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On 22 February 2024, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) announced climate-change amendments to the Harmonized Structure of several ISO Management System Standards, including ISO 9001:2015 for quality management systems and ISO 45001:2018 for occupational health and safety management systems.
The amendments are in immediate effect and will become requirements in future standards. They revise Sections 4.1 and 4.2 under Context of the Organization.
The text of the amendments is 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: Relevant interested parties can have requirements related to climate change.”
Iso Confronts Climate Change Challenges
These changes follow ISO’s London Declaration in 2021, which provides the organization’s approach to addressing the climate-change agenda by helping organizations reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and supporting best practices in environmental management. According to the declaration, ISO commits to:
- Fostering the active consideration of climate science and associated transitions in developing all new and revised International Standards and publications.
- Facilitating the involvement of civil society and those most vulnerable to climate change in developing International Standards and publications.
- Developing and publishing an Action Plan and Measurement Framework detailing concrete actions and initiatives and a reporting mechanism to track progress.
While the intention of the amendments is not to turn every management system into an environmental management system, IAF/ISO makes it clear that climate change threats and opportunities are important risk considerations for every organization. According to the IAF/ISO statement, these amendments aim to ensure that organizations are explicitly aware of climate change as an element to consider when determining risk and the context of the organization.
“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.”
New Responsibilities For Organizations
In a statement from 6 March 2024, SGS—one of the world’s leading organizations for testing, inspection, and certification—expressed its support for the amendments. “We welcome the recent ISO/Committee for Conformity Assessment (CASCO) decision to add a reference to ‘climate change’ within all management system standards according to Annex SL,” said SGS. “With decades of experience as the world’s leading certification company and over 30 years of sustainability expertise and solutions, we understand the need to incorporate ‘climate change’ into all related management systems standards.”
According to SGS, certified organizations do not require a new certificate, and the publication year of existing Annex SL standards will not change. Climate change will become one of the elements for consideration in an organization’s risk assessment. Organizations with more than one management system, such as those with separate management systems for quality and safety, should consider the relevance of climate change for each management system standard.
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About the author: Graham Freeman is a 3E reporter based in Toronto, where he covers ESG and sustainability news. Graham has been a content and technical writer in the technology industry for more than a decade. He has also worked as a professor and lecturer at Queen’s University, the University of Toronto, and George Brown College.
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