REVISION OF ISO 14001, ISO 45001/OHSAS18001 AND ISO 9001
Here are the latest updates on the progress of various ISO Standards that our consultants are working on:
ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management Systems
The Working Group revising ISO14001 has completed the final draft of the standard during their last meeting in London in April. Publication of the new standard is expected in September 2015. Certificate holders of the standard worldwide will be given a three year grace period by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) to transition to the new standard.
Some of the main changes in ISO14001:2015 include the new high level structure (which is common to ISO 9001 and 45001), an emphasis on the context of the organisation, the needs and expectations of its interested parties, evaluation of risks and opportunities to the organisation and the environment and consideration of a life cycle perspective etc..
SHEMSI’s Senior Consultant, Amarjit Kaur, who has been involved with the revision of the standard since 2004 noted that: “The new standard will allow organisations to consider the risks to its operations from the environment through issues such as climate change as well as identifying the impacts it has on the environment. This will allow organisations to identify broader issues of risk which might compromise their operations in the long term and reduce their profitability.”
While our External Adviser, Stan Rodgers, who has been involved with the development of the standard since 1993 said: “The revised standard now follows a common high level structure which will facilitate integration with other standards such as ISO 9001, ISO 45001 and Business Continuity Management as well as Asset and Energy Management to provide an overarching management system. This in the long term will save organisations money but require those managing the system to posses a greater degree of competence than is currently required.”
SHEMSI is running an IEMA training course designed to guide individuals that are responsible for any environmental management system based on ISO 14001 to implement the new standard, click here to learn more or contact us at mail@shemsi.com.
ISO 45001/OHSAS18001 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems
A new ISO standard, ISO 45001, on occupational health and safety management system requirements is being produced by a Project Committee, ISO PC 283, with the intention of publication in October 2016. The standard will be aligned with the upcoming revised ISO 9001 (Quality Management) and ISO 14001 (Environmental Management), which are due for publication in 2015. This standard is intended to replace OHSAS 18001 which is likely to be withdrawn when ISO 45001 is published . The standard is a “sister” standard to ISO 14001 dealing with occupational health and safety.
Comments on the second committee draft of ISO 45001 – Occupational health and safety management standard systems – requirements with guidance for use have now closed and will be considered at the next meeting of PC283/WG1 in Dublin in June. This will be followed by a further meeting in September at which it is anticipated the standard will move to a draft international standard.
ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems
ISO 9001 is about to reach the Final Draft International Stage (FDIS ballot expected by July) which will be circulated for editorial comment and voting and hopefully be published in September 2015. It should be noted that unlike ISO 14001 and 45001, ISO 9001 has no interpretative annex. The standard will be supplemented by ISO 9002 which is intended to meet this requirement. In view of this those implementing ISO 9001 should proceed with caution as the high level text can be read subjectively and organisations implementing the standard without the guidance in 9002 may find themselves misinterpreting the requirements in 9001.
Integrating Management Systems
Organisation implementing or upgrading a single standard such as ISO 9001 should be able to do so with limited external guidance as the new standard is based on the intent of the previous standard. Organisations opting to implement two or more of these standards should proceed with caution because of the high level structure and the different interpretations of similar clauses for each of the disciplines, environment, health and safety, etc.. Those advising on or implementing multiple systems will require a greater level of competence than is generally available in the marketplace and thus extra training for internal staff will be necessary and the selection of a competent external consultant should be done with extra care.
