ISO 14001
The environmental standard, for a certificate on ISO 14001:2015.
ISO 14001 is voluntary: a customer or a tender makes it required. The first numbers to know are how much of it you already run, and what the audit takes for your size and your kind of site.
20 of the 27 clauses are evidenced by records an ISO 9001 system already keeps, and they count here without being entered again. The certification audit for 25 people is 3 auditor days under IAF MD 5:2023, Issue 4, Version 3, Annex B, Table EMS 1. That is €3,600 to €6,000 for the initial audit and €6,000 to €10,000 for the three-year cycle. Both are audit fees only, at the day rates accredited bodies in Europe charge.
Start the management systemBuilt on ISO 14001:2015, which certified organisations are audited against until they transition by 30 April 2029. The edition notice
- Who it applies to
- A company whose customers or tenders ask for ISO 14001, the environmental management standard. This page is for a certificate on ISO 14001:2015, which is what an organisation already certified is audited against until it moves to ISO 14001:2026.
- The dates
- A certificate on ISO 14001:2015 has to move to ISO 14001:2026 by 30 April 2029, and a new one can be issued on ISO 14001:2015 until 31 October 2027. Through the cycle: the evaluation of compliance at the frequency you plan, a management review, and a surveillance audit each year.
- The one thing to do
- List the environmental aspects of what you do and the compliance obligations that come with them (6.1.2 and 6.1.3). The objectives, the operational controls and the evaluation of compliance all read from those two lists.
TED, the EU's procurement portal, carried 9,937 notices naming ISO 14001 in the year to 25 September 2026, against 3,417 naming ISO 27001.
What we hold, clause by clause
The three-year certificate cycle
- Stage 1 audit
- Stage 2 audit3 auditor days, stages 1 and 2
- Certificate
- Surveillance, year 1about 1 auditor days
- Surveillance, year 2about 1 auditor days
- Recertification, year 3
Auditor days for 25 people in scope, IAF MD 5:2023, Issue 4, Version 3, Annex B, Table EMS 1; surveillance is about a third of the initial audit.
Of 27 clauses. The 4 we hold only part of:
Every clause carries a note inside the product saying what is held for it and what is not.
What it shares with the standards you run
Most of clauses 4 to 10 are the harmonized structure ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 share. They cover context, interested parties, leadership, policy, risks, objectives, competence, documents, internal audit, management review and corrective action. StandardOS keeps each of those records once, and the coverage screen counts it against every standard that names it.
- Already evidenced by an ISO 27001 system
- 20 of 27 clauses
- Already evidenced by an ISO 9001 system
- 20 of 27 clauses
A clause is counted here only when every register it reads is one the other standard keeps too. The coverage screen counts a clause as soon as one of its registers holds a record, so it shows at least this much.
The environment is the standard's own
Its own clauses cover the environmental aspects and their impacts (6.1.2) and the compliance obligations (6.1.3). They also cover the planning of action on both (6.1.4), emergency preparedness and response (8.2), and the evaluation of compliance (9.1.2). The product keeps a register for each list, with every test and evaluation on record. Planning action (6.1.4) is held in part.
What ISO 14001 does under the Energy Efficiency Directive
Directive (EU) 2023/1791 asks two things of an enterprise by its energy use, and a certified environmental management system can answer both.
- Above 85 TJ a year
- A certified energy management system, in place by 11 October 2027. The average is taken over the previous three years, all energy carriers together.
- Above 10 TJ, without one
- An energy audit by 11 October 2026, then at least every four years, and an action plan published in the enterprise's annual report.
Article 11(11) exempts you from both. An enterprise that implements a certified environmental management system owes neither, provided that system includes an energy audit on the minimum criteria of Annex VI.
So ISO 14001 is not an energy management system and does not have to be: ISO 50001 is the energy one. The exemption is the route, and a system without that audit is one audit away from it.
The Directive binds your member state and not you, so the national act decides. Germany's sets the management system at 7.5 GWh a year rather than 85 TJ, read on 18 October 2026.
The Energy Efficiency Directive, its thresholds and the national acts
Honest about what it does not do
Adopting it is one step with nothing to configure. Every clause becomes a requirement row, and the records the clauses share with any standard you already run count for both. The surveillance and recertification audits go on the calendar from your certificate's dates.
When you move to ISO 14001:2026, the transition audit is your certification body's. The clause rows here stay on ISO 14001:2015 until we have read the new text.
What it asks of you
27 clauses in 7 sections
Clause 4
4- 4.1 What bears on the environment the system manages
- 4.2 Interested parties, and the needs that become duties
- 4.3 Where the system's boundary is drawn, and why
and 1 more
Clause 5
3- 5.1 Top management owning the system, not delegating it
- 5.2 The environmental policy and its commitments
- 5.3 Who holds which responsibility, assigned and known
Clause 6
6- 6.1.1 The risks and opportunities to act on
- 6.1.2 The environmental aspects, and which of them are significant
- 6.1.3 The obligations it is bound by, listed and current
and 3 more
Clause 7
5- 7.1 The resources the environmental system is actually given
- 7.2 Competence where the work affects environmental performance
- 7.3 What people under its control have to be aware of
and 2 more
Clause 8
2- 8.1 Operational control of the significant aspects
- 8.2 Readiness for the emergencies, and the tests of it
Clause 9
4- 9.1.1 What gets monitored and measured, how, and when
- 9.1.2 Evaluating whether the obligations are actually met
- 9.2 Auditing the environmental system on a planned programme
and 1 more
Clause 10
3- 10.1 Improvement: finding what to improve and acting on it
- 10.2 Putting an environmental nonconformity right
- 10.3 Keeping the system improving, continually, not once
The ISO 14001 system and its records, in one place
Every clause as a register, with the environmental aspects, compliance obligations and audits, in one workspace.
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