QUESTIONNAIRE
Standards Development Organization
Assessment – for Development of an
Environmental Assessment of Servers Standard
SDO:
ASTM International
Prepared by:
Date:
Email:
Phone:
Purpose
EPEAT is built upon American National Standards developed by the IEEE – the IEEE 1680 family of
standards. A representative leadership group of stakeholders is exploring options for development of the next
environmental standard which will address servers.
GEC personnel, acting with and on behalf of this stakeholder leadership group, are seeking interested from
SDOs to be considered for development of an environmental standard for servers. Interested applicants are
being asked to fill out this questionnaire, and potentially participate in an interview. Applicants will be evaluated,
and the SDO selection will be made, by the stakeholder leadership group.
Questionnaire
1) Ability of the SDO rules and procedures to ensure efficient standard development
Initiating a standard development process
1. How is a standard development activity initiated? What are the threshold requirements for
initiating standards development - e.g. request by member(s) of your organization, numbers of
interested parties in support, formal process required?
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SDO Assessment Questionnaire
Within ASTM International (ASTM), requests for new activities may be initiated by anyone who identifies a need for
standardization in a given field: a company, organization, trade association, university, government agency, or a
single individual. To begin the organizational process a written request should be prepared including: a description of
the activity, an explanation of the need, time frame, potential deliverables, who will use the standards or products, and
a list of other individuals, companies, and organizations involved in the field.
The process of building new activities within ASTM is similar to the process we employ for building standards. The
original idea usually starts small and as it progresses through the process, it gains momentum as well as size and
relevance. ASTM receives a variety of requests for new activities on an annual basis; these requests range from
single standard concepts to new main technical committees. It’s important to note that not all requests ultimately reach
fruition. As the organizational process evolves, it may be determined that the interest is insufficient, other standards
may exist that satisfy the particular need, or the industry may not be ready for a consensus standards program.
Stage one in the organizational process is the exploratory level. After ASTM is contacted about the possible
development of an activity, there is a period of due diligence to gather information about the market in question.
Additional stakeholders are contacted (often from opposite sides of the issue), research is conducted, and if the
results are promising, we move to stage two: the planning level. This level involves a meeting of key stakeholders in
the given area – the size of the meeting may vary, but the average number of attendees is 10-20 people. NOTE: It
may be necessary for multiple planning meetings to take place depending on the nature, complexity, or controversy of
the activity. The meeting is run by ASTM and the agenda is comprised of a series of topics to allow those in
attendance to determine if standards are necessary, and if ASTM is an appropriate venue. An overview of ASTM is
provided, as is a blue-sky session on potential standards topics, and the development of a draft title and scope for the
activity. A planning meeting ends with a request (via formal motion) to move to stage three in the organizational
process: the organizational level. This stage, like the planning level, involves an ASTM-facilitated meeting of
stakeholders. Unlike a planning meeting, an organizational meeting targets as many stakeholders as are relevant to
the given subject matter. Invitations are sent, press releases are distributed, and meeting notices are published on the
ASTM website (www.astm.org). The agenda for an organizational meeting is similar to a planning meeting; there is an
overview of ASTM, an update on the nature of the request for the activity, and a discussion of potential standards
topics. The attendees also go through the exercise (via formal motion) of approving a title, scope, and structure for the
activity, which leads to the final motion to organize a new activity within ASTM. Upon receipt of a successful motion, a
nominating committee is selected to develop a slate of main committee officers, who will be elected by the entire
committee, an ad hoc task group is selected to develop the bylaws for the new committee, which are also voted upon
by the entire committee, and nominations for subcommittee leadership positions are solicited. Additional items that
may take place include the establishment of a meeting profile, breakout sessions to work on draft standards, and the
appointment of official liaison representatives to interact with relevant groups (internal and external to ASTM).
2. Does your SDO create a preliminary draft standard, provide background research or a
preliminary review of relevant standards? If not, are stakeholders enabled to bring a draft
standard into the standards process?
