At the end of February, 2024/02/22, IAF/ISO issued a communiqué on the addition of Climate Change considerations to the Management Systems Standards.
The purpose of this communiqué is to highlight the publication of Climate Action Amendments to existing and new ISO Management Systems Standards (MSS) to reflect ISO’s Climate Action commitments.
In support of the ISO London Declaration on Climate Change, ISO passed a resolution that 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, 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 were introduced initially as Amendments to these published standards.
The changes (two new statements) have been incorporated into the new text of the Harmonized Structure (Appendix 2 of the Annex SL in the ISO/IEC Directives Part 1 Consolidated ISO Supplement) as follows.
4.1 Understanding the organization and its context.
The organization shall determine external and internal issues that are relevant to its purpose and that affect its ability to achieve the intended result(s) of its XXX management system. Added: The organization shall determine whether climate change is a relevant issue.
4.2 Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties.
The organization shall determine:
the interested parties that are relevant to the XXX management system.
the relevant requirements of these interested parties.
which of these requirements will be addressed through the XXX management system.
Added: NOTE: Relevant interested parties can have requirements related to climate change.
Some examples of published amendments:
Intent of the changes
The intent is to ensure that Climate Change issues are considered by the organization in the context of the effectiveness of the management system, in addition to all other issues. These additional statements in each management system standard are ensuring that this important topic is not overlooked but considered by all organizations in the design and implementation of the management system.
The overall intent of the requirements for clauses 4.1 and 4.2 remain unchanged; these clauses already include the need for the organization to consider all internal and external issues that can impact the effectiveness of their management system; these new inclusions are assuring that Climate Change is considered within the management system and that it is an external factor that is important enough for our community to require organizations to consider it now.
It should be noted that Climate Change can have a different effect on each component of the management system; for example, the effect on a Quality Management System can be very different from that on a Health and Safety Management System.
It is not the intention of the changes to (for example) turn a health and safety management system audit or a road traffic safety management system audit into one that disproportionality considers Climate Change, though this does not of course understate the importance of Climate Change.
IAF and ISO would like to emphasise that Climate Change is a vital topic and, while the addition of climate considerations is highly important, the standards have always included the need for all issues affecting the management systems to be considered by the organization. Therefore, many organizations implementing MSS will already be taking Climate Change into account.
Climate change adaption and mitigation will now be placed very firmly on the radar screen of millions of organizations around the world as one of many issues within their context considerations that are relevant to their ongoing resilience, sustainability, and success.
What is the impact on your company?
The systems adopted to fulfil requirements 4.1 and 4.2 of the ISO Management Systems Standards should be updated and verified. Climate Change should be clearly determined and, where applicable, monitored and reviwed.
Timing and implementation
It was not defined in the communiqué, nor is there any other official IAF/ISO communiqué or document on the timeframe for implementing these changes.
However, some certification bodies have already given a deadline of 12 months (22/02/2025) and their auditors will address Climate Change issues as opportunities for improvement during this period.
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