voluntary application of standards. Standardization as an activity saves the state character, and the procedure for its implementation is regulated by the state in accordance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation. National standards and regulations, playing the role of the recommendations are still documents developed according to the rules defined by the state and, thus, relying on his authority.
We should also pay special attention to the developed Russian standards’ system of series «Resource-saving», which already includes the 50 national standards and 25 are preparing to be adopted. These standards, harmonized with international standards, builds up the basis for sustainable development within Russian economy at the present stage.
Honorary President of the Russian
Industrial and Environmental Forum
«RosPromEco»
Nikolay Churkin
