Conservation Standards and Ethical Guidance
Standards and ethics underpin professional conservation practice. They are there to direct how professionals approach their work and support their effective decision making.
Icon Professional Standards
Icon’s Professional Standards, reviewed and updated in 2020, are embedded within all of Icon’s professional development functions and should be read in conjunction with Icon’s Code of Conduct. These Standards are designed to apply across the profession of conservation, without a ‘core and options’ or other role-dependent structure.
Icon Ethical Guidance
The Icon Ethical Guidance, approved by the Board of Trustees in June 2020, is designed to guide the actions of all Icon members, regardless of specialism or area of practice and to explain to the wide and diverse audience now involved in conservation including members of the public, private owners, custodians, and other heritage professionals the concepts which govern actions, as opposed to other types of repair and/or maintenance, and related craft skills.
Icon Glossary of Terms
This Glossary of Terms provides consistent terminology and style for all Icon documents including the Icon Professional Standards, Icon Ethical Guidance and Code of Conduct.
Conservation Standards
There are 25 Standards which have been developed through the European Committee for Normalisation, CEN (Comité Européen de Normalisation), and published through the British Standards Institution (BSI). They include standards on the process of conservation (decision making, planning and implementation) and on commissioning conservation.