ISO 14068: Greenhouse Gas Management and Related Activates
We each have a role to play when it comes to environmental responsibility, and the ISO are working to provide a method of being accountable for this. ISO is a non-governmental international organisation which, through its members, develops international standards to provide guidance and solutions to many challenges people and organisations face. It has a membership of 167 national standards bodies who contribute their knowledge and experience to ensure these international standards are relevant and appropriate.
What is ISO 14068?
Here’s what we know so far. ISO 14068 is the specification relating to greenhouse gas management and related activities, namely carbon neutrality. The new project was approved back in February 2020 and is currently under development at the ‘preparatory’ stage. The project will continue to go through each key stage of an ISO under development, this includes committee, enquiry, approval, publication, and review. You can keep updated by checking out the page here.
It is likely that we can expect to see some alignment between the current carbon neutrality specification PAS 2060 and the future standard ISO 14068. It is likely that the core principles such as carbon footprint calculations, carbon management plans and offsetting will remain, but will be updated to sit closer with current circumstances, drivers, and regulations.
It is no secret that with the growing pressure around climate change, the need for reporting and accountability is becoming more apparent. We envision that this will continue in motion, and standards such as PAS 2060 and ISO 14068 will be an important tool in meeting these expectations.
How to be Prepared
There are a number of options organisations may wish to explore to kickstart their sustainability journey, and which will help to prepare for ISO 14068. Whether this is in the form of a management system such as ISO 14001 or ISO 50001, or through verifications of carbon neutrality and GHG inventories.
To date, PAS 2060 is the only recognised specification relating to the demonstration of achieving carbon neutrality. You will find more information on each of these, as well as useful training, tools and resources, by visiting our sustainability microsite here.
Steps to Certification
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Step 1
Complete a Quote Request Form so that we can understand your company and requirements. You can do this by completing either the online quick quote or the online formal quote request form. We will use this information to accurately define your scope of assessment and provide you with a proposal for certification.
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Step 2
Once you’ve agreed to your proposal, we will contact you to book your assessment with an NQA Auditor. This assessment consists of two mandatory visits that form the Initial Certification Audit. Please note that you must be able to demonstrate that your management system has been fully operational for a minimum of three months and has been subject to a management review and full cycle of internal audits.
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Step 3
Following a successful two stage audit, a certification decision is made and if positive, then certification to the required standard is issued by NQA. You will receive both a hard and soft copy of the certificate. Certification is valid for three years and is maintained through a program of annual surveillance audits and a three yearly recertification audit.