What Do Standards Standardize?

摘要

At first sight, the development of more and better energy efficiency standards is an unquestionably "good thing." Challenging this view, we take a critical look at exactly what it is that energy standards standardize. Our investigation of the possible unintended consequences of developing and promoting efficiency standards around the world touches upon bigger questions about the way in which seemingly technical initiatives reproduce social conventions and ideologies. The paper begins with a discussion of the theory and practice of designing and implementing mandatory and voluntary energy efficiency standards for buildings and for appliances. In reviewing a range of standardizing initiatives we identify some of the rationales and logics at stake, considering both public sector and industry perspectives. Whatever the motivation, the development of energy efficiency standards guarantees a benchmark of performance: as well as setting targets for future development, they prevent backward slippage. But how are such standards actually set, politically and socially, and what assumptions and interests are embedded as a result? We argue that efficiency standards are of social as well as technological significance. Critically, such standards make far-reaching assumptions about the nature of demand as well as about how it might be met. International standards consequently deserve special scrutiny. What images of normal life are inadvertently standardized, and exported, through the promotion, dissemination and enforcement of simple technical requirements? More controversially, do energy efficiency standards have the perverse effect of reducing socio-technical diversity and thereby fostering a global monoculture of consumption? We explore these questions through the detailed analysis of national and international standardization in the field of energy efficiency.