ISO 14001:2015 Transition & Upgrade

The deadline to transition from the soon-to-be obsolete ISO 14001:2004 to the new revised ISO 14001:2015 is approaching rapidly.

The hard deadline of September 2018 is somewhat misleading as individual registrars have established their own deadlines, which is often several months ahead of the September deadline. Organizations certified to the ISO 14001 (and those also certified to the R2:2013 Responsible Recycling Standard house by SERI) have had a three year period to successfully transition to the new version of the standard.

Because the dates can vary, it is critical that ISO 14001 certified organizations contact their registrars to determine specific cut-off date for their transition.

For the R2 certified organizations within the electronics recycling industry, conformance to the requirements of Provision 1 of SERI's R2:2013 Responsible Recycling Standard means that your R2 certificate could potentially be jeopardized if the transition to the new ISO 14001:2015 Standard does not occur prior to your individual registrar's deadline. You will want to ensure that if there are issues with your transition that those nonconformances will be resolved prior to your certificate becoming obsolete.

It is also suggested that internal auditors within your organization be trained on the new standard

requirements prior to conducting the organization's internal audits.

Some of the new requirements for the updated standard include defining the context of the organization, new leadership requirements, legacy knowledge, and life cycle perspective to name a few.

A quick gap analysis should be performed prior to transitioning to the new standard to determine if the organization is currently meeting any of these new requirements. Any gaps identified can then be address to upgrade the management system to conform to the new ISO 14001:2015 requirements.

For more information regarding the ISO 14001:2015 transition, feel free to reach out at info@wilkshireconsulting.com.

Additional information can be found at the ISO.org website.