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Author: Graeme Auld, Professor, Public Policy, Carleton University
Original article: https://theconversation.com/how-a-small-update-in-global-standards-can-contribute-to-climate-change-awareness-237907
You may notice, now and again, the ISO name and logo being used as a quality label by public, non-profit or for-profit organizations. If you were to look a little more often, you will likely see ISO is much more ubiquitous than you first thought.
ISO stands for the International Organization for Standardization. Initiated in 1947, its members (currently 128 full members) are national standards organizations, like Standards Council of Canada or the American National Standards Institute. ISO has, in its life span, published over 25,000 standards covering technology, management and manufacturing through the work of expert technical committees concerning a wide range of industries.
ISO standards affect the decisions and operations of millions of organizations around the world. It is this ubiquity that makes ISO’s recent decision on climate change significant.
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ISO climate change commitments
In February 2024, ISO, jointly with the non-governmental International Accreditation Forum, released an amendment to all ISO management system standards. This amendment requires two things of organizations certifying against the standards. First, they are to consider whether climate change might affect the achievement of the goals their management systems aim to accomplish. Second, they must consider whether any stakeholders have needs or expectations related to climate change.
These amendments are consistent with a broader climate change commitment – the London Declaration – that ISO adopted in September 2021 which committed the organization to three key actions:
- ISO will account for climate change in all new and revised standards.
- It will further include civil society and those affected by climate change in its standards work.
- It will develop a reporting framework to keep track of its efforts on climate change.
The amendments to existing standards may seem small. Yet, they may matter more than one thinks. Let us explain.
ISO’s broad reach
For the first decades of ISO’s existence, it focused on standards that improved the free flow of traded goods. A prominent case of this was the standard on shipping containers, which was first released in 1970 and has contributed to increasing trade by some estimates more than free trade agreements.
The focus of ISO has since expanded. Now management system standards are a crucial part of its work. Management system standards seek to identify repeatable procedures that, if used by organizations, can help these organizations better achieve their goals. Two notable examples are the ISO 9001 quality management systems standard, released in 1987, and the ISO 14001 environmental management systems standard, released in 1996.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
As of today, there are over 80 such management system standards. Some of these are sector or issue specific applications of quality management. Issues covered include environment, health care, medical devices, indoor air quality, information technologies, event sustainability, tourism, food safety and anti-bribery.
Not all these standards are widely used. But some are. In 2022, ISO reported that 1,265,216 certificates were issued for ISO 9001, with 529,853 for ISO 14001. Another five standards boast certificate numbers in the tens of thousands. This means that millions of organizations regularly consider ISO standards when making operational decisions.
It is in this context that the climate-change amendments could matter. Except for ISO 14001, few of the other management system standards are explicitly about environmental issues like climate change. But now, those organizations using these standards will need to reflect on how climate change might affect their goals and the needs and expectations of their stakeholders.
Given the system-wide causes and effects of climate change, it is hard to think of an organization whose activities are not, in some way, climate-related.
Raising awareness and spurring action
Climate change cannot be tackled by just asking organizations to voluntarily devise their own goals and consider climate change in relation to those goals. Voluntary actions can be used to greenwash and reduce the perception that government action is needed. In the best case we can hope that ISO-like standards work to complement government rather than work against effective public policies.
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We can envision that the ISO amendments will expand the range of organizations that actively think about their operations in the context of climate change. The amendments are not optional for those that certify. Auditors are already offering guidance on how they will be assessing performance against these changes.
For some organizations, the amendments will require little change. But for others, the process that they will need to undertake to conform with the amendments presents an opening for greater awareness about and possible action on climate change.
Heightened awareness may assist organizations to better identify roles they can play with others to support bolder policy actions from governments going forward. The amendments are also an invitation for stakeholders to push organizations to do more by noting their needs and expectations around action on climate change.