Share your thoughts on the new ISO 14001
AFNOR consolidates France's position on the draft new ISO 14001 standard. The flagship environmental management standard will be called ISO 14001/A2. From February 4 to March 30, 2025, you are invited to comment on the text.
Environmental protection
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At spring 2023 , we informed you of the decision, taken at international level, to update ISO 14001, the flagship standard providing a framework for implementing an environmental management system. Now, in 2025, ten years after the publication of the latest version of the text, it is only natural that professionals who use it on a daily basis should have new guidelines at their disposal.
These new guidelines are now available, and you are invited to submit your comments. This will be followed by a new cycle of meetings of TC 207, the ISO body organizing the work, with publication scheduled for early 2026. This publication will take the form of an amendment: the future name of the standard will be ISO 14001/A2:2026, and then, in a second stage, the text of the amendment will be merged and integrated into the text of the standard. Exactly like the Amendment A1 added in early 2024 to incorporate climate change as a strategic issue. This amendment affects around 30 major management system standards, well beyond ISO 14001. As soon as it was published, it was immediately added to the list of points to be reviewed in certification audits.
ISO 14001/A2: a revised Chapter 6
This 40-page amendment A2 does not contain any new requirements as such, but rather a series of additions and clarifications. "In paragraph 6.1.2, for example, the concept of life cycle perspective is clarified to better take into account aspects and impacts across the entire value chain," explains Erwan Chagnot, facilitator of the expert group in charge of the amendment within the AFNOR standardization committee on environmental management, and head of the French delegation working on this update at ISO.
Chapter 6 focuses on a number of developments: complete reorganization for greater clarity and consistency between "environmental aspects and impacts" and "risks and opportunities," addition of a clause on change management, and a new stage in the identification of emergency situations. Also noteworthy is the clarification of very specific issues to be included in the environmental analysis: biological diversity, availability of natural resources, pollution levels, climate change, etc.
The draft takes a very thorough look at the vocabulary, as illustrated by the term "fulfillment," which has been replaced by "meeting." This cannot hide a change in the general approach, which is in line with the approach specific to the ISO 26000 standard and CSR regulatory approaches based on double materiality, such as the European directive on sustainability reporting (CSRD). Indeed, draft amendment A2 emphasizes the interrelationship between organizations and their ecosystem in both directions: by inviting organizations to detail how their activities affect the environment (inside-out approach) and also how environmental conditions can affect organizations (outside-in approach).
Do you use ISO 14001 on a daily basis, for example as an environmental manager in a company? Come and share your comments! An informational webinar will be held on Tuesday, February 25, 2025, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., hosted by Erwan Chagnot and Alexandre Oliveira, project manager for standardization on environmental and climate change issues.
Listen to our sessions again: webinar on February 13, 2025 and webinar on February 25, 2025.