ASTM provides a venue/management process for the development and delivery of technical information across an
extremely diverse constituency (over 100 distinct industries); it is the stakeholders within each industry sector who
determine the pace at which each standards development activity moves. Consequently, ASTM provides structure and
tools to accelerate progress but does not contribute to the development of actual content. Part of the process
described in question 1 is an internal review of existing work product in the proposed area of standardization – if
nothing exists, or if what does exist is determined to be inadequate from a technical perspective, ASTM will enable the
development of a new draft standard via hosting of virtual meetings of stakeholders, providing up-front editing of
content, identifying and contacting new stakeholders, promotion of the activity, etc.
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Group processes
3. Describe the structure and required steps of your standards development process in the table below. Please list all stakeholder
bodies utilized in your SDO (e.g. Working Group, Balloting Group, subgroup, etc,) and provide the associated information for
each body.
Stakeholder Body(ies)
(provide list)
Describe how is Membership
Constituted? (Appointed or open?
Limited in size? If open, does
membership close at some point?)
Scope and Responsibilities? Typical
time/resource commitment required?
Defined as
the
Consensus
Body1 by
ANSI?
(yes/no)
Voting
Threshold
(definition of
consensus)?
(%)
Task Group
Membership open to any interested party,
although most effective when confined to a
population of 2-10
individuals/organizations. Membership in
all ASTM activity is perpetually open.
Scope is determined by the membership (member or
non-member) upon establishment of the activity, but
is essentially to develop the initial draft(s) of a
standard needed to satisfy a particular need. Due to
flexibility required to meet a diverse set of needs, the
task group level of standards development falls
outside the purview of the formal ASTM balloting
process
Scope is determined by the membership (member
only) upon establishment of the activity.
Responsibility is to produce the 1st formal level of
consensus within the ASTM process (per ASTM
Regulations). Time and resource requirements vary
depending on scope and volume of standards
required.
Yes
Subcommittee
Membership open to any interested party
and is unlimited in terms of size (ASTM
Subcommittees range from 10 to 500+
members). Membership in all ASTM
activity is perpetually open.
Two thirds
affirmative of
combined
affirmative and
negative votes
(abstentions not
factored).
Scope is determined by the membership (member
only) upon establishment of the activity.
Responsibility is to produce the 2nd formal level of
consensus within the ASTM process (per ASTM
Regulations). Time and resource requirements vary
depending on scope and volume of standards
required.
Yes
Main Committee
Membership open to any interested party
and is unlimited in terms of size (ASTM
Main Committees range from 40+ to 1500+
members). Membership in all ASTM
activity is perpetually open.
90% affirmative
of combined
affirmative and
negative votes
(abstentions not
factored).
Membership is open to any interested party
and is unlimited in terms of size (ASTM’s
membership is 32,000+).
Items submitted for main committee or concurrent
ballot will also appear on the ASTM Web site for
Society Review. Each member of the Society is
entitled to vote on the items. The deadline date for
Yes
No formal
requirements.
Society Review
1
No formal
requirements.
Per ANSI essential requirements, the Consensus Body is the body or bodies that make key standards decisions and to which all ANSI Essential Requirements
are strictly applied.
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SDO Assessment Questionnaire
receipt of society comments or negatives will be
published on the Society Review. Written statements
accompanying negative or affirmative votes, received
by the deadline date will be considered in accordance
with the ASTM Regulations. Written statements
accompanying negative or affirmative votes, received
after the deadline date will be forwarded to the
subcommittee for information and the voter notified of
this action.
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4. Do you limit the time involved in any phase of the development of a standard?
While there are time limitations for formal ASTM ballot activity (30 days), ASTM does not limit the duration of the
actual standards development process. As our membership is volunteer-based, we recognize the importance of
process flexibility and allow activities to move at their own pace. Note that ballots for standards development can be
issued at any time by an ASTM Subcommittee or Committee.
5. How do you enable international participation and mange meetings across multiple time zones
and languages?
Through a standards development process that is open, transparent, and entirely web-based, ASTM currently
supports a non-US membership of 8000+ representing 135 countries – additionally, over 5100 ASTM standards are
used (adopted, incorporated by reference, serve as basis for national standards) by 75 countries around the globe.
