In a nutshell, standards are the tools, codes, guides, specifications and parameters that offer best practice solutions for your business.

With standards in place, everyone is on the same page within a given industry. 

Standards:

• set the benchmark for consistency and agreed good, safe practice. 
• break down barriers to trade for the primary and manufacturing sectors and set specifications for the right way to build. 
• offer guidance on how to minimise impact on the environment, or ensure equipment works properly. 
• provide parameters for handling data so your banking, business and personal data are kept safe and systems can talk to each other. 

Standards can also help your business grow by guiding you on the best way to do things, whether that is to follow regulations, increase trade opportunities or maximise efficiency. 

They can also be used towards gaining accreditation, giving your business the competitive edge. 

With thousands of international and joint Australian/New Zealand standards and nearly 3000 New Zealand-specific standards, there’s a standard for nearly everything. 

In the spirit of World Standards Day’s theme of “a shared vision for a better world” think how standards can help improve your business and your part of the world it touches on. 

Find the standards you need or discover curated collections or make your own online library. 

There are standards to help:

• become more sustainable using AS/NZS ISO 14001:2015 Environmental management
• improve performance and resilience using AS/NZS ISO 9001 Quality management and AS/NZS 10002:2014 Guidelines for complaint management in organizations
• protect customer data using AS/NZS ISO/IEC 27001:2023 Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection
• plan for business continuity using AS/NZS IEC 31010:2020 Risk management - Risk assessment techniques and AS/NZS 5050(Int):2020 Managing disruption-related risk 

Letting your customers, clients and supply chain partners know you voluntarily integrate standards into your practices and procedures is a good way to demonstrate you do things the right way.

Learn more about the benefits of using standards with our explainer video.

Benefits of standards(external link) — Standards New Zealand

Or dive straight into one of our curated collections to get you started.

Collections of popular standards(external link) — Standards New Zealand