New ISO standard published

This week, the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) published a new standard which aims to support the transition to carbon neutrality. 

The ISO 14068:2023 family of standards specifies principles, requirements and guidance for achieving and demonstrating carbon neutrality through thorough calculation, reduction and offsetting of carbon emissions to ensure net-zero emissions. It applies to a wide range of subjects, such as organisations, products and services.

It establishes a hierarchy of carbon neutrality where the direct and indirect greenhouse gas emission reductions and removals within the value chain take priority before offsetting is implemented.

It is intended that the new ISO standards:

• enhance the credibility and implementation of greenhouse gas quantification, monitoring, reporting, validation and verification;
• facilitate the development and implementation of greenhouse gas management strategies and plans;
• facilitates the development and implementation of mitigation actions that provide greenhouse gas emission reductions or removal enhancements;
• facilitate the ability to track performance and progress in the reduction of either greenhouse gas emissions or increase in greenhouse gas emissions removals - or both;
• support sustainable development and the actions needed to achieve a low-carbon economy.

The approach to ISO 14068 involves the following steps:

• commitment to carbon neutrality;
• selection of subject and boundaries;
• quantification of emissions and removals;
• developing and implementing a carbon neutrality plan;
• implement greenhouse gas emissions reductions and increase removals;
• offset the remainder of greenhouse gas emissions;
• meet the reporting and carbon neutrality claims requirements.

The following documents make up the family of standards:

• ISO 14064-1 which specifies the principles and requirements for designing, developing, managing and reporting of organisational-level greenhouse gas inventories;
• ISO 14064-2 which specifies principles and requirements for determining baseline scenarios and monitoring, quantifying and reporting of project emissions and removals;
• ISO 14064-3 which details requirements for verifying greenhouse gas statements in relation to greenhouse gas inventories, projects and carbon footprints of products;
• ISO 14065 defines requirements for bodies that validate and verify greenhouse gas emissions statements, which require impartiality, competence, communication, validation and verification processes (including appeals, complaints and the management system of validation and verification bodies);
• ISO 14066 which sets out competence requirements for validation and verification teams;
• ISO 14067 which defines the principles, requirements and guidelines for the quantification of the carbon footprint of products (such as goods, services, buildings and events) and focuses on the whole life cycle of a product, beginning with resource extraction and material sourcing, through the production, use and end-of-life stages of the product;
• ISO/TS 14064-4 which assists users in the application of ISO 14064-1, providing guidelines and examples for improving transparency in the quantification of emissions and their reporting.