NOV
29th
Posted by: Tony Wilkinson
The first ever amendment to ISO9001 between updates was published in February. Its impacts are starting to be felt. My approach has been to add a line to the context statement that I usually suggest is reviewed annually. For most businesses the line has been :- 'The top management have reviewed the context and do not consider climate change to be a direct issue at this time' This is because the impacts of climate change, flooding , higher temperatures etc have not yet had an impact on the business or its supply chain. Obviously this could change in the future. The interested parties note suggests customer requests for carbon footprint reduction could come into play.
Some auditor agree with this approach some have not. My understanding is this is about the impact of climate change on the business not our impact on climate change. I may be wrong but the amendment does say that the organisation should determine if climate change is a relevant issue. Note it does not say the Certification body shall determine if climate change is an issue!
