MétalSkin, Météorage, Michelin, MobiLead and Vignerons de Buzet, Gold Normes 2019 companies
They poison our lives, they kill innovation, they close the doors to markets and exports… Standards are accused of all sorts of evils. But behind this leitmotiv lies a double misunderstanding. On the one hand, there is confusion between regulatory standards, those issued by public authorities in large quantities, and voluntary standards, drawn up by professionals themselves within AFNOR in France, at their request… and in reasonable quantities given the multiplicity of markets. On the other hand, standards do help! Security, interoperability, export assistance, sharing of best practices… many professionals are using it to develop their innovations!
The AFNOR Members’ Club has created the Trophées Or Normes (Gold Standards Trophies) to raise awareness of these benefits, let companies testify to them, and demystify the exercise of voluntary standardization. The second edition took place on October 14, 2019, an event organized in Paris in partnership with Les Echos, which ran a special feature on the occasion of World Standards Day. The twenty nominees were divided into four categories, with this year’s trophy awarded out of category. Here are the five winners: Météorage (represented by Stéphane Schmitt, right in photo), MobiLead (represented by Laurent Tonnelier, 4th from left in photo), Michelin (represented by Pierre Loiret, left in photo), Metalskin Technologies (represented by Stéphane Pénari, center in photo) and Les Vignerons de Buzet (represented by Pierre Philippe, 2nd from left in photo).
Protecting people and the environment” category
Météorage: warn of thunderstorm risks
Météorage ‘s main activity is measuring thunderstorm activity. Météorage has contributed, along with its counterparts around the world, to the drafting of two international voluntary standards (IEC 62858 and IEC 62793, transposed into NF EN 62858 and NF EN IEC 62793). The aim is to harmonize practices at international level to determine a reliable indicator of thunderstorm risk, and to strengthen methods for assessing the performance of the standard for thunderstorm warning systems.
Making daily life easier” category
Mobilead: managing food allergies and intolerances with your smartphone
MobiLead (serviceTag) has set up the xTag project, born of the desire to make the selection of a food, dish or meal by the user based on his or her allergic profile more reliable and simpler. The use of voluntary standards, in this case QR Code(NF ISO/IEC 18004) or RFID(ISO/IEC 18092 and ISO/IEC 14443), offers packaging players (brands and retailers) an economically viable solution.
Category “Promoting exchanges
Michelin: tires that leave tracks
Michelin is a French manufacturer of tires for all types of vehicles. The aim of the project is to establish traceability throughout the life of the tire (right up to its end-of-life treatment), in a way that is unfalsifiable and meaningful to all interested parties via the cloud. Michelin took part in the international work on the future ISO TC31 WG10 RFID standard “Tyre tags / Tags d’identification de pne pneus par radiofréquence (RFID)”.
Taking a step ahead” category
MetalSkin Technologies: bacteria nailed to the floor
MetalSkin Technologies is a pioneering start-up experimenting with copper alloys to produce highly bactericidal hard surfaces. Its MetalSkin Medical® innovation is based on a copper-based polymer/metal composite that achieves very high bacterial mortality rates (-99.9% in one hour) on treated surfaces. Its use will help reduce bacterial risks, particularly in hospitals, which cause some 4,500 deaths a year in France alone. MetalSkin Technologies was behind the creation of the NF S90-700 standard “Méthode d’évaluation de l’activité bactéricide de base des surfaces non poruses”.
Out of category
Vignerons de Buzet: CSR to support organization and development
The Vignerons de Buzet cooperative groups together 184 winegrowers and 95 employees. It sells the equivalent of 12 million 75 cl bottles of wine a year. It is committed to a number of initiatives: the Engagé RSE label, based on the NF ISO 26000 standard, Agriconfiance (a quality and environmental management initiative based on two voluntary standards, NF V01-005 and NF V01-007), NF EN ISO 9001 and NF EN ISO 14001, the IFS standard, an EFQM initiative aimed at industrial excellence, and finally the Equality and Diversity labels. Les Vignerons de Buzet are actively involved in the project to apply ISO 26000 to the agri-food sector, a project included in the strategic sector contract. ISO/TS 26030 is scheduled for publication at the end of 2019.
They make the standards: four professionals in the spotlight
Did you know that voluntary standards are drawn up by professionals in the sector concerned? More than 19,000 experts work within AFNOR and its sector-specific standardization offices to draw up these normative documents, and eventually take them to the international CEN and ISO bodies. On this October 14, 2019, World Standards Day, the AFNOR Members’ Club would like to honor four personalities involved in standardization committees:
- Michel Béra, Professor at the CNAM and member of the Académie des technologies
- Isabelle Desforges, Marketing Manager at Biomérieux
- Yoan Le Muet, Marketing Director, Saint-Gobain Plafonds France
- Benoît Planques, Director of Regulatory Affairs at Italpollina
Inspirience/Laurent Ceglia
