Updates to ISO 14001

ISO 14001, Environmental management systems. Requirements with guidance for use, is the best known environmental standard. It has helped organisations worldwide understand and better control the environmental impacts of their activities, products and services. Since its original publication, the perception of sustainability has evolved with organisations becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of managing finite natural resources, responding and adapting to the challenge of climate change, etc. in a systematic and consistent manner. As such, the international standards community initiated the revision of ISO 14001 in 2011.

A committee draft was announced in April 2013. With the revision still in progress and the standard expected to publish in 2015, some of the key changes include: redrafting in line with the new "high level" structure being introduced across all international management system standards; strengthening the link between environmental management and top management's decision making; consideration of value chain and life cycle thinking; broadening the scope to include the environment's impact on the organization as well as the organisation's impact on the environment.

More updates, including a call for participation in the 2014 public consultation on the standard, to come.

The standard for laboratory tests to determine the heating and electrical performance of heat-led micro-cogeneration packages primarily intended for heating dwellings has now been revised. A micro-cogeneration unit (MCG) (also known as micro-combined heat and power unit) requires a substantially different test procedure from that for boilers, and the laboratory tests specified in PAS 67 have been designed to take account of these differences.