Do international standardisation bodies address the system approach?

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International standardisation bodies are increasingly developing initiatives to address the systems approach to energy efficiency. The resulting standards harmonise methodologies and can be a good guide for decision makers in the field.

Some existing standards, however, have gained limited traction, among other reasons because they are not well known or understood. Some domains still lack standardisation initiatives.

The following existing standards are directly or indirectly related to the systems approach to energy efficiency.

• ISO 50001 Energy Management Systems
• Life Cycle Costing and Life Cycle Analysis
• Economic and environmental cable sizing
• Standards for the energy performance of buildings (EPB)
• Greenhouse Gas Protocol
• Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) and Organisational Environmental Footprint (OEF)