The International Organisation for Standardisation has taken a significant step to help address the ever increasing concern about climate change. This have been achieved by incorporating climate change requirements into core management system standards such as ISO9001.
What are the changes ?
In order to bring climate change onto the organisational agenda, the International Organisation For Standardisation has made some key changes in clause 4 of the ISO standards.
Clause 4 of the ISO standards is focused on organisational context and this clause now explicitly states that:
- “The organisation shall determine whether climate change is a relevant issue.”
In addition there is also a change in the requirement to understand the needs and expectations of interested parties. The standard now explicitly states that:
- “Note: Relevant interested parties can have requirements related to climate change.”
What standards have changed ?
A number of key ISO standards have changed to reflect this requirement including ISO9001 and ISO50001.
What do I need to do ?
If your organisation already holds certification, you will not need a new certificate and there is no requirement to transition to a new version of the standard. However, you will be required to ensure that climate change is considered within the context and wider content of your management systems.
Your business must determine whether or not climate change is relevant. If it is deemed to be relevant, then your management system will need to be updated to reflect this. Taking no action is not an option as this will cause problems during external audits.
How can Quadra help?
One of our expert consultants could assist you to firstly understand these changes and secondly to reflect those changes within your management systems in a simple straight forward way. For more details on how we could help or to discuss these changes please contact us on [email protected]
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