The ISO Show

When stating ISO Management System ‘compliance’, that in reality means the conformance to ISO Standard requirements, compliance in ISO terminology actually refers to compliance with legal and other statutory regulations. It may sound like semantics, but the difference is distinct for a reason, as you don’t get a ‘non-compliance’ for not meeting requirements, rather you get a ‘non-conformity’. When it comes to compliance with the law as required by ISO Standards, you need more than a Legal Register to prove compliance. In this episode, Ian Battersby dives into what is meant by compliance in ISO, how this relates to legal and statutory requirements, and how businesses can effectively evaluate compliance. You’ll learn ·      What is the difference between ‘Compliance’ and ‘Conformity’? ·      What are the different types of compliance requirements? ·      How do Acts and Regulations work in tandem? ·      Who enforces legal compliance requirements? ·      Where do these requirements sit in ISO Standards? ·      How do you prove compliance within ISO management? ·      How do you evaluate effective compliance?   Resources ·      Isologyhub ·      From Silos to Synergy: The benefits of Implementing an Integrated ISO Management System Webinar registration   In this episode, we talk about: [00:30] Upcoming webinar: If you’d like to learn more about the benefits of integrated management systems, feel free to register for our upcoming webinar here. [01:30] Episode Summary – Ian Battersby discusses the topic of compliance within ISO Standards, and how you can effectively evaluate it within your Management System.     [02:30] What is the difference between ‘Compliance’ and ‘Conformity’? It’s a common misconception that you ‘comply’ with an ISO Standard, when in reality, you conform to an ISO Standard, hence why you can receive a ‘non-conformity’ in audits and not ‘noncompliance’. When we talk about compliance within ISO Management, this refers to compliance with the law, regulations and other statutory requirements, as this is a requirement within all ISO Standards. [03:50] What are the different types of compliance requirements? There are many different types of law, Ian focuses on what is known as statute law legislation, as this is distinct from common law, case law and constitutional conventions. Statute law legislation is clearly written and can be cited in something like a Legal Register, or Register of Compliance Obligations. There are different types of legislation that you’ll need to document, including: Primary Legislation: These are put in place by acts of UK Parliament and may have involvement from devolved administrations as well. Statutory compliance refers to compliance with primary legislation. An example of this type of legislation includes the Health & Safety at Work Act. Secondary or delegated legislation: Those primary Acts often require a lot more detail regarding the practicalities of applying them, which is delivered through Secondary or delegated legislation, otherwise more commonly known as regulations. These have more input from relevant public bodies to provide the requirements that can be applied. Both regulations are issues under Statutory Instruments (SI's), which are the formal legal vehicle that gives them effect. Put simply, regulations are the rules and Statutory Instruments are the legal mechanism which brings those rules into effect. [06:05] How Acts and Regulations work in tandem: Taking the Health & Safety at Work Act as an example, at the start this was quite a broad and generic act, it wasn’t until years later that the workplace health, safety and welfare regulations came about to support the Act. This was further bolstered with the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations. Both regulations were developed through consultation between Government departments and other bodies such as the Health & Safety Executive. These regulations gave companies much more detail on what’s actually required in order to comply with the Health & Safety at Work Act. [06:50] Who enforces legal requirements? – It’s not just the police that enforce legal requirements, there are a number of other bodies independent of government and the judiciary that can enforce regulations and prosecute for breaches caused by organisations and individuals. This can include bodies such as The Health & Safety Executive, The Financial Conduct Authority, The Environment Agency and the Information Commissioners Office. There are more for other areas, and these are often the bodies involved in the development of specific regulations. [07:45] Where do these requirements sit in ISO Standards? As Is the case with ISO Standards, the requirement for compliance is sprinkled throughout the whole document. Starting with Clause 4 Context. Here ‘Interested parties’ are a focus, of which regulatory bodies can be considered an interested party, as they control the regulations that you are required to comply with by law. Even if you don’t think you fall under specific legislation, there are still general applicable business laws that all businesses must comply with. So this exercise is not simply a case of running a Management System, it’s also about running an effective business.  Ian highlights clause 6.1.3 in ISO 45001, which states the need to determine legal requirements applicable to your business, whereas in ISO 14001 this clause talks about compliance obligations. Despite the difference in wording, they are essentially looking for the same thing, which is detailing what legal requirements you need to comply with. In ISO 9001 it also states that any products or services offered should meet customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements. This is then further strengthened in the Leadership clause as leaders are required to ensure that their commitments meet all customer requirements, but also any applicable regulatory and statutory requirements associated with the products and service. This is phrasing that is repeated throughout ISO 9001. Going back to ISO 45001 and ISO 14001, both also require an evaluation of compliance, both the part of monitoring and measuring and the results of them to be submitted through your management review process. The Standards are very clear in that they require you to determine the frequency and methods for evaluation of compliance. [12:00] How do you prove compliance within ISO management? In ISO 45001 there is an appendix that give examples of what you can monitor and measure for the fulfilment and evaluation of legal requirements. As mentioned, many organisations opt to use a Legal Register which states all applicable legislation for your business that will be evaluated in an Internal Audit, but proving genuine compliance is much more than just acknowledging the legislation itself. For larger organisations, this can be a very burdensome task, especially if you find yourself in a position where legal requirements aren’t being met. Ian provides an example to illustrate how to prove effective compliance: Waste removal is something that every business has to do, whether they do so through a waste management contractor, or through a landlord, the law states that any waste you generate must be removed, transferred, processed, treated, etc. by licenced organisation in a very specifically regulated fashion. You as an organisation or your landlord may receive an annual season ticket which includes the required demonstration of compliance, which can be in the form of West