Canada to host ISO plenary on environmental standards

The Standards Council of Canada (SCC) will host the ISO Environmental Management International Plenary 2025—a major global event for environmental management standards—starting this Saturday.

The gathering—scheduled for Oct. 25-Nov. 1 at the Ismaili Centre in Toronto—is set to attract technical experts, policy leaders, and industry representatives from more than 130 countries, all working to shape the future of international environmental management standards.

Under the theme “Innovation. Integration. Impact.,” the plenary will focus on advancing standards that support net-zero transitions, climate resilience, and sustainable infrastructure. According to the SCC, “Canada is at the helm of the development of international Environmental Management standards, holding the secretariat of ISO Environmental Management Technical Committee”.

Notable speakers include Sergio Mujica, ISO Secretary General; Chantal Guay, Chief Executive Officer of the Standards Council of Canada; Major-General S.F. Malcolm, Surgeon General of the Canadian Armed Forces; Naheed Nenshi, Leader of the Alberta New Democratic Party; Tracey Sletto, CEO of the Canada Energy Regulator; and Zakiah Kassam, Chair of ISO Environmental Management.

The SCC notes that the 2025 plenary “marks a major milestone in advancing global environmental governance through standardization.” Key topics on the agenda include:

• The new ISO Net Zero standard, which will guide organizations toward net-zero goals.
• The recent ISO-GHG Protocol agreement to deliver unified global standards for greenhouse gas emissions accounting.
• Climate resilience of health systems and water infrastructure.
• The role of digital technologies—such as AI, big data, and digital twins—in driving environmental performance.
• Updates to cornerstone ISO environmental standards, including ISO 14001 and related auditing and life-cycle management standards.

The event will also feature open sessions, policy roundtables, and collaborative forums to engage a broad range of stakeholders, including representatives from the Canadian government, academia, and environmental sectors, in shaping sustainable and resilient futures.

Recently, at this year’s HSPC Professional Development Conference, sustainability experts Tanis Marquette and Tom Venables presented at a session laying out a growing sense of urgency when it comes to climate. “The past ten years, 2015–2024, are the ten warmest years on record,” one slide read, connecting climate data to financial and reputational risk for businesses. The global decline in biodiversity, down 73% since 1970, is not just an environmental issue but a business one too. Over half of the world’s GDP is now considered exposed to “material nature risk.”