What has changed?
As part of ISO’s commitment to action on climate change, approved unanimously by all ISO Member Bodies in the so-called “London Declaration”, amendments to over 30 of ISO’s Management System Standards (MSS) have now been issued to include climate change considerations. These are summarised as follows:
Clause 4.1 Understanding the organization and its context.
Added: The organization shall determine whether climate change is a relevant issue.
Clause 4.2 Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties.
Added: NOTE: Relevant interested parties can have requirements related to climate change.
Further details on the London Declaration can be found at https://www.iso.org/ClimateAction.html.
What we will do?
This serves as a communication to our clients of the changes, and these changes will be considered as part of future audits of the following Integrated Audit Criteria:
- 3.2.1 Organizational context
- 3.2.2 Needs and expectations of interested parties
Integrated Audit Criteria Guides can be downloaded from https://publications.equalassurance.com for the following ISO standards to which these changes will apply:
- ISO 9001:2015
- ISO 45001:2018
- ISO 14001:2015
- ISO 27001:2022
- ISO 22000:2018
What you need to do?
Amendments in ISO standards are not new requirements. Therefore, a certification transition is not needed, and revisions to certificates are not necessary. As stated in the IAF/ISO Joint Communiqué on the addition of Climate Change considerations to Management Systems Standards (22 February 2024):
“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.”
The IAF/ISO Joint Communiqué, including a full list of the amended management systems standards, is available for download at https://www.iso.org/files/live/sites/isoorg/files/standards/popular_standards/management_systems/ISO-IAF%20Joint%20Communique%20Feb%202024.pdf.
Please direct any technical queries to leon.michailidis@equalassurance.com (ref: SIN Q772) or talk to your Client Manager.