ISO votes for 14001 revision
Flagship international environmental management systems standard, ISO 14001, is to be revised, confirms the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).
In a ballot closed this week, ISO member bodies voted in favour of revising the certification standard in line with advice from the EMS Future Challenges study group, which was published in a report last year.
The revision will examine all 24 of the report’s recommendations, including strengthening requirements examining transparency and accountability with regards environmental management, clarifying environmental management’s contribution to sustainable development and, potentially, aligning the language used in the standard to that used in ISO 26000 – the corporate social responsibility standard.
The new edition of the standard, which is used by more than 200,000 organisations globally, will also fit with the new proposed generic structure for management standards, if and when it is confirmed by ISO and its members.
IEMA’s executive director of policy, Martin Baxter, has been appointed as the UK representative on the development of the revision and will be looking to IEMA members for their feedback on changes to the standard in forthcoming workshops.
“The revision provides an opportunity to ensure environmental management systems can be applied as a more strategic environmental management tool across the value chain, helping organisations make a step-change in environmental performance improvement,” he said.
The revision of 14001 is the first since 2004 and it is unlikely to be completed until 2014/15.