Carrier license number, the types of waste, the classification codes under the European or waste catalogue, dates and signatures. Now if you run into an instance where something on that waste transfer note was incorrect, like a wrong address or waste type, how do you prove that you were still compliant in the actual activity of removing waste? An Audit will pick up on the note discrepancies and you may be faced with being non-compliant. A way to ensure that you have a record of compliance is to keep electronic copies of all your waste transfer notes, and keep them in a central location, or even possibly linked within your Legal Register if possible. Despite the discrepancy, you will be able to prove that you have a prior record of compliance. Ian gives another example, you may have air conditioning in your area of work that’s due for a service. The contractor will need to verify the engineer before you engage with them, including a check to see if they’re competent under F Gas Regulations and hold a valid REFCOM Registration Certificate. If you wait to check / validate their certificates of competence, you may run into a situation where they may have an expired certificate at the time that they serviced your aircon, and so that may render that service as inadequate under your legal requirements. To avoid this, you should reference that you’ve evaluated the contractor within your Legal Register, this would include a check on their registration number and dates of when their F Gas competency certificates are valid, ensuring your service falls within those dates. In short, to demonstrate compliance, you should be keeping on-going records in relation to your legal requirements. These should also be readily available and easily accessible. [20:35] How do you evaluate effective compliance:  Legal requirements such as the Health & Safety at Work Act are much broader, and it can be difficult to know exactly what records you need to keep to prove compliance. This is where the supporting regulations can provide the required detail and provide a much clearer picture of what evidence is required. One example is the requirement to carry out sufficient risk assessments, which requires you to identify hazards, assess risks, determine control measures you know, communicate those to people, and review of those assessments regularly. You as the business will need to create a programme to manage the risk assessment process, and this should be documented somewhere, including a note of your review and action dates. This risk assessment list should also be linked within your Legal Register. In short, one of the most effective ways to show and evaluate compliance is to ensure that all relevant evidence is linked or attached in some way to a Legal Register or Register of Compliance Obligations. These evidence documents should be active and hold a record of previous actions and any planned upcoming actions. You could also schedule regular inspections of your legal compliance, to evaluate your level of compliance against different requirements on an on-going basis. The resulting reports can also be linked within the Legal Register. Don’t just rely on Internal Audits to cover your legal compliance evaluation. Utilise dedicated legal compliance inspections, link all relevant evidence within your legal register and have on-going reviews and updates throughout the year.   If you’d like any assistance with implementing ISO standards, get in touch with us, we’d be happy to help! We’d love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here’s how: ●     Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin ●     Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one. Subscribe to keep up-to-date with our latest episodes: Stitcher | Spotify | YouTube |iTunes | Soundcloud | Mailing List

How often have you heard someone say they aspire to be an ISO consultant? Likely not at all! That’s not surprising as it’s quite a niche world to find yourself in, yet despite that, there are still thousands of ISO professionals worldwide. We’re continuing with our latest mini-series where we introduce members of our team, to explore how they fell into the world of ISO and discuss the common challenges they face while helping clients achieve ISO certification.   In this episode we introduce Anju Punetha, a QHSE Consultant at Blackmores, to share the journey of how she transitioned from special education in India, to ISO consultancy for international organisations. You’ll learn ·      What is Anju’s role at Blackmores? ·      What does Anju enjoy outside of consultancy? ·      What path did Anju take to become an ISO Consultant? ·      What is the biggest challenge she’s faced when implementing ISO Standards? ·      What is Anju’s biggest achievement?   Resources ·      Isologyhub ·      From Silos to Synergy: The benefits of Implementing an Integrated ISO Management System Webinar registration   In this episode, we talk about: [02:05] Episode Summary – We introduce Anju Punetha, a QHSE Consultant here at Blackmores, to discuss her journey towards becoming an ISO consultant who specialises in ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 27001, ISO 20121 and ISO 55001.    [04:05] What is Anju’s role at Blackmores? Her role primarily involves supporting clients in two key areas: maintaining and continually improving their existing ISO management systems and helping them establish and implement new standards. As part of that support, she: ·      Conduct internal audits ·      Reviews and updates management system documentation ·      Facilitate management reviews ·      Train internal teams and prepare them for certification audits. When implementing a new ISO standard, she’ll start with a gap analysis – i.e comparing their current practices against the standard’s requirements. Then break down those requirements into simple, easy-to-understand language and create a practical plan to bridge the gaps. Depending on the standard, she may also facilitate strategic business risk assessments, environmental aspects and impacts assessments, or information security risk assessments. Additionally, Anju helps clients develop and implement policies and procedures, create legal and compliance registers, and verify their readiness for certification body audits. [05:55] What does Anju enjoy doing outside of consultancy?: Anju loves spending time outdoors with long walks being her go-to, as they help her unwind both physically and mentally. She also enjoys cooking for her family and friends. Experimenting with different cuisines and blending spices is something Anju finds incredibly relaxing. [08:00] What was Anju’s path towards becoming an ISO Consultant?: Like many of the Blackmores team, Anju never planned to become an ISO consultant. She began her career as a Special Educator, working with children with special needs in India. Later, she transitioned into the development sector as a Research Assistant, working on projects funded by The World Bank and the UN World Food Programme. These projects focused on microfinance, training and development, and women & child health. However, that role involved a lot of travel, which became challenging after the birth of her first son. So, Anju decided that would be a good time to take a career break. When Anju was ready to return to work, she looked for an office-based role which resulted in her joining Ericsson, a Swedish Networking and Telecommunication Company as support staff, and progressed upwards to become the Learning and Development Manager at their rapidly growing Global Service Centre in India. This involved managing training requirements of an employee base of around 4000+ employees, involvement in stakeholder management at all levels and vendor management. As part of the Operational Excellence initiatives, she also got involved in preparing different business teams for their internal and external audits. During that time, Anju became interested in Ericsson’s Group Management System, which all legal entities had to comply with. She then moved into the newly formed Quality Department and helped them to gain various ISO certifications.  