Why are the ISO Standards changing?
In support of the ISO London Declaration on Climate Change, ISO passed a resolution earlier this year that has resulted in two new statements of text being added to a number of existing management systems standards, and will be included in all new standards under development/revision.
The additions have been added to address the need to consider the effect of climate change on the ability to achieve the intended results of the management system. The changes have been introduced initially as Amendments to these published standards.
What are the changes?
The below figure shows the text additions which have been made to both the ISO14001:2015 Environment and Energy ISO50001:2018 management systems, along with other Standards such as Quality and Health and Safety. It should be noted that climate change may have a different effect on each management system.
What does it mean for your business and ISO Certifications?
The overall intent of the clauses remains unchanged as they already include the need for the organisation to address internal and external issues that can impact the effectiveness of their management system, the new inclusions ensure that climate change is considered. Your business will not have to recertify to the amended Standard but how you have considered climate change will be reviewed by the auditor during the next visit. The aim of the changes is to ensure that the important topic of climate change is not overlooked.
Next steps
Review your approach to Clause 4.1 and 4.2 in your management system. Can you evidence a consideration of the potential impact of climate change on your organisation? Will climate change impact the ability of the management system to achieve what you want it to achieve? Have you thought about which of your interested parties have needs and expectations related to climate matters, and if these are linked to your compliance obligations, how are you demonstrating you meet these needs?
If you would like a discussion regarding how to consider climate change aspects within your management systems and review any documentation used for Clause 4.1 and 4.2, to ensure that any climate change issues considered by your organisation are captured, please do get in touch.
Here is a link to the official ISO communication on the changes:
