ISO 14001 Survey

Every year the ISO (International Standards Organisation) conducts a survey on usage of the various standards. The results for 2015 have recently been released.

 

In the UK the total number of ISO 14001 certifications stood at 17,824, a rise of 8% over the previous year. The trend has overall been a steady increase, although there was a small fall in 2014. A 17% rise has been seen since 2010. Worldwide, there are 319,754 certifications, a 1% rise.

 

As the new 2015 standard had only been introduced in September 15, there are understandably very few certifications to this (46 compared to 17,778 for ISO 14001:2004).

 

ISO 50001, the standard for Energy Management Systems, has seen a dramatic increase in 2015, up by 289% to 1,464 certifications. This was no doubt due to ESOS where ISO 50001 was one route to compliance with the legislation.

 

Both standards lag far behind the standard for quality ISO 9001, which has a total of 1,033,936 certifications worldwide and 40,161 in the UK (unchanged from 2014).

 

The figures demonstrate a growing appetite for using standards to reflect sound business practices. ISO 14001 is often requested as part of tender applications and to get onto approved suppliers lists.

 

While the numbers are growing, they are low enough to show that those adopting them are able to demonstrate competitive advantage.

 

If you are thinking about putting in an Environmental Management System or changing your existing EMS to comply with the new ISO 14001: 2015 requirements, I can help you.