Standards & Compliance Briefing: Fairtrade Silver, PAS 2030 Updates, ANSI, ASTM

Fairtrade will launch a new certification scheme – Fairmined silver – in the UK market later this month. Fairtrade has been expanding its standards beyond food products into other commodities, and launched Fairtrade gold in 2011. The silver pricing framework is set up the same as the gold framework – with artisanal communities offered a price of at least 95 percent of the London Bullion Market’s fix. Miners will be able to earn an extra 5 percent if they work without the use of toxic chemicals such as mercury or cyanide, The Guardian said.

The British Standards Institution has an update to PAS 2030, the standard which supports the Green Deal policy, encouraging the implementation of energy efficiency measures within existing households and businesses. The revision adds 12 more energy efficiency measures either in the form of new annexes or through amendments to existing annexes, including water-efficient hot water taps and shower, hot water systems and controls, ducting and pipework improvements and solar blinds, shutters and shading devices, BSI said.

ANSI and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council have completed the pilot phase of the ANSI-IREC program for the accreditation of renewable energy and energy efficiency certificate programs, and the program is now accepting general applications. The program, launched January 2012, evaluates certificate-awarding schools, colleges and other institutions against requirements for equipment, curriculum, facilities, administration and personnel set forth in the IREC Standard 14732: 2013, General Requirements for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Certificate Programs, ANSI said.

ASTM International has been accredited by the Standards Council of Canada, a move that increases ASTM’s presence in Canada. More than 180 ASTM standards are referenced in Canadian federal legislation. Accreditation signifies that ASTM meets all of the requirements for consensus standards development set by SCC; SCC requirements mirror the principles of the World Trade Organization, ASTM said.

The Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas in Irving, Texas, has earned LEED Silver certification, to become the fifth convention center in the country to achieve this level of certification. In 2012, the Convention Center’s recycling initiatives resulted in a cardboard diversion of 47,810 pounds, and a mixed recyclable diversion of 20,460 pounds, the Dallas Morning News said.

Wake Tech Community College’s new building on the Northern Wake Campus in Raleigh, N.C., has received LEED Gold certification. Features of the building include a cool rooftop terrace, daylight sensing lighting systems, low-flow plumbing, and no-irrigation landscaping. Altogether, the facility is expected to achieve a 38 percent reduction in energy use and a 48 percent reduction in water use, the college said.

NBM Production, one of 3CEMS’ South China facilities in Dongguan, has successfully achieved ISO 14001 accreditation after an audit conducted by BSI. NBM also has ISO 9001 accreditation. With the NBM certification, all of 3CEMS’s electronics manufacturing facilities in south China hold ISO 14001, the company said.

Contract manufacturer SMTC Corporation’s facility in Dongguan, China, has earned ISO 14001 certification. The company said that every SMTC location will deploy “copy exact” methodology for manufacturing standardized processes and software systems. SMTC is also ISO 9001 certified, EMS Now writes.