The largest facilitator of ASTM’s international participation is the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) program
managed by our Global Cooperation Division. Via agreements with the national standards bodies of over 70
countries, ASTM provides complimentary access to our entire standards portfolio in exchange for utilization, where
possible, of ASTM standards by the country in question. A secondary component of the MoU program is the ability for
the non-US national standards body to identify a series of technical experts from their country and have ASTM place
them on the roster of the committees or subcommittees in which they have interest. This practice, combined with the
web-based development process employed by ASTM, effectively enables participation by all interested parties.
ASTM will occasionally participate in an activity where translation is required, but the vast majority of our interactions
take place in English. ASTM has successfully used virtual meetings to help accommodate for time zone changes but
this does take commitment from the task group and or subcommittee as it may require early morning or night meetings
depending on the time zone being accommodated.
6. Do you have baseline policies and procedures that all groups must follow? To what extent can
these baseline policies and procedures be modified by groups?
Yes – the Regulations Governing ASTM Technical Committees (http://www.astm.org/COMMIT/Regs.pdf) are
requirements that all ASTM committees must follow. Within the Regulations are the model ASTM bylaws, which each
committee is free to customize to suit their own specific needs (with certain restrictions) – items capable of
modification with a committee’s bylaws include (but are not limited to) definition of producer, user, and general interest
members, meeting profile (when and where), quorum requirements for meetings, and percent return for administrative
ballots (non-standards related).
7. Is 2/3 approval by the Consensus Body sufficient to approve a standard?
No – per ASTM Regulations, a 90% affirmative vote (of combined affirmative and negative votes) is required for main
committee approval of a ballot item (standard or revision to a standard). It is very rare not to obtain the 90%
affirmative at the main committee level. We also have a 2/3 % requirement at the subcommittee level which is also
typically achieved. The most challenging part of the ASTM process is handling the negative votes (technical
arguments) received during balloting.
2) Ability of the SDO rules and procedures to effectively ensure that the consensus
body represents a balanced group of stakeholders
8. Please provide your specific policies on stakeholder balance and an overview of the methods
you use to ensure and enforce balance requirements?
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SDO Assessment Questionnaire
Within the ASTM Regulations, balance is defined as follows:
3.1.1 balance, n—in a classified committee or subcommittee, when the combined number of voting user, consumer,
and general interest members equals or exceeds the number of voting producer members.
When an application is received for ASTM membership, a determination is made as to the classification of the
potential member based on what their organization does relative to the scope of the committee in question. Generic
definitions of the different classification options (producer, user, consumer, and general interest) are contained in
Section 7 of the ASTM Regulations. The overall classification of an ASTM committee or subcommittee is tracked by
ASTM on an ongoing basis; if an activity slips out of balance (due to members leaving the activity) an auto-notification
is sent by ASTM to the leadership of the activity in question, with steps explain how to rectify the problem.
9. Do you limit voting membership in a Consensus Body? If so, how?
While ASTM membership is open to all interested parties, ASTM does enforce a policy of assigning one official vote
per voting interest. Provisions for voting are found within Section 7 of the ASTM Regulations, including definitions of
official vote, voting interest, subsidiary, voting member, and non-official voting member. These provisions enable as
much participation as is required to ensure that ASTM activities are sufficiently robust without compromising the ASTM
process by creating an environment where a single voting interest could dominate.
10. How are conflicts between openness and balance managed if a stakeholder category attempts
to dominate the Consensus Body?
Given the ASTM Regulations described in the response to questions 8 and 9 above, conflicts related to are easily
avoided. The ‘one vote per voting interest’ policy employed by ASTM allows for the ideal combination of openness,
process access, and control against stakeholder dominance.
3) Ability of the SDO rules and procedures to effectively ensure that a single interest
group cannot block action or dominate the voting
11. Please provide your specific policies on stakeholder balance and an overview of the methods
you use to ensure and enforce balance requirements?
Within the ASTM Regulations, balance is defined as follows:
3.1.1 balance, n—in a classified committee or subcommittee, when the combined number of voting user, consumer,
and general interest members equals or exceeds the number of voting producer members.
