ISO pats its back: still going strong.

The economic meltdown did not impact the Geneva, Switzerland-based International Standards Organization (ISO). "As the crisis bit in 2008, falling consumption and slim order books made reduced activity the norm, except for ISO, underlining the confidence of public and private sector stakeholders in the organization and the global relevance of its standards," says the first line in the ISO's 2008 annual report released in June.

Last year, ISO published 1,230 standards comprising 69,303 pages, up from 1,105 standards comprising 54,477 pages in 2007. The organization had revenue of $35.2 million euro in 2008, down from $36 million euro in 2007.

ISO has 157 national standards bodies as members and 3,183 technical bodies. It has a fulltime staff of 500 people. Last year, it launched two new technical committees to develop standards for solid biofuels and industrial furnaces. It launched seven product committees to develop standards in network services billing, product recalls, road-traffic safety management, energy management, consumer product safety, cross-border trade of second-hand goods and anti-counterfeiting tools.

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