News

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In March 2013 the Committee Draft 1 (CD1) of the new standard was prepared for feedback. I’ve included a quick summary of the main changes below. See my whole article on the changes in the October 2013 edition of WME Magazine here.

• Content and Structure: A full restructure to align with ISO’s new high-level clause structure (like 9001), with the Annex revised to provide interpretation of the requirements rather than guidance as it does currently.
• Top Management: A definition of top management has been added and top management’s involvement is more defined, with more detail around the role of leaders in the implementation and review of the EMS.
• EMS and the Value Chain: Arguably the changes with the broadest impact on the EMS, the scope of the EMS is expanded to apply to aspects across an organisation’s value chain. The introduction of a life cycle perspective and control or influence of upstream/downstream aspects add to the complexity of this change.
• Performance Indicators: Strengthened requirements for objectives and targets through the introduction of performance indicators (at least one indicator for each objective, with performance evaluated and demonstrated for each indicator).

What Next? A second committee draft of the revised standard is due out at the end of 2014, with the Draft International Standard (DIS) due out in April 2015. The final revised standard should be available in May 2015. The transition period will be announced prior to release of the final standard. Judging by the scope of this revision, organisations will be provided with at least the 18 month transition period granted for the previous revision in 2004.

Catch you soon!