ISO 14001:2026

Determine the internal and external issues relevant to the organisation's purpose that affect the intended outcomes of the environmental management system, including the environmental conditions - such as climate change, biodiversity, ecosystems, pollution, and the availability of natural resources - capable of affecting or being affected by the organisation, and determine whether climate change is a relevant issue.

Determine the interested parties relevant to the environmental management system and their relevant needs and expectations, which can include climate-related requirements, and determine which of those needs and expectations become compliance obligations.

Define and document the boundaries and applicability of the environmental management system, considering context, compliance obligations, organisational units, activities, products, services, and authority to exercise control.

Establish, implement, maintain, and continually improve the environmental management system, including the processes needed and their interactions, to achieve its intended outcomes and enhance environmental performance.

Top management must demonstrate leadership and commitment by taking accountability for the system's effectiveness, ensuring the policy and objectives are established, integrating requirements into business processes, providing resources, promoting improvement, and supporting other relevant management roles in demonstrating leadership within their areas.

Top management must establish an environmental policy appropriate to the organisation that commits to protecting the environment, fulfilling compliance obligations, and continual improvement, and that is documented, communicated, and available.

Assign and communicate responsibilities and authorities for relevant roles, including ensuring the system conforms to the standard and reporting on its performance to top management.

Establish and maintain the planning processes needed to meet the requirements of clause 6.1, considering the issues, interested parties, and scope of the environmental management system, to determine the environmental aspects, compliance obligations, and risks and opportunities that need to be addressed.

Determine the environmental aspects of the organisation's activities, products, and services that it can control or influence, and their associated impacts, considering a life-cycle perspective and normal, abnormal, and emergency operating conditions; identify those that are significant using established criteria and keep documented information.

Determine and have access to the compliance obligations related to environmental aspects, decide how they apply to the organisation, and take them into account when establishing and maintaining the system; keep documented information.

Determine the risks and opportunities related to environmental aspects, compliance obligations, and other issues and requirements identified in planning, that need to be addressed to give assurance the system can achieve its intended outcomes, to prevent or reduce undesired effects, and to achieve continual improvement.

Plan actions to address the significant environmental aspects, compliance obligations, and risks and opportunities, and plan how to integrate and implement those actions within the system's processes and how to evaluate their effectiveness.

Establish environmental objectives at relevant functions and levels, consistent with the policy, measurable where practicable, monitored, communicated, and updated as appropriate; keep documented information.

When planning how to achieve environmental objectives, determine what will be done, the resources required, who is responsible, when it will be completed, and how results will be evaluated including relevant indicators.

When the organisation determines a need to change the environmental management system, carry out the change in a planned manner, considering its purpose and potential consequences, the continued integrity of the system, the availability of resources, and the allocation or reallocation of responsibilities and authorities.

Determine and provide the resources needed to establish, implement, maintain, and continually improve the environmental management system.

Determine the competence needed for people whose work affects environmental performance and the ability to meet compliance obligations, ensure competence, take action to acquire it, and retain evidence.

Ensure people doing work under the organisation's control are aware of the environmental policy, significant aspects and impacts relevant to their work, their contribution to the system, and the implications of not conforming.

Establish processes for the internal and external communications relevant to the system, determining what, when, with whom, and how to communicate, taking account of compliance obligations and ensuring information is consistent and reliable.

Communicate relevant environmental management system information internally among the various levels and functions, including changes, and enable persons to contribute to continual improvement.

Communicate information relevant to the environmental management system externally as established by the organisation's communication processes and as required by its compliance obligations.

The environmental management system must include the documented information required by the standard plus whatever the organisation determines is necessary for its effectiveness.

When creating or updating documented information, ensure appropriate identification and description, format and media, and review and approval for suitability and adequacy.

Control documented information so it is available and suitable where needed and adequately protected, addressing distribution, access, storage, version control, retention, disposal, and documents of external origin.

Establish, implement, control, and maintain the processes needed to meet system requirements and the planned actions, setting operating criteria, controlling planned changes and reviewing unintended changes, and controlling externally provided processes, products, and services consistent with a life-cycle perspective.

Establish, implement, and maintain processes to prepare for and respond to potential environmental emergencies, including preventing or mitigating impacts, testing planned responses, and providing relevant information and training to interested parties.

Determine what needs monitoring and measuring, the methods, criteria, and timing, to evaluate the organisation's environmental performance and the effectiveness of the system, ensure calibrated or verified equipment where relevant, and retain the evidence.

Establish, implement, and maintain processes to evaluate fulfilment of compliance obligations, determine frequency, take action as needed, maintain knowledge of compliance status, and retain documented information.

Conduct internal audits at planned intervals to confirm the environmental management system conforms to the organisation's own requirements and the standard and is effectively implemented and maintained.

Establish, implement, and maintain an audit programme defining the objectives, frequency, methods, responsibilities, and reporting, considering the environmental importance of processes and prior results; define the criteria and scope for each audit, select objective auditors, and retain evidence of the programme and results.

Top management must review the environmental management system at planned intervals to ensure its continuing suitability, adequacy, and effectiveness.

Plan and carry out the management review taking account of the status of prior actions, changes in issues, interested parties, significant aspects, and risks and opportunities, the extent to which objectives have been met, information on environmental performance and compliance, adequacy of resources, relevant communications, and opportunities for continual improvement.

The results of the management review must include decisions on continual improvement opportunities, any need for changes to the environmental management system, resource needs, actions needed where objectives have not been met, and any implications for the strategic direction of the organisation; retain documented information as evidence.

Continually improve the suitability, adequacy, and effectiveness of the environmental management system to enhance environmental performance, using the results of analysis and evaluation, evaluation of compliance, internal audit, and management review to determine needs or opportunities to be addressed.

When a nonconformity occurs, react to it, evaluate the need to eliminate its causes so it does not recur, implement and review corrective action, make changes to the system if needed, and retain evidence of the nonconformity and the actions taken.