The purpose of this communique 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.

All parties must understand the intent so that the changes can be consistently introduced and implemented.

Addition of Climate Change consideration to the Management Systems Standards

ISO passed a resolution that will result 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 will be introduced initially as Amendments to these published standards. The changes (two new statements) will be incorporated into the new text of the Harmonized Structure. The amendments to the standards will be published on February 23rd, 2024.

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:

Expectations of Certified Organizations

Certified organizations should ensure that they have considered Climate Change aspects and risks within the development, maintenance, and effectiveness of their own management system(s). Climate Change, along with other issues, should be determined as relevant or not and if so, considered within an evaluation of risk, within the scope of the management systems standards. Where an organization operates more than one management system (for example Quality Management and Health and Safety Management), it should ensure that Climate Change, if determined to be relevant, is considered within the scope of each management system standard. It is noted that some climate change aspects and risks may be general, independent of the applicable management system scope or the industry (e.g. when related to regulatory compliance or operational adaptability and organizational resilience), while others will be specifically indexed to the requirements of the management system standards, to specific industries (e.g. energy production, agriculture and fisheries) and characteristics of the organization (e.g. geographical location, nature of its supply-chain or workforce dynamics).