When an application is received for ASTM membership, a determination is made as to the classification of the
potential member based on what their organization does relative to the scope of the committee in question. Generic
definitions of the different classification options (producer, user, consumer, and general interest) are contained in
Section 7 of the ASTM Regulations. The overall classification of an ASTM committee or subcommittee is tracked by
ASTM on an ongoing basis; if an activity slips out of balance (due to members leaving the activity) an auto-notification
is sent by ASTM to the leadership of the activity in question, with steps explain how to rectify the problem.
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SDO Assessment Questionnaire
12. Do you have processes to prevent a minority from frustrating the wishes of the majority? If yes,
please describe.
Consensus building is no stranger to conflicting opinions; for a standards developing organization to be truly effective,
it must have a process for overriding arguments that are inconsistent with the desires of the stakeholder majority.
Within ASTM, all members, regardless of voting status, are capable of casting a negative vote on a ballot item – a
single negative vote will halt the progress of an item through the ASTM balloting process until the issue(s) contained in
the negative vote have been addressed. Some negatives are withdrawn after conversation between voter and the
technical contact for the ballot item. Some negatives are found to have technical merit, resulting in a persuasive
finding by the subcommittee and revision of the item(s) in question prior to a re-ballot. Some negatives are found to
be technically invalid and/or inconsistent with the desired direction of the stakeholder majority – these negatives are
found to be not persuasive – the process for this action is defined in Section 11 of the ASTM Regulations, specifically
described below:
11.4.3.3 Not Persuasive Motions—A motion at a meeting, or via ballot, to find a negative vote not persuasive requires
an affirmative vote of at least two thirds of the combined affirmative and negative votes cast by the voting members. If
the motion or ballot fails, the balloted item is removed from the ballot.
4) The lack of financial barriers to participate
13. Are there fees or other conditions (e.g. organizational membership) to join the Consensus
Body or participate in any way?
ASTM has four membership categories: Participating ($75 USD per year), Organizational ($400 USD per year),
Informational ($75 USD per year), and Student (free) – specific benefits for each category can be viewed at the
following link:
http://www.astm.org/MEMBERSHIP/MemTypes.htm
There are no other fees associated with ASTM membership or participation within the ASTM process.
14. Are there fees for services offered in questions #17 & 18 (in section 5 below)? If yes, please
explain.
Although ASTM provides all of the services specified in questions 17 and 18 (below), ASTM absorbs the cost for those
offerings, and does not charge its membership for usage.
15. Are there fees for other services you provide during the process?
There are no additional fees for services offered during the actual process of standards development. ASTM does
offer fee-based programs that are related to standards development which include:
Training: http://www.astm.org/TRAIN/index.html
Certification: http://www.astm.org/CERTIFICATION/filtrexx40.cgi?cert_index.frm
Proficiency Testing: http://www.astm.org/STATQA/index.html
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SDO Assessment Questionnaire
16. What is generally the cost to purchase a finalized standard?
ASTM prices its standards by the page: 1 to 4 pages = $30, 5 to 10 pages = $35, 11 to 20 pages = $41, 21 to 40
pages = $47, 41 to 60 pages = $54.
The majority of ASTM’s standards fall within the 5 to 10 page range.‘
5) Processes that use trained facilitators and group leaders and that provide good
technical and process support for the questions being addressed by stakeholders
17. What facilitation, management, technical and other support services for the standards
development process do you provide?
ASTM offers a wide variety of services directly related to the development and delivery of technical information – these
include: staff management support for committees, staff administrative support, professional editors, meetings
management, corporate communications and promotion, templates for new standards, web-based collaboration, web
conferencing, electronic submittals and balloting, electronic publishing system (currently SGML and being converted to
XML by end of 2012), customized product selection (e.g., selected standards), customized product format (e.g.,
electronic, hard copy), and a global distribution network
18. Do you have training for facilitators and group leaders or for all stakeholders?
ASTM hosts an on-line new member orientation (http://www.astm.org/MEMBERSHIP/newmembership.html) and a
virtual classroom for all members (http://www.astm.org/MEMBER_TRAINING/) which includes and Officer’s Training
Workshop, held annually and alternating between live and virtual sessions.
ASTM staff will also conduct customized training sessions on an as-requested basis.
