“If the earth were only a few feet in diameter and floating a few feet above a field somewhere, people would come from everywhere to marvel at it…” Joe Miller
Hi fellow Earthlings,
Do you have a summer home on Mars or Venus? Not yet, but working on it? Will you copy Noah’s ark to take wild animals as well, and plants and insects? Don’t forget all the sea creatures!
ISO 9001:2015 added an addendum issued in 2024 to include climate change.
Amend your ISO 9001 – not just ISO 14001 – to include climate change.
Copied from www.iso.org and www.aif.nu.
“As part of ISO’s commitment to action on climate change, approved unanimously by all ISO Member Bodies in the so-called London Declaration, (https://www.iso.org/ClimateAction.html), amendments to over 30 of ISO’s Management System Standards, including ISO 9001, have now been issued to include climate change considerations, as follows:
“4.1 Understanding the organization and its context.
The organization shall determine external and internal issues that are relevant to its purpose and that affect its ability to achieve the intended result(s) of its quality management system. Added: The organization shall determine whether climate change is a relevant issue.
4.2 Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties.
The organization shall determine: • the interested parties that are relevant to the quality management system. • the relevant requirements of these interested parties. • which of these requirements will be addressed through the quality management system. Added: NOTE: Relevant interested parties can have requirements related to climate change.”
“4.1 New Requirement: The organization shall determine whether climate change is a relevant issue. Auditing considerations for climate change impacts from external and internal issues can include: • Changes in statutory or regulatory requirements such as restriction on the use of certain materials, product circularity, product life cycle, product origin, claims, etc. • Use of bio-based, renewable materials. • Potential impacts on the products and services or on the QMS processes, by changes determined in other management system disciplines, e.g. need to reduce energy consumption, reduce waste, reuse or recycle materials. • Extended lifetime of products, post-delivery services and assistance • Requirements to move to carbon neutral products and services. • Issues impacting the processes and infrastructure, due to energy and other considerations. • Vulnerability of the organization to deliver its products and services due to more frequency of storms, waterflows, fires, drought, that may imply shortages in the supply or difficulties in distribution. • Concerns related to overall knowledge and control of the supply chain in issues related to climate change. • Market trends on sustainability of products and services and related information and claims • Competing products and services with potential better performance in climate change related issues.”
“4.2 NOTE: Relevant interested parties can have requirements related to climate change Has the organization determined the existence of applicable requirements related to climate change from relevant interested parties? Audit examples of relevant interested party requirements for climate change can include: • Statutory and regulatory, environmental or climate change requirements for the product or service provided, and those that affect the organization’s ability to provide that product or service. • Customer requirements regarding climate change, zero discharge, or carbon neutrality of the products. • Parent company policies and strategies. • Requirements related to product information on aspects related to climate change (sustainability of the origin, reuse, recyclability, end of life, embedded carbon, “greenwashing labelling” etc.), including product claims and associated existing legal, statutory, and other requirements. • Industry codes and standards changes related to climate change. • Environmental agreements with community groups or non-governmental organizations. • Permits, licenses, or other forms of environmental authorization. • Climate change related requirements on processes such as packaging, manufacturing, servicing, logistics, among others.”
Let us take a very quick look at author Holmes Rolston III A new Environmental Ethics – the next millennium of life on earth. Apart from his views on the BP Oil Spill, Global Warming, Toxics, Pollutants and Invasive species, he refers to the “Anthropocene Epoch: Managed Earth and End of Nature”. That is a frightening thought for someone that loves the Oryx (above), Serengeti (pic below) the Ngorongoro Crater and the Great Lakes in East Africa to mention only a few. Although I agree with some of his statements and disagree with others, in chapter 7 he talks about ‘Humans as Earthlings; Unique Species on a Unique Planet” and I had Joe Miller’s poem (opening quote) as a screen saver, together that formed the foundation of our chat today.
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987 p.43
Do you have children or grandchildren, maybe even great grandchildren? Once we have children our focus seems to move from the here and now, to the sustainability of it all. Just yesterday I met a World Traveler who seemed almost fearful that he would not be able to see everything he set out to see. He was a strong and healthy looking young man, so I could not understand his anxiety, but a couple of questions later I had lifted the lid off his proverbial Pandora’s box and he had difficulty closing it again. “You might kill all the white lions in Africa before I get to see one, and the Black Rhino and the Leatherback Turtle…I also heard there are only about 350 mountain gorillas left in East Africa because groups are being killed at a time…the Pink River Dolphin on South America is also critically endangered… and I must still get to Hawaii because I believe they have the longest list of critical endangered species…”
I was no longer listening, he had lost me when he said: “YOU might kill…” Logic is, it was simply a manner of speech, but it suddenly felt personal. As a fellow earth occupant, what am I doing to preserve our planet? What more can I do to preserve our planet for my grandchildren? Will they have clean drinking water or will it ONLY be from a desalination plant and if that is the case what will happen to the sea creatures because of the increase in salt content? Clearly the World Traveler also lifted the lid off my box!
In closing, please go to des@roadtosheq.com and tell us what you are doing to preserve our planet. What are you doing to reduce your footprint? Tell us about your waste minimization and recycling processes to reduce the impact on landfill sites. We will collate it into a blog, maybe even a couple and will let you know when it is published. We are all fellow occupants, we can learn from each other and use it for the greater good of all occupants, the mountain gorillas and pink river dolphins included.
If you care about the sustainability of life on earth the way we know it, please leave your opinion, ideas and tips for waste minimization and recycling at roadtosheq.com
We can also assist your company with its waste management program, give us a call on +27(0)833864633