As reporting in previous posts (How is the ISO 14001:2015 Transition going?, Time to make your ISO 14001:2015 Transition, The Sands of Time run out of ISO 14001:2015 Transition & Has ISO 14001:2015 stalled?), there has been considerable concern that the transition to ISO 14001:2015 may not have gone smoothly and that a considerable number of organisations may have missed the transition opportunity.
The most recent ISO Survey covering the annual period up to 31 December 2017 showed that there were 160, 803 ISO 14001:2004 certificates held by organisations who had not made the transition to ISO 14001:2015.
However, the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) has conducted a bespoke survey, which more accurately covers the final position as at the end of September 2018.
Their data coordinated from IAF Accreditation Body members and their accredited Certification Bodies gave a 93% transition rate to the 2015 versions of the quality and environmental management system standards ISO 14001 & ISO 9001. However, the information is not further sub-divided into ISO 14001 & ISO 9001.
If this 93% figure applies to ISO 14001 transitions, it would mean that approximately 337, 277 certificate have been transitioned.
It does, however, mean that an estimated 25, 400 ISO 14001:2004 certificates have expired at that the organisations are not benefiting from the enhanced environmental performance and compliance that they may have experienced as a ISO 14001 certificate holder.
It should be noted that any organization certified to the previous versions of these two standards is no longer has a valid certificate. However, the IAF does allow for a certificate to be reinstated within six months of the 15 September 2018 deadline, provided all the appropriate requirements and processes have been undertaken & that the transition audit was started before 15 September 2018 (see my previous post – Important Further Information for Certification Bodies regarding transition to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001).
I am sure that the transition rate will increase further from the current 93% but it remains to be seen, just how many ISO 14001:2004 certificates are finally transitioned.
What have been your experience of the ISO 14001:2015 transition?
I welcome your comments below.
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