In 2015, Costa Rica hit a remarkable milestone when it generated the country’s electrical power from 100 % renewable energy sources during 285 consecutive days. This was another feather in the cap for our small Central American republic, which already emerged as a leader in ecotourism in the late 1990s. The Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) has since revealed that the country had 300 days in which renewables met its entire demand for electricity, beating its own previous record.

You might be tempted to ask how a country of just 51 000 km² and five million inhabitants managed such a feat. Helped by its geographical situation and its geological and topographical conditions, Costa Rica focused on its most abundant resource: water. The country’s power mix is dominated by hydropower (75.3 %), but also includes geothermal (12.84 %), wind (10.08 %), biomass (0.77 %) and solar (0.01 %), according to ICE statistics.

Today, the various activities have been regrouped in one single policy. Under its National Strategy on Climate Change, Costa Rica is committed to becoming the first carbon-neutral country in the world. This national strategy manifests our country’s pledge to continue setting objectives for the rest of the world to follow, as we did in 1948 when we abolished the military or by being the first tropical country to reverse the deforestation process in the late 1980s.

Firm green steps

So what is carbon neutrality? It’s when the net greenhouse gas emissions a country or organization releases to the environment remain equal to zero. To realize this goal, Costa Rica aims to compensate its carbon emissions with equivalent doses of oxygen so that, when we do eventually meet our target, we can be satisfied that our country has no part in global warming or the deterioration of air quality. This commitment sweeps across all sectors of the economy, including one of our country’s most representative exports – coffee.

Since 2014, the NAMA Café project is helping to transform coffee production into a low-carbon industry. Coffee was chosen because it is one of the most important sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the agricultural sector. Among other things, some coffee mills have already introduced innovative technologies for treating pulp and husks (two waste products of coffee production) to control and avoid their methane emissions.

Some say our environmental aspirations have grown out of our fertile soils and inhabit the spirit of every Costa Rican. In fact, the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment for all was enshrined in the Constitution by amendment in 1994. Today, our carbon neutrality goal has drawn all economic sectors in a participatory process that includes private companies, government bodies, non-governmental organizations and academia.

Standards as strategic allies

Indeed, a vital component of Costa Rica’s pledge to create a greener society is its dedication to maintaining a competitive market. To meet this goal, it has implemented programmes at both the governmental and organizational level. For example, the Instituto de Normas Técnicas de Costa Rica (INTECO), our national standards body, released a standard for organizations to follow in order to become carbon neutral.

Now in its third edition, INTE B5:2016, Standard for demonstrating carbon neutrality. Requirements, seeks to enhance organizations’ competitiveness through improved environmental performance based on good emissions management, technological advancements and optimized use of natural resources and raw materials. This standard is committed to the principles of ISO International Standards and includes references to Costa Rican adoptions of many ISO standards on greenhouse gases.

The decarbonization of society consists of activities that limit, minimize or correct environmental damage to water, air and soil, as well as problems related to waste, noise and ecosystems. This includes cleaner technologies that reduce environmental risk, pollution and resource wastage, and the use of environmentally friendly goods and services. Such a complex process required a normative framework that could integrate the economy, technology, cost, environmental issues and sustainability into one single field.

Framework for sustainability

These considerations led to the national adoption of the ISO 14064 series of standards for the quantification, monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gases, which has been instrumental in helping organizations create an inventory of their emissions. Developed by ISO’s technical committee ISO/TC 207, Environmental management, it has become an integral part of the country’s carbon neutrality programme. In line with national legislation on environmentally friendly products, Costa Rica also turned to the ISO 14020 suite of standards on environmental labelling and declarations, by the same ISO committee, which INTECO included in its portfolio by national adoption. These have had a tremendous impact on the entire field of green technologies, fostering the development of a nationwide environmental labelling programme.

These standards and others by ISO/TC 207 have contributed significantly to our carbon-neutral goal because they are practical, effective and can be used by organizations of all types and sizes at any stage of development. Although they do not directly discuss carbon neutrality, these standards highlight the importance of good environmental management for business competitiveness. They also provide a framework in which environmental actions can be continually improved to reach the country’s goals of sustainable development.

For just as Costa Rica’s demilitarization many years ago was designed to favour sustainability and development, so the decarbonization of the country’s economy serves a similar purpose. Indeed, there is increasing recognition of how a shift to renewables can act as a catalyst for sustainable development and achieving the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Currently, the Costa Rican government is making big efforts in this direction. As part of this national resolution, INTECO advocates the use of globally recognized standards as essential tools to help government, industry and consumers attain these sustainable goals. Based on international consensus, they provide a solid benchmark for decision makers to have a positive impact on our environment.

