ISO 14001:2026 is the internationally recognised standard for Environmental Management Systems (EMS). The Standard has been updated to reflect and address today's sustainability, compliance and resilience challenges; the new version of ISO 14001, published in April 2026, is now available.
To date, ISO 14001 has been adopted by over half a million organisations worldwide. The Standard provides a framework for organisations to identify, manage and improve their environmental performance.
The update provides greater clarity and extends key concepts to address sustainability, compliance, resilience and environmental management system outcomes — including:
Life Cycle Perspective
Using the Life Cycle Perspective, the Standard requires organisations to ensure that upstream and downstream environmental impacts that the organisation can control or influence are considered when defining the environmental management system's scope.
This extends the use of the life cycle perspective from consideration in environmental aspects and operational controls, as in the previous version of the Standard.
Top management support
Top management is now required to support all relevant roles in relation to environmental management — not just management roles. The level of personal involvement and accountability is therefore increased and extended to management of those operators that have the potential to, or who are, directly influencing the organisation's environmental performance.
Planning and managing of changes
Organisations are now required to determine the need for, plan and manage changes that affect or can affect the intended outcomes of the EMS. The changes may be required as the result of internal or external factors at work.
Environmental aspects
Assessment and determination of which environmental aspects need to be considered by the organisation has changed from identifying reasonably foreseeable emergency situations to identifying all potential emergency situations. This requirement directly aligns with supporting organisational sustainability and resilience in relation to environmental management.
Externally provided processes, products or services
ISO 14001:2026 includes that the organisation's controlling or influencing of outsourced processes is now limited to those relevant to the intended outcomes of the EMS — to increase focus on what can contribute to environmental performance.
Risks and opportunities
When risks and opportunities are identified and managed, those that apply to emergency situations will be identified — not just identification of environmental aspects as in the previous version of the Standard. The change reinforces the Standard's underlying ethos of sustainability, compliance and resilience.
Internal audit and management review
A new requirement is introduced in that each internal audit shall have defined objectives. Information requirements for management review are also now more definitive and shall be included.
In addition to the changes described, terminology is introduced which supports the sustainability, compliance and resilience focus. Editorial changes are also present in the new Standard, aimed at achieving greater clarity.
The Standard has evolved. To start realising the benefits available from Certification to ISO 14001:2026, please contact us.
For more information, please contact us.
There is an ongoing revision of ISO 9001, the International Standard for Quality Management System requirements, with a target publication date of September 2026, following release of the Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) in Q2 2026.
Why is the revision needed?
The world of business is evolving rapidly, driven by rising expectations of organisations for ethical and sustainable operation, complex supply chains and digital change.
The ISO 9001:2026 revision is being undertaken to support a strategic shift change in Quality Management System requirements from a process-based tool to a holistic Governance framework, aimed at promoting the culture, ethics and resilience needed to build the trust and partnerships required for sustainable growth in today's business environment.
For decades ISO 9001 has been a cornerstone of organisational excellence, with over one million organisations globally adopting the Standard. The world in which organisations operate has changed and so must the Standard, to continue to meet the expectations that are placed on organisations in today's and anticipated in tomorrow's business environment.
Since the last update of the Standard in 2015 changes have emerged in the business environment, including:
- Increased supply chain complexity, risk and potentially opportunity
- Geopolitical conflicts
- Economic uncertainty
- Increased expectations around Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)
- The responsibilities of organisations, including transparency
- Digital disruption and transformation, including Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Hybrid working models
What are the key changes?
With this emergence of changes in the business environment, it becomes clear that the approach to Quality Management System requirements needs revision to stay relevant and maximise the value available. The revision of ISO 9001 is currently at draft stage and subject to further potential changes; the key changes included so far, and their intent, provide insight into the direction of travel — including:
- Leadership embedding quality into the core Governance of the organisation.
- Leaders fostering a quality culture that includes ethical behaviour, promoting this culture and awareness of the values it entails — organisations are being asked to not only "do it right" but "do the right thing".
- Distinct treatment of risks and opportunities to achieve the required focus, so that opportunities can be maximised to help drive innovation and competitive advantage — it is a shift from avoiding failure to actively pursuing performance and success.
- A more structured and robust approach to change management to support an organisation's strategy, operational control and continual improvement.
The updates ensure that change is not just managed but is governed, evaluated and supports continual improvement aligned to the organisation's strategy — ultimately providing the organisation with agility, resilience and sustainability.
How does the revised ISO 9001 help users?
To support users, the Standard now includes an Annex (Annex A) that provides clarifications of the Standard's requirements and the interrelationships between those requirements, to help organisations implement ISO 9001 in the holistic manner that is relevant to them, as intended by the changes.
What is the outlook for ISO 9001?
ISO 9001 will remain as the core of effective quality management systems, with an expanded remit supporting strategic planning and governance, providing organisations with a framework that delivers resilience, responsibility and relevance.
The transition process to ISO 9001:2026 is yet to be formalised, but is expected to follow the established convention requiring certified organisations to transition within three years from the date of publication — i.e. by September 2029.
For more information, please contact us.
