Energy Seminar – Week 7: Raising the standard: Can international standards help save energy and carbon?
Dr Ian Byrne, IBECCS
- Start Tuesday 25 Nov 2025 5:00pm
- Finish Tuesday 25 Nov 2025 6:15pm
- Venue Desert Room
- Postcode OX1 3QY
- Register for event
Summary: Industrial or electrotechnical standards have existed for over a century. Initially focused on physical elements, such as screw threads or plugs, they have shifted towards management systems, such as ISO 9001. More recently environmental or energy management standards have been developed, in areas such as life cycle assessment and carbon footprinting. Currently ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) has standards for carbon neutrality and is developing one for net zero-aligned claims. This talk will consider who writes and who uses these standards and if they can contribute positively towards combatting climate change, and how they coexist with accountants’ sustainability standards and initiatives such as the GHG Protocol (Green House Gas) and Science-Based Targets Initiative.
Speaker: Dr Ian Byrne read mathematics at Oxford, but has become a Chartered Environmentalist and Chartered Accountant with 35 years’ experience in energy efficiency, renewables and carbon management. His consultancy, IBECCS, mainly identifies practical, cost-effective solutions for smaller, often public sector organisations to save energy and combat climate change. Ian has been an expert on standardisation committees for 15 years and convened ISO 50047:2016 “Determination of Energy Savings in Organisations” and ISO 14068-1:2023 “Carbon Neutrality”. He chairs the BSI mirror committee (British Standards Institution) on GHG Mitigation and Adaptation. Ian is also a Council Member of the Institution of Environmental Sciences and Vice-Chair of Baywind Energy, a community solar developer.