Background

Environmental data are exchanged at least for the following purposes:

• to support the compliance and enforcement programs of national environmental, public health and safety agencies;
• to provide environmental and safety data to the participants in business processes that pose risks to heath or the environment; and
• to facilitate research and evaluation in areas associated with environmental, public health and safety issues.

The mission of the Environmental Management TBG, TBG13, is to support and promote both international and regional cooperation activities related to environmental data exchange. Generally, this mission will be achieved through the design, development, and maintenance of appropriate UN/EDIFACT business-models and associated messages and implementation guidance that meet the potentially diverse needs of TBG13 participants.

• serve as a focal point for assessing, creating, developing, maintaining and promoting UN/EDIFACT standard business-models and associated messages and implementation guidance related to environmental protection;
• coordinate with other domain-specific TBGs to define and ensure the appropriate role for environmental data in any business model associated with standards-based data exchange;
• promote both international and regional cooperation in facilitating environmental data exchange and technology transfer;
• foster the development of marketplace products and services that will support a standards-based environmental data exchange infrastructure;
• promote and support the overall mission of UN/EDIFACT and UN/CEFACT.

1. Definition of Specific Technical Issues to be Addressed

For environmental data exchange activities that are of sufficient interest to the international environmental community, TBG13 will address:

• the best ways to describe and model, and - as appropriate - re-engineer, the business processes in which the data exchange activities of interest occur, using UN/EDIFACT-compliant modeling methodologies;
• the relation and possible applicability of existing UN/EDIFACT messages to the data exchange activities;
• the appropriateness of -- and, as applicable, the best design for - new message sets to support the data exchange activities;
• the bests way(s) to implement new or existing message sets to support the data exchange activities, including a consideration of emerging EDI/EC technologies;
• best-practices for data security and authentication, to the extent that they are of international interest and in view of the legal/institutional status of the data exchange activities.

From a technical perspective, these issues pose some special challenges. In the first place, environmental data is often sufficiently complex - reflecting elaborate scientific testing and monitoring protocols - that any representation of the relationships among the data elements to be captured requires careful analysis. Second, environmental data exchanges may intersect with what are normally considered separate and self-contained areas of business activity - e.g., procurement, financial management, shipping, transportation, materials management, manufacturing, government compliance and oversight, and research - and this may complicate the associated business process analyses. Finally, the legal dimension of the data exchanges, particularly for purposes of compliance reporting, takes this application of electronic commerce into an area where the implementation requirements, e.g., for security and authentication, are only beginning to be defined.

2. Description of TBG13 Deliverables

• Business process analyses/models for environmental data exchanges to be addressed by international standards.
• Standards-assessment white papers, addressing the issues of whether and how existing UN/EDIFACT message sets should be used to support environmental data exchanges, and the case to be made for developing new message sets for this purpose.
• As determined to be appropriate, new message sets to support environmental data exchanges.
• As determined to be appropriate, development of data maintenance requests with respect to existing message sets.
• Implementation guidance for the use of new/existing message sets for environmental data exchanges addressing both technical and institutional/legal issues.
• As determined to be appropriate, white papers addressing both technical and legal issues generally applicable to environmental data exchange.
• Workshops and seminars on EDI and related technologies, to promote both international and regional cooperation in implementing standards-based environmental data exchange.

3. Membership

TBG13 is an international group of individuals with expertise in one or more of the following areas:

• environmental compliance reporting, management or research;
• business processes associated with the exchange of environmental data;
• UN/EDIFACT standards
• EC/EDI implementation and associated tools.

Members are expected to contribute to the work of the TBG13, based on their knowledge and experience. Observers are also welcome at the working sessions, and are encouraged to participate, although they cannot vote unless they have been nominated as members.

Generally, members are nominated for TBG13 membership in accordance with UN/CEFACT rules, and nominated individuals become members by participating in at least 50% of the TBG13 working sessions. Companies may also be nominated for membership in TBG13, in which case they become members if their representatives participate in at least 50% of the EMS working sessions. However, by a majority vote, TBG13 can decide to add an individual (or company) as a member even where there is no external nominating sponsor. There is no limit to the number of members, and interested government agencies, industry companies/groups, and academic/research institutions are all encouraged to send experts to participate in the work. Interested members of other domain-specific TBGs are also encouraged to attend and participate in the TBG13 sessions, although, under UN/CEFACT rules, they may not vote as members of TBG13 while still retaining their membership in another domain-specific TBG.

The chair and vice-chair are responsible for keeping a register of all session participants. Members are expected to attend two one-week meetings per year, and may lose their voting rights if they fail to participate for a period of 18 months, or three consecutive sessions.

4. Chair/Vice-chair

The EMS SWG will elect an administrative team, consisting of a chair, a vice-chair, and - if possible - a secretary. The team will be elected for a term of two years, and will have the following responsibilities:

• providing for TBG13 logistics at the semi-annual meetings in conjunction with the CEFACT Forum, including agenda, minutes and meeting facilitation;
• providing for the logistics of TBG13 interim meetings, including meeting place;
• providing for other secretariat services as need (to be arranged for by the Chair/vice-chair if no secretary is elected;
• maintaining communication among the members between meetings;
• providing for any additional support needed to carry out the work of TBG13;
• ensuring that EMS is represented at TBG Steering Committee meetings and other TBG and CEFACT meetings/groups as necessary; normally, the representative will be the Chair.

5. Time Schedule and Milestones of Functions

The time schedule and milestones associated with specific work products is specified in the workplan.

TBG13 will meet twice a year, in conjunction with the CEFACT Forum, with interim meetings as the group deems necessary and feasible. Any member may put work items on the agenda for consideration at a TBG13 meeting by notifying the administrative team at least 3 weeks in advance of that meeting. Items proposed after that deadline may be added with the agreement of a majority of the TBG13 membership attending the meeting.

6. Liaison with Other Groups

The EMS SWG will establish working contacts with other working groups within the TBG or CEFACT whenever items in the workplan intersect with issues within the purview of those other groups. In addition, TBG13 will establish liaison with interested environmental, public health and safety government agencies, and with related subject-area bodies, e.g. UNEP, within the structures of the UN, EEC, OECD and APECC. Finally, TBG13 stands ready to establish liaison with any industry, academic or research group that expresses an interest in - or is affected by - the group's work. The EMS SWG Chair will keep the TBG Steering Committee informed of any of these external liaisons as they are established.

The site was last updated 2007-01-09