In a bid to help accelerate the successful achievement of the Paris Agreement, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations Call for Action on Adaptation and Resilience, ISO have agreed to a Climate Commitment that will affect all management system standards. What it means for those of you who hold an ISO management system certification, is that there needs to be some consideration over whether climate change is a relevant issue that could affect your organisation and your relevant management system.
So how can climate change be a relevant issue for your Quality Management System?
- Compliance requirements can affect quality regulatory reporting requirements (eg ESOS).
- Customer requirements – ISO 9001 is all about meeting customer requirements. Customers are now pushing their sustainability requirements down the supply chain and so things like tenders and supplier approval criteria is taking into account things like carbon reduction targets.
- Product design – In a similar vein as above, the design and development of products and certainly architecturally is becoming critical to take into account sustainability. Things like sourcing of sustainable raw materials, utilising renewable energy sources and recycling requirements are all design to help address climate change.
- Building vulnerability – As we know in this neck of the woods, flooding seems to be an increased challenge year on year. If your physical premises is anywhere near a river or area susceptible to flooding, then consideration should be given to alternative methods of fulfilling requirements in the event of flooding eg outsourcing or temporary relocation and maybe long-term plans to permanently relocate.
- Supply chain – Certain issues may arise with the supply chain. Certainly, in the food and catering industries, droughts or floods can affect the sourcing and availability of certain foods. There can also be issues with physically getting goods and materials delivered.
- Work environment – There may also be issues with operational conditions. Site based workers could be subjected to higher working temperatures which impact on their ability to carry out work. PPE may cause extra heat and in turn heat stroke or workers passing out. High rainfall can also cause issues on site where flooding or slip conditions can render work unsafe and may impact on work being completed on time.
