Over the past three years, the R2 standard has been going through an important update and rewrite. ISRI and several members are actively part of the process, serving on the R2 Technical Advisory Committee and on the R2 Consensus Body (the approval group). You can see SERI's summary of drafted changes here.
Last year, SERI held several meetings to outline and explain the changes being made to R2v3. In fact, one of the earliest meetings was at the ISRI Winter Board meeting in Austin, Texas. Before the new standard is finalized, the public is also asked to comment on the document. The 2nd round of public comments was completed on February 3. ISRI’s comments may be found here. A total of 167 comments were received from 26 different commenters including ISRI, and the TAC is now reviewing each of those comments. After the review process is completed, any substantive changes will go out for an additional round of public comments. If there are no substantive changes, then the standard will be subjected to a vote of the Consensus Body for final approval, followed by approval by the SERI Board.
We are nearing the end of the updating process, and SERI is already working to train auditors and preparing documentation for final release. When it is ultimately released, SERI will also announce the transition plan for currently certified facilities to upgrade their certifications -- probably over a period of 18-24 months.
For more information on the
R2 standard, please contact Billy Johnson.