ESG, SSC to develop new standards for business resilience

These aim to mitigate the impact of the pandemic and bolster recovery efforts.

Enterprise Singapore (ESG) and the Singapore Standards Council (SSC) said that they will focus on addressing industry needs and national initiatives this year by developing standards that build sustainable and resilient industries and enterprises, according to a media release.

These include standards that mitigate the disruptive impact of the pandemic and bolster recovery efforts.

ESG and SSC have developed and reviewed over 168 Singapore Standards (SSes) and Technical References (TRs) in the past year, with 91 new standards and close to 70% focused on emerging areas to support Industry 4.0 adoption. These are said to address urgent industry demand and have made an impact on 13,000 organisations

Further, over 40 international and Singapore standards across different areas have been made available for free viewing to help enterprises mitigate the impact of the pandemic. The SSC will also develop standards on business continuity and supply chain, ICT and infrastructure, and healthcare solutions.

This is on top of SSC adopting several ISO standards as Singapore Standards, such as Biometric System-on-Cards and developing Technical Reference TR 76 Guidelines for electronic commerce transactions to support enterprises in leveraging online platforms.

Further, the SSC will work with the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) to revise the SS 553 Code of practice for air-conditioning and mechanical ventilation in buildings to include guidance to the industry on how to deal with respiratory outbreaks and reduce the virus presence in buildings.

In addition, sustainable food production and green standards will be developed to support Singapore’s shift to a low carbon future and guide enterprises on the sustainable use of environmental resources.

SSC chairman Robert Chew encouraged more enterprises to adopt standards as tools that support their businesses and to help develop standards in their respective fields.