This has led to growing efforts to explore and promote green and sustainable models of economic development.
In this context, the Environmental Management System (EMS) certification standard, ISO 14001, has emerged as the most widely adopted environmental management framework worldwide.
This white paper outlines:
It is estimated that more than 670 000 certified organisations worldwide rely on the Environmental Management System (EMS) standard ISO 14001 to demonstrate environmental responsibility.
First developed in 1996 to provide a global framework for environmental management systems, the standard first focused on pollution control and management of negative environmental impacts, setting minimum requirements for organisations to define environmental policies and objectives.
Now, it is increasingly used as a framework for managing environmental impacts, meeting regulatory requirements and turning sustainability goals into measurable impact.
ISO 14001 was updated in April 2026; meaning organisations are five months closer to the April 2029 transition deadline included to comply. Organisations certified to the 2015 edition have three-years in total to transition to and meet the requirements of the 2026 version.
After that, ISO 14001:2015 certificates will no longer be valid and from October 2027, certification bodies will no longer be able to issue new certificates against the 2015 edition. New applicants will need to certify against 2026 from that point.
Although the deadline may seem distant, several clauses have been updated and one new clause 6.3 - Management of Environmental Change, has been added, meaning it is worth acting now.
The changes reflect a greater importance on leadership accountability, climate resilience, biodiversity, emergency preparedness, supply chain controls, management review and sustainable resource use, while clarifying and strengthening existing requirements.
The ISO14001 revision also aims to improve clarity, traceability and accountability, while aligning with ISO 9001:2026 (quality) and the anticipated ISO 45001:2027 update (health and safety). For organisations with an integrated management system, this provides an opportunity to realign and simplify processes as the changes place greater emphasis on worker participation and organisational resilience.
Outlined are our eight steps to compliance:
Step 1 - Brief the leadership and management team
Leadership and management teams must make sure that relevant roles have the resources and support needed to address environmental considerations within the organisation’s business context.
Outcome: Your leadership team understands what is changing and the support required to address the business context, supply chain and management of change.
Step 2 - Review your organisational context and interested parties
Requirements relating to environmental conditions, including climate change are clear and firmly established.
Outcome: Review your assessment of organisational context and interested parties by:
Formalising and reinforcing updates introduced previously around environmental conditions (including climate change) including a review of your existing context and interested parties;
Explicitly considering environmental conditions i.e. flooding, drought – those relevant to the organisation; and
Reviewing stakeholder needs/expectations where necessary these should be treated as compliance obligations.
Step 3 - Perform a gap analysis:
Understand where you currently sit against the new requirements to build a road map towards fully meeting the enhanced and the new requirements.
Outcome: Apply the gap analysis findings with specific focus on:
Step 4 - Update scope with control, influence and lifecycle
Your scope must consider the organisation’s authority and ability to exercise control and influence over lifecycle elements of activities, products and services.
Outcome: Reviewing your organisation’s scope will then lead to you:
Step 5 - New clause 6.3 - Management of Environmental Change.
Clause 6.3 is a new requirement introduced in ISO 14001:2026 that establishes a formal management of change process within the Environmental Management System (EMS). Unlike ISO 14001:2015, which contained no dedicated change management requirement. This new clause requires organisations to systematically identify, assess, plan, control, and manage any changes that may affect the EMS.
Outcome: Formal processes to ensure that environmental performance, compliance obligations, and the intended outcomes of the EMS are maintained throughout periods of organisational, operational, or external change.
Step 6 - Strengthen operational control language and supplier/contractor controls.
Terminology in the EMS is updated to ‘Externally provided processes, products and services’, and reinforces the need to establish the level of control or influence.
Outcome: Reviewing and strengthening your supplier and contractor controls by:
Step 7 - Internal audits
Objectives, programme, implementation and results must be clearly defined.
Outcome: You have reviewed training and templates for internal audits making sure that you have defined objectives, including the audit programme, implementation and audit results (including outcome and key findings) and specific documentation is available and make sure you can evidence this.
Step 8 - Management review
Management review inputs are more definitive and should be treated as a required agenda.
Outcome: You have reviewed your management review template, so it clearly captures required, inputs and outputs/results and demonstrated leadership oversight of transition. As the leadership team have been briefed as part of step 1 this allows this to be demonstrated and any support required to address the business context, supply chain and management of change updated as a result.
Assurity Consulting is the UK’s leading independent consultancy specialising in workplace health, safety and environmental solutions. As your partner in compliance management you will reap the benefit of our more than 40 years’ experience of helping customers across a range of different sectors – manage their compliance responsibilities as effectively as possible. If you need any help with your health, safety or environmental compliance, or if you would like more information on the services Assurity Consulting offer, please get in touch.