Overview - What ISO 37108:2022 covers
ISO 37108:2022, "Sustainable cities and communities - Business districts - Guidance for practical local implementation of ISO 37101", provides guidance for implementing and maintaining a management system for sustainable development in the specific context of business districts. Aligned with ISO 37101, it defines the concept of a business district, sets out procedures to establish a sustainable development policy, and promotes continuous improvement across the business district lifecycle - planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance and renovation. The standard supports assessing and improving economic, social, environmental, infrastructure and governance outcomes and includes annexes with suggested KPIs and case studies.
Key technical topics and requirements
ISO 37108 organizes practical requirements and guidance around a management-system approach. Major technical topics include:
- Context of the organization: defining business district characteristics, scope of the management system and interactions with surrounding communities.
- Stakeholder identification and engagement: roles, types and participation of interested parties across the district lifecycle.
- Leadership and governance: political commitment, local/regional support and assignment of roles and responsibilities.
- Planning: baseline reviews, risk/opportunity assessment, conformance obligations, sustainable strategy and objective-setting.
- Operational control: ensuring coherence of programs, projects and services; managing common risks and enablers.
- Support and competence: resources, skills, knowledge, capacity building and communication.
- Performance evaluation and improvement: monitoring, measurement, internal audits, management review, nonconformity and corrective action.
- Lifecycle focus: guidance for both new developments and renovation/upgrading of existing districts.
- Tools provided: suggested KPIs for performance measurement and practical case studies for benchmarking.
Practical applications and users
ISO 37108 is targeted at practitioners seeking to apply ISO 37101 principles specifically to urban business districts. Typical users:
- Local and regional governments and municipal planners
- Business district managers and property owners
- Urban designers, developers and construction firms
- Facility and asset managers
- Sustainability consultants, investors and infrastructure operators
- NGOs and community stakeholders involved in district governance
Practical uses include creating a district-level sustainability policy, designing KPIs and monitoring frameworks, coordinating multi-stakeholder governance, planning sustainable upgrades, and conducting comparative analyses or benchmarking between business districts.
Related standards
- ISO 37101 - Management systems for sustainable development of communities (core MSS referenced by ISO 37108).
- Other ISO 371xx family publications that address sustainable cities and community guidance and tools (see ISO catalogue for current cross-references).
Keywords: ISO 37108, ISO 37101, sustainable cities, business districts, management system, sustainable development, KPIs, lifecycle, governance, monitoring.