6) Compatibility of processes with the development of an environmental leadership
standard, including approach to commercial terms
19. Has your organization developed environmental leadership standards, or other standards
intended to incentivize leadership by defining attributes that only the best products achieve? If
yes, please describe.
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SDO Assessment Questionnaire
ASTM uses the term ‘standard’ as a nominative adjective to indicate that the document in question has been
developed in accordance with ASTM’s consensus process – there are six (6) types of standards available within
ASTM – specification, test method, practice, guide, classification, and terminology – definitions of these document
types are located within Section 2 of the ASTM Regulations.
With regard to environmental (or other) leadership standards, ASTM has developed standards related to energy
efficiency, water access and use, air and water quality, reducing carbon footprint, alternative fuels,
degradable plastics and many more that have an environmental application. A few examples are included
below.
Committee E50 on Environmental Assessment, Risk Management and Corrective Action consists of over
1,000 members representing environmental professionals, insurance companies, banking professionals,
lawyers, government agencies, the real estate industry and academia. In 2010, the Committee approved
E2725, Standard Guide for Basic Assessment and Management of Greenhouse Gases. The objectives of
this standard are to determine the conditions of the facility and or/property with regard to the status of
GHGs and actions to be taken to manage and reduce or offset those emissions. For more information
regarding the activities of E50, visit http://www.astm.org/COMMITTEE/E50.htm.
ASTM Committee E60 on Sustainability recently completed a suite of standards for the hospitality industry.
A total of 8 Standard Specifications were approved that relate to many different aspects involved in the
planning and hosting of sustainable meetings, events, trade shows and conferences. For more
information regarding the activities of E60, visit http://www.astm.org/COMMITTEE/E60.htm.
20. Has your organization addressed the issue of inclusion of commercial terms in a standard, as
prohibited by ANSI, and, if so, how has this been addressed?
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SDO Assessment Questionnaire
ASTM has addressed the issue of commercial terms within Section F1 of our ASTM Form and Style Manual
(http://www.astm.org/COMMIT/Blue_Book.pdf) – the specific language appears below:
F1. Commercial-Contractual Items in Standards
F1.1 Certain requirements, such as those listed below, shall not be included in the body of ASTM specifications. If a
committee feels it is important that this type of information be given, the information should be set forth in an appendix
to the specifications.
• Adjustment, settlement, and investigation of claims
• Inspection statements
• Rejection and rehearing statements
• Costs of testing, retesting statements
• Open-end agreements (see B1.2)
• Purchasing
• Marking
• Certification
• Marking
• Effective Dates
• Prices
F1.2 The matter of who shall pay for tests should be stated in the agreement or purchase order. General statements
covering inspection, retests, and rejection are suitable text for specifications when they do not contain mandatory
requirements covering the costs involved.
F1.3 The Committee on Standards may grant an exemption for the use of such terms in an ASTM standard.
7) A willingness to work with us and a practical way to move our standards process to
the new SDO option
21. Our stakeholders have extensively evaluated our procedures and have strong preferences.
How much flexibility is there in accommodating stakeholder procedure preferences?
The ASTM process has evolved since its inception in 1898 and offers an unparalleled combination of flexibility and
protection. While certain components of the process are fixed (percent affirmative requirement, percent return
requirement, mandatory consideration of all negative votes cast, membership open to all interested parties,
requirement of one vote per voting interest, etc.), others carry more flexibility (timing of ballot issuance, meeting
frequency and location, establishment of quorum requirement, etc.).
Depending on the nature of the requirements for flexibility, additional conversations could take place.
22. Would you consider developing a non-ANSI-accredited standards process, if deemed
necessary to meet our stakeholder concerns?
Given the evolving dynamics of today’s marketplace, organizations that wish to remain relevant and cutting edge are
required to evaluate current program offerings in light of the changing pace of technology, innovation and industry
needs. ASTM has been and is a leading developer of full consensus standards. ASTM, however, could consider (if
there is a market demand) to not only be a premiere standards developer but to be a solution provider whose
programs are agile and able to respond to changing industry needs and dynamics.
