Standards touch your life every day, affecting nearly every product or service you encounter-from the pipes in the wall to the lights overhead. When you sit down at your desk, plug in an appliance, drive over a bridge, or put on a helmet, standards are at work.

Standards help to ensure that products and services live up to your expectations. In many cases they define safety and quality requirements; in some cases they focus on efficiency or environmental practices.

For manufacturers, standards help to lower production costs. They promote interconnectivity and harmonization among products and components, and help open doors to new markets. For consumers, this means a wider selection of goods and services and a more competitive marketplace. It also means greater convenience and consumer confidence.

Think about it:

• You assume that products will work together if they are designed to do so.
• You depend on products to be packaged appropriately-easy enough for you to open, but secure enough to prevent tampering or damage.
• If you have a disability, you depend on barrier-free design to gain access to buildings and elevators.
• You seek assurance that your personal information is protected from misuse by the organizations that collect and use it-including governments, banks, and others.

In these ways and many others, standards make a real difference in your life and in the world.

Click here to find out how CSA makes a difference.