CEO report


— Adrian O'Connell, Chief Executive

Empowering consumers with information on energy efficiency

Nurturing our children’s curiosity safely

World Water Day 2021

International Women’s Day 2021

Adding value to young professionals

Standards Awards 2021 – Nominations now closed

In Conversation with Jennifer George

International update

Standards Australia represents Australia on the two major international standards development bodies, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Our activities are reported on our International Updates page.

Highlights from March (PDF)
  • Chain of Custody: Proposal for a New Field of Technical Activity.
  • Roofing and waterproofing building materials: Proposal for a New Field of Technical Activity.
  • Opportunity to review ISO/IEC Guide 17:2016, Guide for writing standards taking into account the needs of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

Sector update

Access the latest standards development news in your industry sector via our Sectors page.

Drafts open for comment

The public comment process provides an opportunity for stakeholders and members of the public to make valuable contributions. With the launch of our new public comment platform, draft standards currently open for comment are now available via Connect.

SDO News

Responsible Wood update

AS 4707 standard reference committee updates on revision of chain of custody. Draft standard available for comment in mid-2021.

With more than 300 chain-of-custody certified companies in Australia, the AS 4707, chain of custody standard – in addition to delivering Responsible Wood-certified products to the marketplace – has a tremendous impact on internal management processes of businesses along the timber value chain.

The standard provides organisations in the wood or forest products certification chain with the minimum criteria and requirements to implement a credible system.

This system tracks wood or forest products originating from Responsible Wood-certified forests through all phases of ownership, transportation and manufacturing to the end consumer.

Following the appointment of the AS 4707 standard reference committee and working group in late 2020, the committee met in Brisbane to review the current standard (AS 4707:2014) and commence on a working draft.

The reference committee nominating bodies include the Association of Accredited Certification Bodies, Australian Forest Products Association, Australian Institute of Packaging, Omega Consulting, Timber Development Association, Tasmanian Forest Products Association, the University of Melbourne, the Victorian Forest Products Association and the Women in Forestry Network.

Peter Zed of Omega Consulting has been appointed Chair of the committee. He holds an Honours degree in Forestry from ANU and has worked within the timber industry for more than 40 years. His involvement has ranged from plantation development to forest product manufacturing in roles as diverse as R&D scientist to Chief Executive.

The new standard is expected to adopt changes in the chain-of-custody rules for PEFC ST 2002:2020 and trademark-requirements and PEFC ST 2001:2020 trademark rules.

PEFC is the world’s largest forest certification authority with more than 20,000 companies certified under the PEFC chain-of-custody standard.

Responsible Wood is the national governing body for PEFC in Australia with the Australian standard endorsed by and mutually recognised by PEFC International.

“We expect the draft standard to become available for public consultation in mid-2021”, said Simon Dorries, Responsible Wood CEO.

“The consultation is an essential part of Responsible Wood's standards setting process where we share the work by the standard reference committee and working group, obtaining the input of everyone concerned,” concluded Mr. Dorries.