She was the Project Leader for implementing Ericsson’s Operational Maturity Model compliant to the requirements of ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 27001 and OHSAS 18001 (ISO 45001’s predecessor). Joining Blackmores as an ISO Consultant felt like a natural next step when she relocated to UK. She’s now been a member of our team for over six years, and continues to inspire others with her level of dedication to her work and clients. [13:35] What is Anju’s favourite aspect of being a Consultant? – The variation in daily activities is a big positive for Anju. One day she may be conducting a gap analysis for Environmental Management System for an IT company, and the next drafting policies and procedures for managing Events Sustainably for an Event Management company or auditing a client on their Information Security Management System. No two days are the same! She also enjoys being able to work with a wide range of clients across sectors like IT, construction, facilities, asset management, event management, and train operating companies, all ranging from small businesses to large, multi-site organisations. She particularly enjoys working on Integrated Management Systems, as they help clients save time and money by streamlining multiple standards into one cohesive system. It reduces duplication, improves efficiency, and encourages collaboration across teams—breaking down silos and building synergy. [15:50] Upcoming webinar: If you’d like to learn more about the benefits of integrated management systems, feel free to register for our upcoming webinar here. [17:30] What Standards does Anju specilaise in and why? Starting with: ·      ISO 9001 Quality Management: A core foundation that many businesses start with when diving into the world of ISO Standards. This is an essential one for any ISO consultant and is often the first Implementation experience for many who go on to become ISO consultants. ·      ISO 14001 Environmental Management: This Standard provides a solid base for any business looking to start taking sustainability seriously.     ·      ISO 45001 Health and Safety Management: Anju helped one of her previous employers implement this Standards’ predecessor, and has since implemented and supported ISO 45001 for a number of Blackmores clients.    ·      ISO 27001 Information Security Management: An increasingly popular Standard as we see more and more business rely on technology to keep their services running smoothly. ·      ISO 55001 Asset Management: A popular Standard within the facilities and public transportation sectors. This Standard aims to create a framework to help organisations manage the life-cycle of their assets. ISO 20121 Sustainable Event Management: ISO 20121 focuses on governing principles of sustainable development, which are: ·      Stewardship ·      Inclusion ·      Integrity ·      Transparency ISO 20121 was revised in 2024. The revised standard explicitly requires considering climate change and its impact on the event and stakeholders. The new version also expands beyond environmental concerns to encompass human and child rights, social impact (including mental health and diversity), and digital responsibility and how organisations should start considering these areas at the early stages of planning an event through post event activities. Recently, Anju has been busy in putting together the toolkit for transition to ISO 20121:2024 and preparing her clients with the implementation of the revised and new requirements. [21:10] What is the biggest challenge Anju had faced during a project and how did she overcome it?: Anju offers one experience in particular: She was working with a company that was implementing its first ISO Standard. The project not only involved creating and implementing standardised policies and procedures but also working on the overall change management within the business. The teams were used to working in silos for many years and were not very forthcoming with the idea of establishing and implementing standardised ways of working. This was due to various reasons, such as lack of awareness, operational activities taking precedence over risk and process-based approach. As a result, project leads struggled in getting support from the project sponsor and the extended project team in terms of time and effort. They had to put the project on halt for few months and only proceeded with the project after getting the full commitment from the sponsor and other project team members. During this time, ISO related roles and responsibilities were built into the job descriptions of the various stakeholders, these were agreed as part of the internal review processes and required time and effort for the different stakeholders within the business was agreed with the Management Team. At the end, this project helped the company to embed the standardised processes within the business, rather than it being just a tick in the box exercise to achieve certification. [25:35] What is Anju’s proudest achievement?  Anju’s proudest achievement in relation to work, is when she’s able to see a marked difference in the confidence level of her clients, from the start of the ISO implementation project, which is the gap analysis stage, to confidently facing the certification audit and demonstrating to the external assessors that the implementation of the ISO project was not just a tick in the box exercise for them. One achievement in particular stands out in recent months as she supported a client in successfully transitioning to the revised ISO 20121 standard. If you’d like any assistance with implementing ISO standards, get in touch with us, we’d be happy to help! We’d love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here’s how: ●     Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin ●     Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one. Subscribe to keep up-to-date with our latest episodes: Stitcher | Spotify | YouTube |iTunes | Soundcloud | Mailing List

