The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) seeks comments on a proposal from AFNOR, the national standards body for France, for a new joint technical committee (JTC) of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on Smart and Sustainable Cities and Communities.
At the June 2024 joint meeting of the ISO Technical Management Board (ISO/TMB) and the IEC Standardization Management Board (IEC/SMB), it was noted that a number of different initiatives exist between ISO and IEC in the area of Smart and Sustainable Cities and Communities, and it was agreed to form a joint task force of the two Boards to recommend to the Boards an arrangement to ensure proper coordination. The joint task force conducted its work between June and October 2024, resulting in a proposal to establish a new ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee (JTC) on Smart and Sustainable Cities and Communities to consolidate the range of different initiatives into one structure. At the November 2025 joint meeting of the ISO/TMB and the IEC/SMB, it was agreed to circulate a proposal to the ISO and IEC members for formal voting.
The AFNOR proposal includes the following scope statement:
Standardization in the field of smart and sustainable cities and communities, including the development of requirements, frameworks, guidance, and supporting techniques and tools related to the achievement of sustainable development.
The scope includes resilience and disaster risk reduction, sustainability and sustainable mobility and transport, community infrastructure, climate change mitigation and adaptation, digitalization, and ICT and system aspects only as it pertains to and helps all cities and communities and their interested parties, in both rural and urban areas, become more sustainable and smarter. It also fosters the development of standards with electrotechnology to support the integration, interoperability, and effectiveness of city systems.
It recognizes the strategic importance of collaborating with, building on and highlighting the work of existing ISO, IEC, and Joint Technical Committees, to ensure a coherent set of standards.
JTC4 is responsible for the overall system aspects and infrastructure aspects of smart and sustainable cities and communities, as well as the coordination of the overall ISO/IEC work program in this field including the schedule for standards development, taking into account the work of existing international standardization bodies and existing work of ISO and IEC technical committees.
AIC and USNC members are invited to provide their comments on the AFNOR proposal to Steven Cornish ([email protected]) and Megan Pahl ([email protected]) by close of business on Friday, February 7, 2025.
All input received will be used to develop a recommended ANSI/USNC position and comments that will be sent to the AIC and USNC membership for approval, before submittal to ISO/IEC by the March 8, 2025 voting deadline.