About Climate Change

Dear Customers,

IAF (International Accreditation Forum) and ISO (International Organization for Standardization) published a joint circular on 22.02.2024 regarding the addition of climate change issues to management system standards. Accordingly, the following two new expressions are being added to all existing, newly developed and revised management standards;

‘’The organization must determine whether there is an issue related to climate change.’’

‘’Relevant parties may have requirements related to climate change.’’

Although the general purpose of the requirements regarding the articles to which the expressions are added does not change, these new additions emphasize that climate change is an important external issue that requires consideration and immediate addressing of climate change within the organization’s management system.

According to this circular, there are expectations that need to be met from you and us. While we work on what is required of us, we would like to inform you below about what you need to do within your own management system.

Certified organizations must ensure that they consider climate change issues and risks within the scope of the development, maintenance and effectiveness of their management systems. Climate change, along with other issues, should be determined to be relevant and, if relevant, should be assessed within the risk assessment of management system standards. Where an organization operates more than one management system (e.g. Quality Management and Occupational Health and Safety Management), climate change should be assessed within the scope of each management system standard if it is determined to be relevant.

It is noted that some climate change issues and risks may be general in nature, independent of the applicable management system scope or sector (e.g. when it concerns regulatory compliance or operational compliance and organizational resilience), while others may be specifically indexed to the requirements of management system standards, specific sectors (e.g. energy production, agriculture and fisheries) and the characteristics of the organization (e.g. geographical location, nature of the supply chain or workforce dynamics).

As ASCERT Certification, we would like to state that we are always with you on this issue and wish to see the long-term positive effects of addressing climate change seriously.