ISO 14001:2015Environmental management systems
ISO 14001 sets out how an organization identifies the ways its work affects the environment, controls the ones that matter and keeps track of the legal requirements that apply to it. It does not set emission limits: you set your own objectives and show that you are working towards them. AQC Group certifies to ISO 14001:2015. ISO published a 2026 edition in April 2026, and a certificate to the 2015 edition stays valid during the transition, which ends in April 2029.
A new edition has been published: what it means for you
01At a glance
- Standard
- ISO 14001:2015
- Subject
- Environmental management systems
- Certificate
- Issued by AQC Group. Valid for three years, with a surveillance audit each year.
- Facts checked
- 9 October 2026, against iso.org
Who it is for
- Manufacturers with emissions, waste water, waste or chemicals to control
- Food and beverage plants with waste water, packaging waste and refrigerants
- Hospitals and clinics with clinical and chemical waste
- Contractors whose clients set environmental conditions for work on site
- Organizations that hold environmental permits or licences
- Exporters and suppliers whose buyers ask about environmental performance
02What you gain
What certification to ISO 14001 gives you
Meet tender and customer requirements
Some tenders, supplier questionnaires and export customers ask for certification to ISO 14001. A certificate answers the requirement with independent evidence.
Legal obligations tracked
You keep a register of the environmental legal requirements and permit conditions that apply to you, and you check on a schedule that you meet them. A gap is more likely to be found by you than by an inspector.
Less waste, and lower costs where waste is the cause
Measuring waste, water, energy and materials shows where they are lost. Where you act on what you find, the cost of disposal, water and energy can come down.
Fewer spills and releases
Controls on storage, handling and maintenance reduce the chance of a spill or release. A practised emergency plan limits the damage if one happens.
A clear answer when you are asked
When a regulator, a client or a neighbour asks how you manage your environmental effects, you can show the system, the records and the results.
03What it asks of you
What ISO 14001 asks you to have in place
In plain terms and in our words, not the standard's. The standard itself is the authority, and you will need a copy.
Context and scope
Decide which sites and activities the system covers. Note the conditions around you that matter, such as water supply, air quality, neighbours and climate. List who has an interest in your environmental performance, such as regulators, clients, owners and the local community, and what they expect.
Leadership and policy
Top management issues an environmental policy. It commits the organization to protect the environment, to meet its legal and other obligations and to keep improving. Management assigns responsibilities and reviews the results.
Environmental aspects and impacts
List how each activity, product and service interacts with the environment: emissions to air, discharges to water, waste, use of energy, water and raw materials, noise, the risk of spills. Decide which are significant, using criteria you have written down. Look beyond your own gate, to what you buy and what happens to your product after it leaves, as far as you can control or influence it.
Legal and other requirements
Identify the environmental laws, permits, licence conditions and client requirements that apply to you, and work out how each one applies to your operations. Keep the list current. The standard does not list them for you: check the legal requirements that apply to you.
Objectives and planning
Set environmental objectives linked to your significant aspects and your obligations. Each needs actions, an owner, a date and a way to measure progress. Consider risks and opportunities, such as a change in regulation or a water shortage.
Operational control
Put controls in place where your significant aspects arise: segregation and storage of waste, containment for stored chemicals and fuel, treatment of waste water, maintenance of equipment that affects emissions. Set environmental requirements for contractors and suppliers. Consider environmental effects when you design a product or buy equipment.
Emergency preparedness
Identify what could go wrong, such as a spill, a fire or a release to air or water. Plan the response, provide the equipment, train people and practise. Review the plan after each drill and after any real incident.
Monitoring, audit and review
Measure what matters: quantities of waste, discharges, consumption and any monitoring your permits require. Evaluate at planned intervals whether you meet your legal obligations, and keep the result. Run internal audits and management reviews. When something goes wrong, correct it and act on the cause.
04The audit
How certification to ISO 14001 works
Application and quotation
You tell us your scope, sites and headcount. We quote the audit days the standard's rules require.
Stage 1 audit
A review of your documented system and your readiness. You get a list of anything to settle before stage 2.
Stage 2 audit
The auditor follows your processes on site and samples records, to see that the system is in use and works.
Decision
Nonconformities are answered, the file is reviewed independently of the audit team, and AQC Group issues the certificate.
Surveillance and recertification
A shorter audit in each of the next two years, then a full recertification audit in the third.
What the auditor looks at
- The register of aspects: that it covers your real activities and that the significant ones were chosen by stated criteria
- The register of legal requirements and the records of your own evaluation of compliance
- Controls seen on site: waste storage and segregation, chemical and fuel storage, drains, emission points
- Emergency plans, spill equipment and records of drills
- Monitoring data and progress against environmental objectives
- How contractors and suppliers are told about your environmental requirements and held to them
What affects audit time
- The number of employees and the number of sites
- How complex your environmental aspects are: a chemical plant needs more audit time than an office of the same size
- Permit conditions, sensitive surroundings or a history of incidents, which add areas to examine
- Whether ISO 9001 or ISO 45001 is audited in the same visit
NewWhat is changing
The 2026 edition and your ISO 14001:2015 certificate
ISO published a new edition, ISO 14001:2026, on 15 April 2026. It is the fourth edition and it replaces ISO 14001:2015. ISO has withdrawn the 2015 edition as a publication, but a certificate to it is not cancelled, and certification to it continues during a transition period.
