Climate change becomes the focus of management system standards

Background

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) recognized some time ago that the climate crisis and its effects present many major challenges. Unforeseen weather events and rising temperatures have a direct impact on the safety and health of people in general and employees in particular, which subsequently leads to changes in working conditions. This in turn has a direct impact on supply chains, damages or affects production facilities under certain circumstances and has an impact on productivity and product quality in every sense.

As a result, ISO and IAF published a joint communiqué two months ago, on February 22^nd, 2024. This presented the measures – already announced in the so-called 'London Declaration' – on how the most important and relevant management system standards should address climate change issues. These requirements have been valid since February 23^rd, 2024.

New requirements

This communiqué sets out changes to ensure that companies and organizations address these issues. These changes are anchored in chapters 4.1 - Understanding the organization and its context and 4.2 - Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties and are as follows:

• Kapitel 4.1 Added: ‘The organization shall determine whether climate change is a relevant issue.’
• Kapitel 4.2 Added: ‘NOTE: Relevant interested parties can have requirements related to climate change.’

The aim of ISO and IAF is to ensure that, in addition to the topics already covered, organizations also address the issues of climate change and the resulting impacts that arise for them. Anchoring these topics in context symbolizes the holistic nature of the approach for the organization, as the requirements can, should and must be taken into account in all other aspects of the standard on this basis (see also the "What happens next" section in this article).

Effects on organizations

For certified companies, nothing will change as the certificates (as previously issued) will remain valid. The new requirements will be reviewed by auditors in the respective audits.

However, certified companies must ensure that they address the issue of climate change and the resulting challenges by addressing the issues (as defined above) in context and taking into account the requirements of interested parties accordingly. Based on these findings, the organization must define measures that are deemed appropriate. As with most other topics, the risk-based approach applies here.

What happens next?

These requirements are included in all type A management system standards (certifiable standards) and subsequently included in the harmonized structure of Appendix 2 of Annex SL.

Subsequently, the Auditing Practices Group, an informal ISO group consisting of experts, auditors and users, has issued guidance on how these topics can be queried as examples in an ISO 9001 audit. This guidance can serve as a basis for organizations to query and anchor the above-mentioned topics for themselves.

How does Quality Austria provide support?

Our qualityaustria auditors are prepared to deal with the relevant issues in the audits and to consider and query them in an integrated manner. If you have any further questions, please contact us or your responsible auditor.

The following standards have already been changed (as of May 3, 2024):

ISO 9001:2015/Amd 1:2024 Quality management systems
Requirements Amendment 1: Climate action changes

ISO 14001:2015/Amd 1:2024 Environmental management systems
Requirements with guidance for use Amendment 1: Climate action changes

ISO 22000:2018/Amd 1:2024 Food safety management systems
Requirements for any organization in the food chain
Amendment 1: Climate action changes

ISO 22301:2019/Amd 1:2024 Security and resilience
Business continuity management systems Requirements Amendment 1: Climate action changes

ISO 37001:2016/Amd 1:2024 Anti-bribery management systems
Requirements with guidance for use Amendment 1: Climate action changes

ISO 37301:2021/Amd 1:2024 Compliance management systems
Requirements with guidance for use Amendment 1: Climate action changes

ISO/IEC 20000-1:2018/Amd 1:2024 Information technology
Service management Part 1: Service management system requirements
Amendment 1: Climate action changes

ISO/IEC 27001:2022/Amd 1:2024 Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection Information security management systems
Requirements Amendment 1: Climate action changes

ISO 41001:2018/Amd 1:2024 Facility management
Management systems Requirements with guidance for use
Amendment 1: Climate action changes

ISO 45001:2018/Amd 1:2024 Occupational health and safety management systems Requirements with guidance for use Amendment 1: Climate action changes

ISO 50001:2018/Amd 1:2024 Energy management systems
Requirements with guidance for use Amendment 1: Climate action changes