Taking action on climate change

In February this year, ISO published an amendment for climate action changes to all ISO management system standards. This amendment affects more than 30 standards, but perhaps the best known are: ISO 9001:2015 Quality management systems – Requirements; ISO 14001:2015 Environmental management systems – Requirements with guidance for use; ISO 27001:2022 Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection – Information security management systems; and ISO 45001:2018 Occupational health and safety management systems.

Considering the context

The amendment is not a mandate, but underlines the importance of taking action to tackle climate change by requiring organisations whose policy is to meet the requirements of these standards to consider the impact of climate change – not only with regards to their own operations, but also the requirements of interested parties, emphasising organisational responsibility towards climate-related issues.

"This change should not be yet another imposition, but instead be seen as a great opportunity to contribute to reducing our impact on climate change – a duty that all individuals and organisations have."

Geoff Vorley, Director, Quality Management and Training Limited, UK

The amendment is shown below in italics, as part of ISO paragraph 4: Context of the organisation.

4.1 Understanding the organisation and its context. Add the following sentence at the end of the subclause: “The organisation shall determine whether climate change is a relevant issue.”

4.2 Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties. Add the following note at the end of the subclause: “NOTE Relevant interested parties can have requirements related to climate change.”

This change should not be yet another imposition, but instead be seen as a great opportunity to contribute to reducing our impact on climate change – a duty that all individuals and organisations have.

Managing the climate action change

Organisations can manage this climate action change by using the Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle:

1. Identify what the climate change impacts can be through education, communication, review, risk assessment and establishing the data.
2. Plan the roadmap associated with reducing the impact of climate change in identified areas.
3. Establish roles and responsibilities, resources and data requirements to fulfil the climate change policy.
4. Communicate to stakeholders the climate change policy and plan.
5. Monitor against the roadmap.
6. Celebrate and broadcast the success of your organisation’s impact on climate change.

Impact on key management system standards

In the table below, we take a closer look at the relevance of climate change to organisations and interested parties in the key management system standards.