The new ISO14001 Environmental Standard is on its way

Qudos Management Pty Ltd.
November 2025

If your organization has ISO 14001 environmental management system certification (or planning to achieve it soon) please be aware that a new version of the standard is on its way. The new version of the ISO14001 Environmental Management Systems Standard is currently at final draft stage and is expected to be published in early 2026.

What's New in ISO14001:2026?

Well, the good news for most people is that it is evolutionary not revolutionary. As with most standard updates, there will some minor changes to terminology to refelct current trends. Here are some of the key changes anticipated in the various standard clauses:

Clause 4: Context of the organization

Climate change is explicitly included in Clause 4.1 (understanding the organisation and its context). Reference to determining whether climate change is a relevant issue.had previously been made in the 2024 amendment to the previous standard.

Environmental conditions (e.g. climate change, pollution, biodiversity) are now expected to be considered.

There is greater emphasis on taking a life cycle perspective (LCP) e.g. when setting the scope and planning the system.The life-cycle is the entire life of a product or service, not just those parts of it that are directly controlled by your organization. This includes both upstream (suppliers and the supply chain) and downstream (e.g.delivery, customers, end-users, disposal).

Requirements for documented information are tightened up.

Clause 5: Leadership

Top management are expected to support all relevant roles in the EMS (Environmental Management System. This is an enhancement from the previous requirement which referred to other managers.

Clause 6 Planning

A new sub-clause introduced for Planning and managing of changes. This is similar to existing clauses in other standards such as ISO 9001 and will come as no surprise to those with integrated systems.

Clause 8 Operation

Emergency situations must be identified when considering ‘risks and opportunities’.

Clause 9: Performance Evaluation

Each internal audit must have defined objective(s).

Information requirements for management review are tightened up.

How will it affect you?

If your organization is certified to the previous version of the standard, you can generally expect a period of up to 3 years to transition to the new version. That would typically be at your next scheduled re-certification audit but can usually be brought forward if you prefer. Your certification body should be able to advise.

If your organization has been working towards achieving ISO14001 certification, should you continue with the existing standard or change to the new one? Well, the answer to that one will very much depend on timing.

If you wish to be certified prior to the release of the new standard, you will need to comply with the current version - in the knowledge that you can transition over the coming years.

For those seeking to be certified after the release of the new standard, check with your selected certification body on what options they will offer, and when only the new standard will be available for certification purposes.

Whatever your situation is, it's worth considering addressing those new requirements in any EMS and ensuring that you stay in contact with your certifier.

Gap Analysis services are available on the new version of ISO14001.

We will publish further details in future posts, and of course, Qudos³ IMS software clients will have a new version of its ISO14001 Enviro Toolkit very shortly after the formal release of the new standard.

Contact Qudos today to learn how we can help you build a better environmental / integrated management system. Contact us