Depending on the nature of the requirements, additional conversations could take place to discuss an infrastructure
for creating deliverables that are not full consensus standards but that respond to an industry need. .
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SDO Assessment Questionnaire
23. If we formed a partnership agreement in standard development, would you consider co-owning
the IP of a standard with the Green Electronics Council?
ASTM would be willing to consider an alternative business agreement regarding copyright/distribution of resulting
deliverables.
24. Has your organization been involved in a transfer of standard(s) from another SDO? If yes,
please describe.
ASTM has been involved in the transfer of standards from other SDOs as well as to other SDOs from ASTM. In these
situations (where another organization’s intellectual property has been acquired by ASTM), negotiations regarding
transfer of content have been case specific.
25. What do you consider the strengths and weaknesses of the SDO process you use?
To fully understand ASTM’s strength, it’s important to understand what ASTM is, as well as what it is not. ASTM is not
a niche organization; it’s neither a trade association nor a professional society. ASTM is a standards developing
organization (SDO), and is unique in its ability to marry breadth with depth. ASTM is scoped for relevance and by
design, is empowered to work within any area. As there are no restrictions on ASTM’s ability to operate as a standards
development venue, it has, over its 114 years of existence, played in many different arenas. At present, there are 143
active technical committees under the ASTM umbrella. Activities range from steel, petroleum, and wood to homeland
security, consumer products, environmental assessment, additive manufacturing, detention and correction facilities,
and nanotechnology. The diversity within ASTM is staggering; it is this diversity that maintains ASTM’s relevance in
the SDO global community.
A fundamental weakness of an open, transparent, full consensus process is that, by design, there are few (if any)
limits to participation. In areas that are narrowly confined, this is not problematic; in areas of extreme horizontal
relevance, the openness can sufficiently dilute the focus of the activity that it can get bogged down by its own breadth.
The challenge of managing these areas of horizontal relevance is not insignificant, and within ASTM, the development
of mechanisms to better enable that management (via targeted web portals, formal liaisons, ad hoc advisory
committees) has become a priority.
26. Can you ensure staff support that is neutral to different stakeholder interests and positions?
Within ASTM, all standards development activity, including the decision to initiate such activity within ASTM, is driven
externally by the stakeholder population represented on an ASTM task group, subcommittee, and main committee.
ASTM staff do not participate in the actual process of standards development, nor do they provide content relative to
individual document development.
One of the strengths of the ASTM process is the breadth of participation contained within our individual committee
populations; it is ASTM's intention for each committee to serve as a microcosm of the industry it represents, with
representation from groups like manufacturers, federal agencies, design professionals, professional societies, trade
associations, financial organizations, and academia. Managing the diverse collection of interests contained within the
average ASTM committee is the job of ASTM staff (that specific position is called a Staff Manager); the primary
mission of whom is to maintain the neutrality that is critical to the ASTM full consensus process.
8) Credibility and track record of the SDO in developing standards and adoption of
their standards
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SDO Assessment Questionnaire
27. What is your success rate in finalizing standards?
While there are multiple ways to define ‘success’, the ASTM process has produced (at present) 12,000+ standards for
143 technical committees that span approximately 100 industry sectors – specifics regarding time to market appear
below in question 28.
These standards are revised thousands of times per year, over 5000 of them are used in 75 countries, there are
3000+ citations to ASTM standards in the US Code of Federal Regulations, hundreds are cited in a wide variety of US
and non-US Codes, and they are reference countless times in contracts for a host of materials, products, systems,
and services.
28. What is your average time to develop a standard?
Taking into account issues such as complexity of the job, urgency of needs, time devoted by members re: pre-ballot
document development, and utilization of new informational technologies, ASTM can provide the following averages
for new standards development (we approve 200-300 per year) as well as revisions to existing standards (2000-3000
per year):
Average time for development of a new standard: 14 months
Average time for development of a revision: 5 months
It is noteworthy that some standards are developed in several months while others take years (and occasionally are
abandoned prior to approval). Experience dictates that the ASTM process is very good at enabling standards to be
developed that should, while also creating an appropriate environment to ensure that those activities with less
relevance are given proper scrutiny.
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