One of the biggest challenges for those looking to achieve Net Zero is tackling scope 3 emissions, which are indirect emissions that typically reside in your supply chain. These can account for up to 70% of your total emissions and can be quite the undertaking to gather the necessary data to be able to complete your calculations needed for carbon verification. In the final episode of the Platform to Proof mini-series, we invite Jay Ruckelshaus, Co-Founder and Head of Policy and Partnerships at Gravity, back onto the podcast to explain how to tackle scope 3 emissions, how it works in practice and how carbon accounting software can streamline the process.   You’ll learn ·      What are scope 3 emissions? ·      What are the drivers for those tackling scope 3 emissions? ·      Where to start with scope 3 emissions ·      How does supply chain engagement work in practice? ·      What are the benefits for suppliers involved? ·      How can carbon accounting software help with scope 3 emissions?   Resources ·      Gravity ·      Carbonology   In this episode, we talk about: [02:05] Episode Summary – We introduce Jay Ruckelshaus, Co-Founder and Head of Policy and Partnerships at Gravity, who will accompany Mel on a 3-part mini-series diving into carbon accounting software and the value it can bring. In this final part, Mel and Jay dive into scope 3 emissions, the challenges associated with gathering them and how carbon accounting software can help streamline this process. [02:30] Catch-up on the first part – If you missed the first two parts of the series, catch-up with them here: ·      Part 1: From Platform To Proof – What Is The Business Driver For Carbon Accounting And Reporting? ·      Part 2: From Platform To Proof – How Carbon Accounting Software and Verification Combine for Carbon Compliance [03:50] What are scope 3 emissions?: The term ‘scope 3’ comes from a document and initiative called the GHG Protocol, which sets out the core methodology by which companies should measure account for their greenhouse gas emissions. It details 3 different scopes, scope 1 is your direct emissions (i.e. fuel for vehicle use ect), Scope 2 is grid emissions associated with purchased electricity or other forms of energy (i.e. energy for offices). Scope 3 is a very broad term and addresses the emissions created by your value / supply chain. This could include things like transportation of resources you require from a third-party.   These emissions can count to upwards of 70% of a companies total emissions, depending on the nature of the business that can even go as high as 90%! [06:50] What are the drivers for those tackling scope 3 emissions? Jay summaries 3 of the main drivers: Biggest emission source: For those looking to truly hit Net Zero, they can’t simply ignore their largest emission source. It poses the biggest risk to the company, so it’s in their best interest to reduce them where possible. Of course, this isn’t easy as it may involve swapping suppliers or working with existing ones to make their practices more sustainable. It’s not as straight forward as addressing your scope 1 and 2 emissions. Regulation requirement: Scope 3 is increasingly being included within mandatory regulations, whereas in previous years, it may have been a voluntary part of those requirements. For example, the new regulations coming into effect for California in 2026 will see around 10,000 companies needing to report on their scope 3 emissions. In the EU, regulations such as CSRD also require reporting on these emissions. Though these haven’t been made mandatory as of yet, we can see that changing in future. Stakeholder requirement changes: Customers and other stakeholders are asking for more evidence of meaningful sustainability action. Supply chain initiatives now are gearing more towards sustainable procurement, which coincides with the rise of CSR related activities. This drive to evaluate your supply chain is being pushed from all directions. [09:55] Where to start with scope 3 emissions: Likely stating the obvious, but ensure you have addressed your scope 1 and 2 emissions first. When looking to your scope 3 emissions, you’ll first need to determine which of the 15 emission categories is going to be important for your business to get a handle on. The nature of your business will determine which of the categories are a priority, so if you’re a digital service based business, then the raw materials category likely won’t be very appliable to you so you’d only need to provide a very high-level summary of any related emissions. For those categories that are a priority, you should identify how in-depth you would need to get with the data analytics, and create a strategy for each of those categories. If you’re struggling to start, there are some industry average statistics out there to help you with those initial calculations. It’s key to set up a defined measurement cycle, that will need the ability to get more granular as you progress. This is so you can actively track your reduction efforts. Of course, the level of this will be determined by the resource you and your suppliers have to help facilitate the process. It’s definitely worth investing in your supplier relationships to make this process run smoothly year on year. Some business that have say 100+ suppliers will often send out a survey to obtain this data, but the quality of the information returned (if any) can be lacking. So, a more direct approach will likely reap the results you’re after. Mel highlights an instance where an organisation had an engagement programme, where they selected 100 of their suppliers and provided training and guidance on understanding and reporting on their emissions. The suppliers could then see how beneficial the process was not just for that organisations, but for their own company as well. It’s more than just gathering data, it’s about effecting your sphere of influence for meaningful change. [14:15] How does supply chain engagement work in practice? As mentioned, one of the ways many organisations have opted to gather data have been through supplier surveys, however, you need to supplement this with other supplier initiatives to get the best results. Gravity took a more empathetic approach, by looking at this process from the suppliers perspective. They highlighted that this should just be an extractive exercise, the supplier should also be getting something out of this. One such way to do so would be to give them training and / or tools in order to measure their emissions so they can give you the data you need, and also have that data to share with their other customers. You can work with them to identify potential emission reductions and energy saving schemes that could save them money down the line. There are also a number of AI tools that can comb the web and look for any public carbon disclosures or ESG reports that suppliers may have already made. So this saves on the initial outreach and results in less burden for both parties. [17:10] What are the benefits for suppliers involved? By adding further requirements to your supplier relationship, it offers the opportunity to evaluate and develop your supplier engagement strategy. The suppliers can benefit both from your experience with carbon reporting, in addition to gaining access to the same tools you use to manage this. By helping them get a jump start on their carbon disclosures, they can benefits from being ahead of the curve if certain regulations haven’t effected them yet. We’re seeing these sustainability regulations trickle down to new sectors and smaller companies, so them having the data ready puts them at a great advantage. They can also potentially optimise their own processes and save money from the experience by using their data to identify where further reductions can be made. Those supplier reductions then benefit your organisation as your scope 3 emissions improve, it’s a win win situation.  [20:35] How can carbon accounting software help with scope 3 emissions? Using Gravity as an example, they’ve built a lot of tools that can take raw inventory and gather a lot of data concerning purchasing, logistics ect. This is all collated into one area where it can be analysed and used for calculations. They also have an AI agent that can comb the web for specific information that your suppliers may have publicly disclosed. An AI agent can also reach out directly to suppliers for further information which will be collated within your centralised system, checked for accuracy and put into a format that’s ready for reporting. This is all done with a full audit trail for transparency. If you’d like to learn more about Gravity and how their energy and carbon accounting software can help you, check out their website. If you’d like to ask Jay any questions directly, feel free to send him an email. If you’d like any assistance with Carbon Verification, get in touch with the Carbonology team, they’d be happy to help! We’d love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here’s how: ●     Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin ●     Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one. Subscribe to keep up-to-date with our latest episodes: Stitcher | Spotify | YouTube |iTunes | Soundcloud | Mailing List