AQC Group certifies to ISO 14001:2015, and that is the edition this page describes. A certification body may issue accredited certificates to a new edition only once its accreditation has been moved to it. We confirm the edition your audit will use when we quote.
The rules for the change are set by Global Accreditation Cooperation (Global ACI), which took over the work of the IAF on 1 January 2026. Its transition document gives three years, counted from the end of April 2026 and ending on 30 April 2029. New accredited certificates can be issued to ISO 14001:2015 until 31 October 2027. After 30 April 2029 accredited certificates to ISO 14001:2015 are no longer valid.
The 2026 edition builds on the 2015 edition and keeps its approach, and Global ACI describes the overall changes as minimal. ISO describes clearer guidance, a layout that is easier to follow, closer attention to climate change, biodiversity and the efficient use of resources, and more emphasis on leadership and on effects along the value chain. The edition adds a requirement to plan changes to the system and rearranges the clause on management review. Its guidance annex says more about context, risks and opportunities and the life cycle perspective. So a system built to the 2015 edition is adjusted for the new one, not rebuilt.
A certificate to ISO 14001:2015 is moved to the new edition through a transition audit. It can be part of a planned surveillance or recertification audit, or a separate audit. The auditor looks at the changed requirements, at changes in your context and at anything else in your system that has to change. The audit, any corrections and the new certificate all have to be finished before 30 April 2029, so plan it well ahead of that date.
- 15 April 2026
- ISO 14001:2026 published.
- 31 October 2026
- Latest date for accreditation bodies to be ready to assess certification bodies for the 2026 edition.
- 30 April 2027
- Latest date for accreditation bodies to decide on moving each certification body's accreditation to the 2026 edition.
- 31 October 2027
- After this date, new and first-time accredited certificates are issued only to ISO 14001:2026.
- 30 April 2029
- End of the transition. Accredited certificates to ISO 14001:2015 are no longer valid after this date.
05Often combined with
Standards audited alongside ISO 14001
Standards that share a structure can be audited together, in one visit and against one set of documents.
06Questions
Questions about ISO 14001
What does the 2026 edition mean for our ISO 14001:2015 certificate?
It stays valid during the transition period, which ends on 30 April 2029, as long as your surveillance audits continue as normal. Before that date you need a transition audit to ISO 14001:2026 and a new certificate. The audit can be combined with a planned surveillance or recertification audit.
Global ACI describes the changes as minimal, so expect to adjust the system you have. The dates are in the note about the 2026 edition on this page.
Does ISO 14001 set environmental limits or targets we must reach?
No. The standard does not set emission limits, recycling rates or any other level of performance. Limits come from the law, your permits and your clients. ISO 14001 asks you to know what those are, to meet them, to set objectives of your own and to show progress.
So two certified companies can have very different environmental performance. The certificate says that a working system is in place to manage that performance and improve it.
What is the difference between ISO 14001 and ISO 50001?
ISO 14001 covers all the ways an organization affects the environment: emissions, waste, water, materials, energy and more. ISO 50001 covers energy only, and in more depth. It asks for an energy review, a baseline and indicators, and evidence that energy performance is improving.
A company whose main environmental effect and main cost is energy may choose ISO 50001, or both. The two share the same structure and can be audited together.
What documents and records will we need?
The core ones are the scope, the environmental policy, the register of aspects with the significant ones marked, the register of legal and other requirements, objectives and plans, operating controls where they are needed, the emergency plan, monitoring results, the evaluation of compliance, internal audit reports and management review records.
The standard leaves the format to you. A spreadsheet that is kept current is good evidence. A binder that nobody has opened since it was written will not convince an auditor.
We are a small company with an office and a warehouse. Is ISO 14001 relevant?
It can be. The standard has no minimum size, and a small site has a short list of aspects: energy, waste, perhaps fuel, vehicles and stored chemicals. The system can be short to match.
Whether it is worth doing depends on why you want it. If a client or a tender asks for it, the answer is clear. If nobody asks, look at whether your waste, water and energy costs, or your permit obligations, justify the effort.
Can ISO 14001 be audited together with ISO 9001 and ISO 45001?
Yes. The three share the same structure, so document control, competence, internal audit, management review and corrective action can be run once for all of them. Aspects and impacts stay specific to ISO 14001, as hazards and risks do to ISO 45001.
A combined audit usually takes less time than three separate ones. The saving depends on how far the systems are joined up, and we set it out when we quote.
Ask about ISO 14001 for your organization.
Tell us your scope, your sites and how many people work in them. We will tell you what the audit involves.