As the transition for ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 moves into its final year, the IAF has passed a resolution that requires conformity assessment bodies to conduct all ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 initial, surveillance, and recertification audits to the new versions of the standards by March 15, 2018.

This resolution continues the efforts of IAF, its accreditation body members, stakeholder members, and accredited conformity assessment bodies to encourage organizations to upgrade to the new standards.

Organizations who still need to move to the new versions of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 are encouraged to contact their conformity assessment body as soon as possible to make arrangements for their transition audits.

As noted in the joint ISO/IAF Communiqué on September 15, the new versions of ISO 9001 and 14001 make logical progressions from previous versions—delivering standards which address the key issues for today and the future.

ISO 9001:2015 promotes enhanced leadership involvement in the management system, introduces risk-based thinking, and aligns the quality management system policy and objectives with the strategy of the organization. The changes in ISO 14001:2015 focus on key issues such as protecting the environment, improving environmental performance, lifecycle thinking, and organizations’ environmental leadership.

Failure to achieve certification to the 2015 version of the standard by the deadline means renders certification invalid, which may affect ability to supply to all markets.