As the sustainability crisis grows more pressing each passing year, companies are increasingly being required to comply with various sustainability regulations and legislation, most of which include the need to monitor and verify your carbon emissions. Calculating these carbon emissions can be tricky, especially if you have a lot of sites or international locations that require conversions. This is where dedicated carbon accounting software can save you a lot of headache! In the second episode of the Platform to Proof mini-series, we invite Jay Ruckelshaus, Co-Founder and Head of Policy and Partnerships at Gravity, back onto the podcast to discuss how carbon accounting software can be utilised on your carbon verification journey, and explore the additional benefits provided by this technology. You’ll learn ·      What is the role of carbon accounting platforms and how does carbon accounting software help to overcome the challenges that organisations are facing today? ·      How does carbon accounting software work? ·      What additional benefits are there from using carbon accounting software? ·      Why is carbon verification becoming increasingly important? ·      How can carbon accounting software encourage a culture shift?     Resources ·      Gravity ·      Carbonology   In this episode, we talk about: [02:05] Episode Summary – We introduce Jay Ruckelshaus, Co-Founder and Head of Policy and Partnerships at Gravity, who will accompany Mel on a 3-part mini-series diving into carbon accounting software and the value it can bring. In this second episode Mel and Jay explore how carbon accounting software and verification work together for carbon compliance, in addition to the other benefits companies can gain from utilising carbon software.   [02:30] Catch-up on the first part – If you missed our first episode in the series, go back and listen to that before continuing. It gives a more in-depth introduction to Jay, Gravity and carbon accounting software in general. [04:05] What is the role of carbon accounting platforms and how does carbon accounting software help to overcome the challenges that organisations are facing today?: Jay has had many conversations with those that have had challenges historically with gathering the data needed for carbon calculation and verification. As we see more regulations and legislation, this challenge is passed down to those just starting on their journey. Carbon accounting software can help ease the burden involved with these tasks. This can come in the form of making it easy to aggregate the data and doing the necessary calculations while maintaining a trail of where all that information comes from.   There’s also an audit trail available for the calculations done, which can be monitored and dug down further into. There’s scope in many dedicated carbon accounting platforms for you to be able to dig deeper into your data if needed. Lastly, this level of transparency in the data is often a requirement of going through full carbon verification in alignment with best practice standards (such as ISO 14064). Ultimately, carbon accounting software can make the verification process go a lot more smoothly. [09:05] How does carbon accounting software work? Jay breaks this down to help define the purpose of carbon accounting software, and the additional benefits it can bring, including: A centralised place for carbon data: Often times, businesses need to pull data from a wide variety of places, and collating that data is always a challenge. Dedicated software allows for easier collection and storage of data from all of the necessary sources, such as utilities, logistics and finance. Carbon accounting software will often allow for integrations that allow for existing systems to feed data into the software without any extra burden. With the addition of AI tools, they can even allow for automatic document processing that can interpret the meaning of utility bills, fuel invoices, waste receipts ect to save on manual data entry. Carbon calculation: Another headache associated with carbon reporting is the calculation utilising all that data you’ve painstakingly collected. There’re often additional layers such as conversion or emission factors that need to be considered when making these calculations. Carbon Accounting Software can do all of this for you, saving you the trouble and potential of making mistakes. This in addition to the transparency offered as the software will provide an audit trail to show how it arrived at the final numbers. Carbon Reporting: This isn’t a feature in all carbon related software, but it can be another time saver if you find one that does. The raw calculations data will only get you so far, and that alone may not be enough to meet the requirements of whichever framework you need to comply with. Carbon software can assist with putting those calculations into a usable reporting format. This report and data can then be analysed and used for meaningful action, in addition to complying with a number of different frameworks. Carbon reduction: Some carbon accounting software will also have the additional bonus of being able to help you source potential solutions and vendors to help reduce your carbon emissions. This more proactive stance on taking your findings and making improvements is voluntary in a lot of schemes currently, but we are seeing a rise in a mandatory requirements to show evidence of carbon reduction, so it’s better to get your head around this sooner rather than later. [15:20] Why is carbon verification becoming increasingly important? Sustainability is no longer isolated to one person or department in an organisation, there’s an increasing overlap of sustainability with other functions such as financial reporting. It also coincides with those working towards ESG compliance, as the data collection, calculations and reporting infrastructure for sustainability information can have a very big practical effect. The need for transparency regarding sustainability is also becoming a bigger concern for customers and stakeholders, so naturally, companies are taking it more seriously as more questions are being asked of them in that regard. Having the data and paper trails (or software trails if you prefer) to back up their claims is vital.   [19:20] How can carbon accounting software encourage a culture shift? Carbon accounting software is the glue that pulls all the elements of carbon compliance together. It’s often the case that the person responsible for the software in a company is crucial for the full verifications process as well. Though the gathering of data is a team process, and if embedded correctly, then it can act as a catalyst for a cultural shift towards sustainability. Not everyone has to have knowledge of all the inner workings of carbon collection, calculation and reporting, but by being involved in the process they can feel a sense of accomplishment when milestones are reached. By spreading the burden companies can also afford to spend a lot more time working on this than they would have otherwise. Carbon accounting software can help this along by ensuring the data gets where it needs to go, and to make the process simpler for all those involved. The use of both a team-based approach in tandem with dedicated software can also help in regard to risk mitigation by removing single points of failure. Carbon reporting and verification is an annual task, so when people come and go from the business, it’s key that you have the necessary skills, people and tools to help facilitate that process through those organisational changes. If you’d like to learn more about Gravity and how their energy and carbon accounting software can help you, check out their website. If you’d like to ask Jay any questions directly, feel free to send him an email. If you’d like any assistance with Carbon Verification, get in touch with the Carbonology team, they’d be happy to help! We’d love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here’s how: ●     Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin ●     Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one. Subscribe to keep up-to-date with our latest episodes: Stitcher | Spotify | YouTube |iTunes | Soundcloud | Mailing List

One of the biggest hurdles for businesses when embarking on their journey to net zero is the calculation required for carbon verification. Depending on the nature and size of a business, it can be quite the undertaking! Those looking to tackle this challenge have various options available to them, including the use of dedicated carbon accounting software, which we’ll explore in our latest mini-series: From Platform to Proof. In the first episode of this series, we introduce Jay Ruckelshaus, Co-Founder and Head of Policy and Partnerships at Gravity, to explore the key drivers behind carbon accounting and reporting and how you can maximise value from going through the process. You’ll learn ·      Who is Jay Ruckelshaus? ·      Who are Gravity? ·      Why do businesses measure their carbon footprint? ·      Why is the language of business value becoming more important for sustainability professionals? ·      What are the key drivers for carbon accounting? ·      How has GHG emissions reporting helped to drive business value? ·      What should businesses be thinking about to maximise business value? ·      How can businesses keep up with ever changing sustainability legislation? ·      The importance of data quality ·      How can carbon accounting software help?     Resources ·      Gravity ·      Carbonology   In this episode, we talk about: [02:05] Episode Summary – We introduce Jay Ruckelshaus, Co-Founder and Head of Policy and Partnerships at Gravity, who will accompany Mel on a 3-part mini-series diving into carbon accounting software and the value it can bring. In this first episode, they explore the key drivers behind carbon accounting and reporting, and how businesses can maximise the value from the process. [03:10] Who is Jay Ruckelshaus? Jay’s involvement in sustainability was almost an inevitability, coming from a family of environmental lawyers. Energy, climate and sustainability were topics that often came up at the dinner table, and so it remained a subject near and dear to his heart. Initially, Jay thought he would remain in the academic world, studying polarisation and exploring how energy intensive industries think about sustainability. He found his enthusiasm spiked when working directly with companies and individuals on these topics. As a result, he broke out of the academic world to join forces with a few technology leaders to develop a solution to help businesses measure and reduce their emissions. [04:45] Who are Gravity?: Jay founded Gravity 4 years ago (2021). It provides a carbon and energy management platform, which assists businesses with compliance to the alphabet soup of sustainability legislation currently in effect, such as CSRD and TCFD. This platform also uses the data collected to help businesses find and invest in projects to help reduce their emissions, which ultimately saves on energy, costs and utilities. Their aim was to make it easier for businesses to report their emissions, by streamlining the collection process, and using the data to pre-qualify potential vendors that would fit the businesses needs when it comes to the reduction phase. Jay initially started with emissions heavy industries such as construction, manufacturing logistics, utilities, metals, mining, energy ect. These are industries where data collection can be very challenging, so it provided a very solid base for their software so that it could tackle these challenges first and provide a way for them to work with various e-commerce, software companies and financial institutions, all within one system. [09:05] Why do businesses measure their carbon footprint? Historically, back in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, sustainability was often wrapped up in the wider corporate social responsibility movement. We’ve seen a lot of change in the last decade, where we used to have strictly voluntary schemes such as CSR, that are now transitioning into a requirement. Whether that be by stakeholders or legislation. We’ve also seen a greater interest in ESG metrics, which require solid figures to back up your claims. This trend follows from the introduction of mandatory legislation from the European Union’s CSRD, which is trickling into California law as around 10,000 companies of a certain size that operate in California must now disclose their carbon emissions. [11:40] Why is the language of business value becoming more important for sustainability professionals? It wasn’t too long ago that sustainability professionals were lumped in with groups that managed general social responsibility. We’re seeing more dedicated and senior roles in relation to sustainability, such as ‘Chief Sustainability Officer’. These roles now integrate with most every branch of an organisation, from the financial reporting to the general strategy for the business. It becomes a central part of the business. Its role can reap many benefits for businesses that embed it effectively, including cost cutting, energy reduction, creation or use of innovative products, opening doors to new markets and investment opportunities. [14:15] What are the key business drivers for carbon accounting? There are many benefits for carbon accounting, such as: - Saving energy: Energy prices are volatile, and often on the rise. Carbon accounting allows you to have a full view on what you’re consuming and where you can reduce or look to more efficient options. Building in sustainability from the top down: With increasing scrutiny from stakeholder and consumers regarding sustainability, it’s in leaderships interest to ensure that sustainability is embedded in your business strategy. This alignment sets you up well for the future, In addition to creating an avenue to reap other benefits from meaningful sustainability action. New opportunities: Embarking on your sustainability journey will open many new doors. Whether this be for innovative new technology, new partners and suppliers that better align with your values, or access to new investment opportunities. [18:05] How has GHG emissions reporting helped to drive business value? Businesses that get their emissions verified against ISO 14064 can benefit from improved insurance rates and access to green finance. It’s also a necessary step towards energy and cost savings. You can’t reduce what you can’t measure. Doing this correctly will require time and resources, thankfully we’re at a time where there are a lot of tools to help businesses with data collection for reporting purposes. The key is to understand where you currently stand, and where you can make improvements. From there you can look at vendors to assist and what financing is available to help facilitate the required changes.   