Standards impact nearly every aspect of human life, helping products, processes, systems, and people work safely, efficiently, and reliably, and advancing innovation and quality of life. And yet, they're often invisible to the public and undervalued by decision makers.
ANSI invites everyone to help give standardization the credit it deserves by exploring and sharing these relatable real-world glimpses of the impact and importance of standards and conformity assessment in various aspects of life, updated regularly. Have fun and help spread the word!
Literally everywhere you turn in your daily life, thousands of standards are there, helping everything work. From tech devices, appliances, and energy infrastructure, to healthcare, machinery, and smart vehicles—and nearly everything in between—all innovation is shaped, propelled, and guided by standards.
Here, ANSI illustrates a small sample of the voluntary consensus standards developed by thousands of experts in diverse forums that are working to assure the products, processes, and systems we rely on every day are safe, reliable, and efficient, and work effectively together.
Drop us an email with a photo or description of instances in your work, home, or any aspect of daily life where you see or imagine standards enhancing the world. We may be inspired to create a new graphic like the one above, or post your photos of standards in action (with your permission).
According to the American Hiking Society, day hiking is projected to see the greatest rate of growth in adults of any outdoor recreational activity by 2060. So the recent publication of ISO 3021:2023, Adventure tourism — Hiking and trekking activities — Requirements and recommendations, will do a mountain of good for hikers everywhere. This international standard provides guidance for the safety of participants, leaders, and assistants in hiking and trekking tourism activities, and establishes criteria for characteristics and difficulty levels for route classification. Hitting the trail should be safer and more enjoyable than ever!
Are you keeping up on standardization news? Test your knowledge with our monthly crossword featuring clues and answers based on the latest information in ANSI News.
If you solved the crossword, we want to give you props! Please take a screenshot and e-mail it to [email protected]. The first several people to send us the screenshot of their fully solved crossword each month will receive a shoutout on this page and on ANSI’s social media channels.
