The revision of ISO 50001 is well underway with the current DIS (Draft International Standard) available for public comment during a consultation phase. The DIS is available for public comments from 23 August 2017 to 4 October 2017.
ISO 50001 is an important International Standard as it provides the requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining and improving an energy management system, and its aim is to enable an organization to follow a systematic approach in achieving continual improvement of energy performance.
The International Standard is applicable to any organization regardless of its type, size, complexity, geographical location, culture, or the products and services & is applicable to activities affecting energy performance that are managed and controlled by the organization.
It is independent of the types of energy and quantity of energy consumed and does not, itself, define specific levels of required energy performance improvement, but requires demonstration of continual improvement by determination of energy performance.
This revision will align ISO 50001 with other Management System Standards (MSS), such as ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 9001:2015, which are based on Annex SL & can be used independently, or be aligned or integrated with other management systems.
In addition, the revised International Standard provides two Annexes; Annex A covers informative guidance on the International Standard & Annex B, which provides a comparison of the revised edition to the current edition, ISO 50001:2011.
It should be noted that the conduct of third-party auditing through certification / registrar bodies is managed through the accreditation process to ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015 & ISO 50003:2014, which specifies requirements for competence, consistency and impartiality in the auditing and certification of energy management systems (EnMS) for bodies providing these services.
In addition, ISO 50003:2014 covers the effectiveness of EnMS auditing, the auditing process, competence requirements for personnel involved in the certification process for energy management systems, the duration of audits and multi-site sampling. ISO 50003:2014 is intended to be used in conjunction with ISO/IEC 17021:2011. The requirements of ISO/IEC 17021:2011 also apply to ISO 50003:2014.
A copy of ISO DIS 50001 is available from ISO and BSi as an Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file or hardcopy.
I, strongly, advise commenting on the DIS version of the revised ISO 50001 as this may be the last opportunity to influence the drafting of the International Standard before its final publication later in 2017 / early 2018 by either purchasing a copy or by visiting the BSI Standards Development portal, where it is possible to view the text and to make comments directly to BSI “free of change”.
If you plan to use the BSI Draft Review portal, you should head search for “ISO DIS 19011” and register here for free access.
Whichever method you use, please take time to review the ISO DIS 50001 as this International Standard will have significant influence over the auditing of Management Systems for at least the next five years.
The deadline for comment on ISO DIS 50001 to BSI is 4 October 2017.