Finally, ISO 50001 on energy management systems, which INTECO adopted in 2017, is another essential standard that served as the basis for developing more specific standards on energy efficiency in compliance with our national policy on energy savings. The standard’s appeal is that it will help a greater number of Costa Rican businesses implement sound energy practices, thus contributing to our overarching goal of carbon neutrality.

Carbon copy

Can Costa Rica’s model be exported elsewhere? I, for one, believe it can, but in order to do this, countries need to establish domestic policies that foster a culture in which citizens show active commitment towards achieving their environmental goals. In Costa Rica, this formula has resulted in the protection of 25.6 % of the country’s total land mass.

Environmental education has also been key to sustainable development and Costa Rica has been one of the acknowledged leaders in efforts to promote environmental learning. As so much of the social and economic support for education in Costa Rica has centred around conservation issues, environmental education has become a point of intersection between the government and the people. In fact, the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC), which comes under the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), has been working on this for years, accruing a wealth of experience on biodiversity and marine issues.

Costa Rica has specialists in many fields of biology, including biosphere, wetlands and heritage sites. Educational projects funded by public/private alliances have been equally successful in increasing national awareness. However, these projects need to be constantly evolving to have significant long-term impact.

Wind turbines stretch along a dusty road near Tierras Morenas, Guanacaste.

Challenges ahead

While Costa Rica has certainly made impressive environmental progress over the years, positioning itself as a pioneer in nature conservation, there are still many challenges ahead. For example, we need to establish a prevention, control and mitigation system for those climate change impacts that are generated by human activity. Environmental control and quality must engage a wide range of social stakeholders and all our public institutions to be truly effective.

To be fair, our efforts to coordinate the environmental agenda have increased with the creation of specialized sub-groups, but these must synchronize better with existing inter-sectorial groups. This includes a more prominent involvement of environmental groups at decision-making levels. Politicians, business leaders, teachers and other people in leadership positions must strengthen their engagement in order to gain a better understanding of the issues at stake, so they are able to participate more fully in the decision-making process.

Given the scale of the task, is the plan to transform Costa Rica’s energy dependence realistic? Ultimately, the widespread adoption of clean energy is a gradual process, but with research and development in carbon-free technologies and standards to help us, we hope one day to get rid of fossil fuels once and for all.

Perhaps an answer has come in the advent of “clean cars”. These can be defined as vehicles that are electrically propelled using either batteries or fuel cells that run on on-board hydrogen, and often a hybrid of the two. The idea of electrical cars has been mooted for years, but it is only now, with the proven effects of climate change, that enough is being done to make them a viable commercial prospect. Indeed, change is already upon us. Monthly figures published by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders suggest that electric car sales in the United Kingdom have risen significantly over the past few years. While only around 500 electric cars were registered per month during the first half of 2014, this has now risen to an average of 5 000 per month during 2018¹⁾.

Yet their production is not straightforward and many challenges face both producers and consumers before they can be considered mainstream. The first target, as Mr Yasuji Shibata, Toyota Motor Corporation’s General Manager of the Evaluation Department for Electrically Propelled Vehicles, makes clear, “is to develop the electrically propelled vehicle to the same level of performance and reliability as conventional vehicles within a reasonable budget”. Closely connected to this is the requirement to guarantee car performance that meets the customer’s needs, especially on fuel economy.

All charged up

Electric vehicles must have a standard plug-in connector to charge from standard power points.

More specifically, the performance of a single cell (the smallest electrical unit) – and a fuel-cell stack (all cells combined) – are two key areas of focus. Batteries also have two specific requirements: storage and output. Unlike the gasoline tank, the capacity of a battery changes with environmental temperature and deterioration. There is also the difference between the electricity supply in battery vehicles and (hydrogen) fuel-cell vehicles: battery electricity has a finite amount of electrical energy. The challenge is that, particularly in the case of vehicles such as lift trucks, electricity is being expended all the time. This means that there is less capability to respond to surges and needs of energy when moving items, such as lifting and taking ramps. In other words, there is a continuous loss of efficiency, and thus productivity.

However, with a fuel-cell-powered vehicle, the car or truck is able to function at 100 % capacity until the last drop of gas. Because batteries store only a finite amount of energy, there is not a great deal of range, but with hydrogen fuel cells the range is significantly higher. The difference is approximately by a factor of two at the moment, and possibly a factor of three in the near future. This is partly because a fuel-cell-powered car has more mileage and is less susceptible to environmental weather effects, with a shorter fuelling time of three to five minutes. This contrasts markedly with a Tesla-style car, which currently only manages a 20-minute refuelling time. It is likely, therefore, that a future trend will be a true hybridization of fuel-cell and battery technology.

