This standard was published in April 2026. This replaced the prior ISO 14001:2015 standard on environmental management systems.
Organisations certified to ISO 14001:2015 have until 14 April 2029 to recertify to the 2026 standard. Changes made include an increased focus on the life cycle perspective within environmental management.
The final version of the International Standard ISO 14001:2026 was published on 15 April 2026.
ISO 14001:2026 cancels and replaces the prior ISO 14001:2015 standard and its 2024 amendment.
Organisations certified to ISO 14001:2015 have until 14 April 2029 to recertify to ISO 14001:2026. Certification to ISO 14001:2015 will not be possible from 14 April 2029.
What has changed?
Unlike the 2015 standard, the 2026 standard does not restructure the standard and the changes made are typically relatively modest.
The standard retains the plan-do-check-approach and a common structure with other management system standards, including ISO 9001, ISO 45001 and ISO 50001. This permits integration of the requirements into a shared management system.
Minor wording changes are present throughout the standard. Significantly, where documented information is required as evidence, the wording has changed from "retain documented information as evidence" to "documented information shall be available as evidence."
In general, the standard has been updated to reflect the latest Annex SL harmonised structure wording, including more consistent terminology, clearer expressions of key concepts and closer alignment with other ISO management standards.
Notable changes for each clause are noted below.
Clause 4 – Context of the organisation
- Environmental conditions to be considered now explicitly include pollution levels, availability of natural resources, climate change, biodiversity and ecosystem health.
- Environmental conditions are now explicitly included in the clause as relevant external and internal issues.
- It is clarified that the needs and expectations of interested parties may include environmental conditions.
- It is clarified that non-legal expectations become compliance obligations when the organisation chooses to adopt them.
- The scope requirement now makes it clearer that control and influence should be considered in relation to the life cycle of the organisation’s activities, products and services, rather than only direct operations.
Clause 5 - Leadership
- The obligation on top management to provide support is extended to concern all relevant EMS roles, not just management.
- The Environmental Policy sub-clause (5.2) features a note on specific commitments to protect the environment. This has been updated to include preservation or conservation of natural resources.
Clause 6 - Planning
- The requirement to consider risks and opportunities has been separated into a sub-clause, requiring identification of risks and opportunities before planning actions.
- A new sub-clause (6.3) requires that changes affecting the EMS are planned in a controlled manner.
- There is further emphasis on the life cycle perspective for environmental aspects.
Clause 7 - Support
- With respect to compliance obligations, the wording has changed from “fulfil compliance obligations” to “meet compliance obligations.”
Clause 8 - Operation
- The duty to retain documented information as evidence is replaced with making documented information available as evidence.
Clause 9 – Performance evaluation
- Internal audits must now include defined objectives, as well as scope and criteria.
- It is explicitly stated that the audit programme, implementation of the audit programme and evidence of audit results are to be documented and available.
- The management review sub-clause is split into three further sub-clauses: General; Management review inputs; and Management review results.
Clause 10 - Improvement
- The requirements on continual improvement are consolidated into a single sub-clause (10.1), rather than the two separate sub-clauses in the 2015 standard.
- Sub-clause 10.1 retains the requirements for determining opportunities for improvement and continual improvement. The sub-clause also now more clearly links improvement to the outcomes of performance evaluation and corrective action.
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