Compliance & Standards Briefing: ISO 50001, EVs, Lead in Plumbing

AU Optronics Corp. has announced that its G8.5 facility (pictured) in Central Taiwan Science Park has passed the ISO 50001standard for energy management, which AUO says makes it the first manufacturer in the world to obtain the certification. The same plant won LEED Platinum status last month. Meanwhile, AUO’s TV module plant in Suzhou, China has also passed the evaluation.  AUO says its next step is to apply this energy management system to all its global production sites.

Irish software company Enerit has released a product designed to help large energy users achieve the new ISO 50001 energy management standard. Studies using Enerit software have already shown major energy savings, the company said. A regional development organization that owns 300 buildings ran a pilot for 15 of its offices and industrial buildings, reducing electricity consumption by 18 percent through no-cost and low-cost actions.

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Electric Vehicles Standards Panel (EVSP) has begun to lay the groundwork for a strategic roadmap that aims to define the standards and conformance programs needed to enable widespread acceptance and deployment of electric vehicles and associated infrastructure in the U.S. The panel is co-chaired by Jim Matthews, director, technical standards and standards policy, Corning Incorporated, and Jim Pauley, senior vice president, external affairs and government relations of Schneider Electric. The EVSP aims to produce a standardization roadmap by year’s end.

The U.S. and the EU are close to establishing joint standards for plug-in vehicles, according to Automotive News, via AutoBlogGreen. EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht said, “The EU and the U.S. are about to agree to an ambitious work plan aiming at aligning regulatory issues, standards and research.”

Neptune Technology Group have released a white paper explaining how standards for lead performance in water meters and other plumbing fixtures are getting stricter, and how state and federal regulations will reflect the changes. NSF/ANSI is changing the requirements for lead leaching (Standard 61 Annex F) in drinking water system components. And the new Safe Drinking Water Act will mandate lead content when it goes into effect in January 2014, Neptune said. The white paper is available here.

Concentrated solar power (CSP) experts say that standards are lacking for a number of components that go into CSP systems, according to the USGlass News Network. These include mirror paint, parabolic troughs, and transparent conductive oxide films. The experts were speaking at a solar symposium held jointly by ASTM International and the Glass Association of North America.

The owners and operators of three AMA Mini Mart gas stations in Klamath Falls, Ore., have agreed to pay $30,000 for failing to properly monitor seven underground petroleum storage tanks (USTs) for leaks for over two years, the EPA has said.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a Clean Water Act complaint on behalf of the EPA, against the State of Alaska and the city of Unalaska, Ak., for more than 4,800 alleged violations of pollution limits in the city’s Clean Water Act discharge permit from October 2004 to October 2010. These violations resulted in discharges into South Unalaska Bay of partially-treated sewage containing several pollutants including fecal coliform bacteria at levels well above legal limits, the EPA said.