Guidance on Auditing Climate Change issues in ISO 9001
Climate change issues are one of many issues that organizations are to consider when analysing their internal and external context and determining requirements from customers and other relevant interested parties.
As part of ISO’s commitment to action on climate change, amendments to over 30 of ISO’s Management System Standards, including ISO 9001, have now been issued to include climate change considerations and the same is published on 23 February 2024.
Key points are given below:
The amendments include the determination of whether climate change is a relevant issue for the organization and the consideration of interested parties’ requirements related to climate change.
Emphasizes the need for auditors to maintain objectivity and neutrality when auditing climate change issues, focusing on assessing how organizations address climate change within their quality management systems
Provides guidance for auditing climate change issues impacting the quality management system and its intended results, outlining specific considerations and examples for auditors to evaluate
Furthermore, the document highlights the importance of addressing issues determined as relevant by the organization within the quality management system.
Presents non-exhaustive examples of questions and related aspects for auditors to assess how organizations are addressing climate change issues, including determining the scope of the quality management system, actions to address risks and opportunities, changes, resources, operations, and performance evaluation and improvement.
Underscores the need for auditors to evaluate if organisations have identified contractually agreed customer requirements or statutory and regulatory requqirements with climate change relevance and whether these are being acted upon.
Source: https://committee.iso.org/home/tc176/iso-9001-auditing-practices-group.html