A number of studies have suggested that it would be very easy to saturate the market with battery-operated cars, but simply replacing gasoline automobiles with battery-operated alternatives is unlikely to be as straightforward as it first sounds. There is only just enough capacity in the electrical grid to cope with such a change. With hydrogen production, the electricity variations can be balanced through the day, which is why engineering for a mix of solutions is so important. Funnelling direct renewable energy like wind or solar, or even nuclear, into the car is unlikely to work because these sources are so distant from the car itself. But with hydrogen as a fuel, electricity can be deployed at the outlet from where it is available.

A plug-in electric car refuels at a charging station by the M40 Road in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom.

Environmental friend or foe?

A word should also be said about environmental safety, and the danger of failing to distinguish between “green” and “clean” fuels. If one takes, for example, biofuel, it is certainly green – but definitely not clean. Much focus has quite rightly been placed on carbon dioxide emissions, but the two hundred or so other pollutants of an internal combustion engine in the city car have been ignored, which are significantly more detrimental to human health. Carcinogens, for instance, are very much present in a biodiesel engine exhaust and pollute as much as a regular diesel engine.

Fuel-cell cars using hydrogen as a fuel can achieve a higher overall fuel cycle (well-to-wheel) average efficiency than an internal combustion engine using a biofuel such as biodiesel. Indeed, the biggest advantage of a hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicle is that it only produces water and air, which are not harmful to the environment. But while it’s true that hydrogen fuel produces zero emissions, it’s also true that it doesn’t occur naturally on earth. Producing it involves processes such as electrolysis, for which electricity is needed. And all too often, that energy still comes from fossil fuels.

So how can International Standards help overcome these multifarious challenges? It goes without saying that, as with all areas of standardization, it means that the same products can be held to the same level of performance and reliability, regardless of where they are produced. It also means that the amount of resources required to develop a unique product will be reduced for each country, thereby providing environmental protection. In general, the main obstacle to international standardization is harmonization among manufacturers. After battery-powered vehicles, some countries are now shifting their focus to cars using hydrogen fuel-cell technology. There is a huge and rapidly growing market out there, so harmonization of International Standards has become a key priority.

Fuel standards

Engine of fuel-cell vehicle “Mirai ” by Toyota.

Specifically, ISO 17268 covers gaseous hydrogen land-vehicle refuelling connection devices. The hydrogen refuelling connector is standardized by this ISO standard for the countries which have a fuel-cell vehicle market. This means that consumers can obtain hydrogen from any hydrogen fuel-cell station in China, Europe, Japan, Korea, the United States and so on. ISO 23828 also relates to fuel-cell road vehicles and is used as a measurement for energy consumption for vehicles fuelled with compressed hydrogen. Fuel economy is measured by this method and is referred to in the international Global Technical Regulation GTR15. Fuel economy measured in this way will be used by governments to qualify the vehicles and manufacturers implementing this method as one indicator for improving vehicle efficiency.

Every day, obstructions like traffic lights and changing speed limits mean that the power demands of a car drivetrain vary rapidly. So do fuel-cell vehicles have the pulling power we expect? ISO 20762 has been designed to test the maximum power of a hybrid electrical vehicle (HEV) for system power. ISO 23274-1 made it possible to measure fuel consumption without the “misleading” influence of the charge level of the battery when starting from a different “state of charge”. It meant, too, that the state of charge can be tested under different cycles, loads and temperatures.

ISO technical committee ISO/TC 197, which is mandated to devise standards on hydrogen technologies, is chaired by Andrei V. Tchouvelev, one of the world’s leading experts on hydrogen safety and regulations, codes and standards. Tchouvelev has worked for 35 years in the field of hydrogen and, after moving to Canada from his native Russia, co-founded the Canadian Hydrogen Safety Program in 2003. His committee does not deal directly with cars, but has created a family of fuelling standards, so everything related to the interface between fuelling station dispenser and hydrogen-fuelled cars falls under this remit. There are general requirements and also more specific ones concerning components like the dispenser, compressor, valves, fittings and fuelling hoses.

The world’s first hydrogen-powered taxi fleet “Hype” proudly displays its logo at its launch event in 2015.

