Amendments to ISO management system standards: what's changing?
Summary: Several ISO standards, including ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 21001, ISO 27001 and ISO 45001, were amended in February 2024 with the introduction of two new requirements relating to climate protection.
Amendment 1 : Action on climate change. You can preview these changes by following this link: https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/fr/#iso:std:iso:9001:ed-5:v2:amd:1:v1:fr
Specifically, articles 4.1 and 4.2 have been amended as follows (source : https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/fr/#iso:std:iso:9001:ed-5:v2:amd:1:v1:fr) :
4.1
Add the following sentence to the end of the paragraph:
The body must determine whether there are any issues arising from climate change.
4.2
Add the following note at the end of the paragraph:
NOTE The interested parties concerned may have requirements relating to climate change.
Why this amendment?
This amendment stems from the London Declaration in which ISO makes a commitment to climate protection. In fact, in 2021, the members of ISO have committed themselves to registering the urgency of climate protection through the development of standards.
In support of the London Declaration climate change, ISO has adopted a resolution that will result in the addition of two new declarations to a number of existing management system standards.
As a result, two new texts will be added to several existing management system standards, and will be included in all new standards currently being developed or revised, in order to meet the need to take account of the European Union's new approach to management systems.effect of climate change on the ability to achieve the expected results of the standard.
The changes will be introduced initially in the form of amendments to these published standards.
The changes (two new declarations) will be incorporated into the new text of the harmonised structure (Appendix 2 of Annex SL of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1, ISO Consolidated Supplement) as follows.
These amendments to the standards were published on 23 February 2024.
My company has ISO certification. What should I do?
For organisations holding accredited certifications for management system standards and accredited certification bodies, the IAF will provide further guidance. A article describes the implications for certification bodies and certified organisations.
According to this article :
" Expectations of certified organisations
Certified organisations must ensure that they have taken account of the aspects and risks associated with climate change in the development, maintenance and effectiveness of their own management system(s).
Climate change, along with other issues, should be considered relevant or not and, if so, considered as part of a risk assessment as part of the management system standards. Where an organisation operates more than one management system (e.g. quality management and health and safety management), it should ensure that climate change, if deemed relevant, is considered within the scope of each management system standard.
It should be noted that some climate change aspects and risks may be of a general nature, irrespective of the scope of the applicable management system or industry (for example, where they relate to regulatory compliance or operational adaptability and organisational resilience), while others will be specifically indexed to the requirements of the management system standards, to specific industries (e.g. energy production, agriculture and fisheries) and to the characteristics of the organisation (e.g. geographical location, nature of its supply chain or workforce dynamics).
Expectations of certification bodies
Certification bodies should already be satisfied that all internal and external issues have been determined by the organization to be relevant or not and, if so, taken into account in the development and effectiveness of the management system(s), as required by clauses 4.1 and 4.2.
With the new additions on climate change, the certification bodies are supposed to ensure that climate change has been taken into account and, if determined to be a relevant issue for its management system, included in all of the organization's mitigation objectives and activities, as appropriate. If it has been determined not to be a relevant issue for its management system, the CB shall ensure the effectiveness of the organization's process for making this determination and implementing related actions, as appropriate."
What standards are affected?
According to press release IAF/ISO of 22 February 2024, the standards affected are the following:
- ISO 9001 See theamendment
- ISO 14001 See theamendment
- ISO 21001 See theamendment
- ISO 45001 See theamendment
- ISO 50001 See theamendment
- ISO 27001 See theamendment
- ISO 22000 See theamendment
- ISO 22301 See theamendment
- ISO 14298
- ISO 16000-40
- ISO 22163
- ISO 28000
- ISO 29001
- ISO 30301
- ISO 34101-1:
- ISO 35001
- ISO 37301
- ISO 46001
- ISO 21401
- ISO 30401
- ISO/IEC 20000
- ISO 19443
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