As 2026 continues to roll along, the International Organization for Standardization has begun to publish their much-anticipated updates to their core management system standards: ISO 14001 and ISO 9001.
Exemplar Global has published a detailed procedure for certified training providers who wish to offer training to the new versions of ISO standards. To see the infographic detailing this process, applicable to both ISO 14001:2026, ISO 9001:2026, or any other forthcoming standards, click here.
If you haven’t yet reviewed the language of ISO 14001:2026, which was published on April 15, there are some high-level changes of which you should be aware.
One of the most important changes is a continuation of the standard’s focus on requirements for the management of climate change, which was first brought on board as an amendment to ISO 14001:2015. That amendment, which was published early in 2024, added requirements to clause 4, “Context of the organization.”
ISO 14001:2026 further prioritizes these requirements. Organizations that wish to certify to this new edition of the standard must now demonstrate compliance with climate change requirements in several ways. These requirements are woven throughout several places in the standard, not only in clause 4, but also prominently in clause 9, “Performance evaluation.”
Another important revised element of the standard includes clause 1, “Scope,” in which ISO 14001:2026-certified organizations, in addition to merely preventing pollution, must now demonstrate a broader consideration of the overall health of affected ecosystems as well as efficiency in the use of resources such as raw materials, energy, water, etc.
In clause 5, “Leadership,” organizations are now required to have the executive team directly and personally involved in the management of the environmental management system (EMS). It will no longer be sufficient for top leaders to delegate the critical responsibility of “owning” the EMS.
In clause 6, “Planning,” considerations of risk as they relate to environmental management must be paramount. Subclause 6.3, “Planning of changes,” makes explicit the requirement to plan and evaluate any changes in the operation of the EMS with an eye toward those changes’ potential affect on the environment.
Clause 10, “Improvement,” has been significantly restructured, with a reduction in subclauses seeking to inculcate a more cohesive approach to considerations of continual improvement within registered organizations.
The latest information indicates that ISO 9001:2026 will be released this September but given that is just now entering the final draft international standard (FDIS) stage, that date is not necessarily written in stone. Unless there are significant and unforeseen bumps in the road over the coming months, however, ISO 9001:2026 will almost certainly be published before the end of the year.
ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 continue to follow the high-level structure, so nomenclature of clauses for ISO 9001 is expected to align closely with ISO 14001. Obviously, the requirements will deal with the quality management system (QMS) as opposed to an EMS, but much of the evidentiary work that auditors will be expected to embrace will be similar.
Although we cannot offer deep insight into actual changes to the language of ISO 9001:2026 as compared to ISO 9001:2015, in general, there is expected to be a focus less on risk-based thinking and more on organizational resilience and ethics. There will be an explicit emphasis on and requirement for quality culture, which was previously only implied. And climate change considerations make an appearance here as well, with it being a mandatory consideration.
There is also expected to be a major step forward in terms of documentation, with more flexibility and alignment with digital formats and emerging-technology contexts and platforms.
In terms of achieving and/or maintaining Exemplar Global certification for your coursework, we would again refer you to the infographic for step-by-step detail on our transition procedures.
Now that ISO 14001:2026 has been published, training partners have three years to phase out coursework training to the previous version of the standard.
For TPECS providers, that means updating all training and assessment materials accordingly to meet the requirements of Exemplar Global’s revised Environmental Management (EM) Competency Unit (CU). The TPECS provider must then complete a self-declaration process; at this point, all training and assessment offered by the TPECS providers holding the affected CU is expected to align to the new edition of the standard and CU.
Those certified to our RTP program must ensure that all training aligns with the new edition of the standard.
The ISO 9001:2026 process will be similar; watch this space for further communications about how pre-publication approvals will work.
Note that, for TPECS accounts, Exemplar Global will publish an FDIS version of the Quality Management (QM) CU prior to release of the updated ISO 9001 standard, and providers in good standing will be invited to use the self-declaration process to bring the FDIS CU into scope.
We will also permit RTP trainers in good standing to add new courses for transition training and whole-of-standard training, provided that “FDIS” is prominently included in the course title.
We encourage you to write us at support@exemplarglobal.org for further details.
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