A global playing field

A number of countries have also signed up to the European Union’s Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive (AFID) and series of standards, of which hydrogen is one of the alternative fuel infrastructure options. The bulk of the preparatory work for the standardization base under AFID mandate was undertaken by ISO/TC 197 and examined dispensing points, fuel quality and connectors. This committee also participates in Phase 2 of the global technical regulation (GTR 13) on hydrogen and fuel-cell vehicles. It ensures that the International Standards’ requirements that the committee develops are in harmony with the global technical regulation requirements. It is complicated, though, despite there being many stakeholders working together to develop the necessary requirements for a level playing field.

“People want to move mountains now and quickly, but may lack the sufficient technical knowledge and evidence,” says Tchouvelev. There are added complications, he says, because “we live in such a fast-paced world… and the Fourth Industrial Revolution is a challenge for standardization”. There is a chicken-and-egg dilemma of sorts, he continues, of when to develop an International Standard to ensure safety and performance, yet not restrict technology, as fuel-cell cars and fuelling infrastructure have been under development now for 15 years.

The genie is out of the bottle – it’s not just passenger cars but also trains, buses and trucks, and other heavy-duty applications including marine, aviation and aerospace. For instance, a heavy-duty truck may require 80 kg of on-board storage, while a regular fuel-cell car stores about 5 kg. So now, in addition to light-duty vehicles, standards have to be developed for much higher on-board storage quantities and address the need to refuel as quickly as possible using much higher flows. Besides these capacity issues, both fuel cells and batteries face scaling challenges potentially limiting their independent larger-scale mobility applications. These include thermal and water management and increased-size balance of plant for cooling. For this reason, hybridization of fuel-cell and battery technologies may be very attractive. Requirements of manufacturers for standards to address these issues are all relatively new, and International Standards will need to continue apace with developments for fuel-cell and battery electric vehicles to find their way permanently to our streets.

1) Next greencar, “Electric car market statistics” (accessed February 2019)

Developed by stakeholders from all sectors of the cocoa industry, including representatives from both countries where the cocoa is grown and markets where it is consumed, the ISO 34101 series aims to encourage the professionalization of cocoa farming, thus contributing to farmer livelihoods and better working conditions. It covers the organizational, economic, social and environmental aspects of cocoa farming as well as featuring strict requirements for traceability, offering greater clarity about the sustainability of the cocoa that is used.

ISO 34101-1, Sustainable and traceable cocoa – Part 1: Requirements for cocoa sustainability management systems, aims to help users implement effective practices to allow them to continually improve their business. Part 2, which deals with performance requirements, specifies economic, social and environmental criteria, while Part 3 contains the requirements for traceability of sustainably produced cocoa. Part 4 is aimed at certification scheme owners, certification bodies and all those seeking conformity to the ISO 34101 series. It also provides a starting point for farmers new to the concept of sustainable cocoa production, allowing time to progressively fulfil the requirements of Part 1 as experience is gained.

The ISO 34101 series was developed by ISO in collaboration with the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) under its technical committee CEN/TC 415, Sustainable and Traceable Cocoa, whose secretariat is held by DS, ISO’s member for Denmark, along with ISO technical committee ISO/TC 34, Food products, subcommittee SC 18, Cocoa, which is jointly managed by ISO’s members for Ghana (GSA) and the Netherlands (NEN).

Delegates from around the globe gather for one of the meetings of CEN/TC 415 and ISO/TC 34/SC 18.

Jack Steijn, Chair of both CEN/TC 415 and ISO/TC 34/SC 18, said the multi-stakeholder development process for the ISO 34101 series was extremely positive for the sector and will benefit the lives of the cocoa farmers, contribute to greater respect for the environment, and provide confidence to consumers that their chocolate comes from cocoa that has been grown sustainably.

“The series will enable farmers and farmer organizations to benefit from strategically addressing issues that threaten their sustainability by using approaches put forward by experts from all over the world,” he said.

“By introducing the Cocoa Farm Development Plan, a key element of the standard, cocoa farmers will be able to assess whether or not they will benefit from moving to sustainable production.”

“Then, if they choose to meet the requirements of the standards, they will be in a better position to develop into economically viable entrepreneurs.”

MacMillan Prentice, Twinned Committee Manager of ISO/TC 34/SC 18, added: “While a range of positive schemes and initiatives aimed at improving the sustainability of cocoa farming already exist, this standard aims to set a benchmark to which other programmes may align for the benefit of all.”

“Part 4 of the series helps to level the playing field for certification to sustainability in the sector, as it provides clarity on the requirements for certification schemes and certification bodies, something that did not exist before.”

The ISO 34101 series is available from your national ISO member or through the ISO Store.