Jay states an example of where Gravity managed to save a US based aluminum foundry over $400,000 in energy costs from their initial assessment. This was achieved through identifying energy hotspots and finding vendors and initiatives to help reduce the energy use and costs. [21:15] What should businesses be thinking about to maximise business value?: The biggest challenge for carbon accounting is typically gathering the data. There are a lot of things to consider, facility energy usage, travel, home workers ect. To make this easier, you should ideally have a centralised location to report and track your emissions data. You also need to ensure that this is as accurate as possible. In order to make sure this doesn’t turn into an annual tick-box exercise, you need to embed proactive processes for monitoring and measuring this data. This way, when you have anomalies in energy usage, you can identify these quickly and put plans in place to address it. [24:25] How can businesses keep up with ever changing sustainability legislation? In recent years, the goal posts for specific sustainability regulation and legislation has changed a lot. This is in part due to convergence that is happening between the frameworks, countries and Governments adopting the best bits out of other requirements to make theirs more robust. So, while a lot of the information they’re asking for is largely the same, it can still be very confusing to navigate. Jay advises that businesses focus on getting a core system for reporting, monitoring and measuring energy usage and carbon emissions in place. Depending on the requirements that you need to adhere to, you can slice and dice that data up however it’s needed, but setting up a unified approach that’s embedded throughout your business to get the data needed is they key. [28:40] The Importance of data quality: Your first attempt at this process will likely be rough and ready. Gathering the basics of what’s available such as utility bills and general energy usage. Presenting this estimation can make for a great business case to put in place measures to get more granular data. The more granular the data, the more insightful it can be, offering you more opportunities to save money and implement reduction initiatives. This data will reveal trends, form benchmarks and present opportunities for meaningful action that benefits both the business and the environment, all while satisfying your legal and regulatory requirements. [30:50] How can carbon accounting software help?: Data collection is hard, getting the data where you need it to be can be nightmare, especially when multiple departments are involved. Having a centralised location makes this task a lot easier. Calculating this data into something usable is also tricky, and would likely require a skillset that you won’t have readily available. This may also involve knowledge of conversion factors if you have multiple international locations. Having a system that can manage all of this, while using methodologies that are in alignment with best practice standards is crucial. Lastly, technology such as carbon accounting software, can really help with creating a proactive approach to the measurement and reporting process. It can reveal anomalies and trends to be acted on, as it can help source vendors and projects to help with emission reductions. If you’d like to learn more about Gravity and how their energy and carbon accounting software can help you, check out their website. If you’d like any assistance with Carbon Verification, get in touch with the Carbonology team, they’d be happy to help! We’d love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here’s how: ●     Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin ●     Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one. Subscribe to keep up-to-date with our latest episodes: Stitcher | Spotify | YouTube |iTunes | Soundcloud | Mailing List

Minoo Agarwal, a QHSE Consultant at Blackmores and ISO 14001 champion, shares her unique journey into ISO consulting, inspired by her father. She discusses the challenges of implementing ISO standards, the joy of helping clients prepare for audits, and the importance of personal connections in her work. Minoo also reflects on how her family background shaped her career, emphasizing a blend of passion and dedication to quality management that drives her success.

The process of verifying your carbon emissions requires a lot of data gathering, number crunching and in some cases conversion if you’re international. It’s certainly no small task! However, it’s worth the effort. With it completed you will have a much better idea of your current impact and be able to make better informed decisions on how to reduce it. When starting out on your verification journey you’ll need to start with calculating your scope 1 & 2 emissions, these are the direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that your business is responsible for. That alone can be quite a mammoth task, especially if you have a lot of locations worldwide, such is the case as today’s guest: Culligan. In this episode, Mel is joined by Martin Murden, ESG Manager at Culligan International, to discuss why Culligan started their verification journey, the key insights uncovered, and the challenges involved with calculating emissions for a large international organisation.   You’ll learn ·      Who is Martin Murden? ·      Who are Culligan International? ·      Why are Culligan seeking third-party verification for scope 1 & 2? ·      Key insights uncovered as a result of verification ·      What changes have they made to their data collection processes? ·      How did internal teams find the experience? ·      How have Culligan utilised verified data? ·      What is the biggest misconception about the verification process?     Resources ·      Culligan International ·      Carbonology ·      Culligan 2024 ESG Report     In this episode, we talk about: [02:05] Episode Summary – Mel Blackmore is joined by Martin Murden, ESG Manager at Culligan, to discuss their carbon verification journey and explore the challenges associated with calculating scope 1 & 2 emissions for a large international organisation.     [03:25] Who is Martin Murden? Martin is an ESG Manager at Culligan, his role focuses more on the environmental aspect of ESG compliance. His main role involves looking after Culligan’s carbon emissions, carbon reduction plan, evaluating use of resources and exploring initiatives to reduce their current impact. One fun fact that not many people know about Martin, one of his ancestors was involved in the creation of Turkish delight! [06:25] Who are Culligan International? Culligan International are a global leader in water services. Their solutions provide cleaner, safer, better tasting water. While not a household name here in the UK, chances are if you’re refilling a bottle from a cooler, it’s likely derived from one of Culligan’s brands. They own over 100 businesses in over 40 countries, with more than 600 sites ranging from warehouses and offices to production and water bottling plants. They also manage 7000 vehicles which help with delivering, installing and maintaining their equipment. With over 15,000 people working at Culligan, it’s clear to say that it’s a large organisation with a lot of moving parts. They keep sustainability at the heart of their business, working to discourage the use of single use plastic, and looking at other ways to reduce their impact via their supply chain. [08:45] Why did Culligan seek third-party carbon verification? – There were a few reasons, including: - Regulatory requirements: Being a global business, there are a number of mandatory reporting requirements coming down the pipeline in certain countries they operate in, such as Australia and Mexico, Canada, California. Accuracy: Part of these requirements is assuring the transparency and accuracy of the data. Third-party assurance is essential to meet mandatory reporting requirements, in addition to being an added level of assurance for stakeholders. From an internal point of view, it also gives the ESG team more confidence in the gathered data, allowing them to form a more robust baseline for their decarbonisation strategy. [10:15] Culligan’s decarbonisation strategy – In 2024, Culligan published a number of commitments, one of those was to reduce its scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 40% by 2035. They built a decarbonisation plan based on information that they had available internally. This consisted of looking at vehicle fleet use and facilities use, how large they are and what kind of energy sources they use. They also spoke to individual business units to understand where it may be possible to switch to renewable energy sources, how initial energy use could be reduced and making use of lower carbon vehicles. They were confident in their ability to reduce their impact, but they needed that third-party assurance that their initial baseline was as accurate as possible. [11:35] Is this the first time Culligan has gone through a formal verification process?  – While they have measured their carbon emissions since 2022, they have never formally gone through the full verification process before. [11:55] How did they prepare for the formal verification process? – The first step was selecting a reputable carbon verification body to verify their calculations. They opted to go ahead with Carbonology, spending a lot of time with their assigned auditor to: ·      Understand what the requirements were ·      Ascertain what the priorities were ·      Understand what evidence was required They also needed to clearly communicate internally so that all their stakeholders and data owners were aware of what was required from them and when they needed to provide it by. Martin has found that over the past 3 years of collating data required for carbon emission calculations, they have greatly improved their level of accuracy and accountability. With the goal of carbon verification providing a much-needed focus, they’ve been able to identify potential gaps in their evidence received from local data owners. [14:10] How did Culligan find the experience of working with Carbonology?:- They were pleasantly surprised! ISO Standard audits can be daunting at the best of times as you’re not really sure what to expect, however, Carbobology were great at guiding the process so it all ran smoothly. This included a process of daily review meetings and establishing a daily agenda and priorities. Martin found himself looking forward to those meetings as they opened up the opportunity to discuss how to improve the accuracy of data in addition to the collection methods.    [16:05] What were the key insights Culligan found when going through the carbon verification process? – They certainly had a few surprises along the way, mostly positive, including: - Exposing inaccuracies: There were cases of inaccuracies in their original data, where data owners accidentally added an extra 0, or accidentally selected gigawatt hours instead of kilowatt hours when uploading submissions. Going through this process allowed them to tidy up their data. Identifying high energy usage: Using this updated accurate data, they could then identify what sites had a higher-than-average rate of energy consumption. Holistic approach: The data provided a fuller picture of where their emissions were over or understated. They could then interrogate any irregularities and look at where improvements could be made, in addition to updating their data collection methods where necessary. [18:35] What changes have Culligan made to their data collection and reporting process as a result of verification? – They’re now looking at other options for collecting data. Ideally, they’d like to connect their data to a centralised sources, rather than having to approach each business individually. With over 100 businesses owned, you can appreciate that this is quite a time consuming task! There are other opportunities such as getting API links in place directly with their back office systems and utility providers, so that manual intervention isn’t required. Technology related to carbon data collection is advancing each year, there are a number of platforms that can make this process more efficient. For example, Culligan are looking into OCR software that can read PDF supplier invoices so that this no longer has to be a manual activity. Looking forward, they would like to capture evidence needed for the audit process at the point of data entry, rather than having to ask data owners a second time to provide copies of invoices they’d already populated in a different database. [20:55] Were there any unexpected challenges or collaboration as a result of the carbon verification process? – Martin was expecting some pushback, however he was pleasantly surprised with the amount of buy-in they had from local business units. It seemed they really understood the benefits to the business on their level and for Culligan as a whole. As they’d been collating data for a few years now, a process was already in place meaning there was minimal work to do on their end. Many of their local businesses have found it a real benefit to have this information available, as many clients and prospective clients are asking about their sustainability credentials. Also, having credible third-party verification validating their claims gives them a step up from competitors, in addition to providing those clients assurance that Culligan followed due diligence. [23:05] What additional value has third-party verification provided? –The main benefits were strengthening stakeholder trust and improved reporting confidence internally. The initial reactions that Culligan had from colleagues once they’d shared the news that they’d passed the accreditation was an extremely positive one. Shortly after they were inundated with requests from their global business units for copies of the ISO certificate provided by Carbonology, so that they could share it with their clients and customers. It's also provided some much-needed confidence to the ESG team in terms of combatting claims of greenwashing. With verification against the internally recognised standard ISO 14064, they know they won’t have anyone challenging the validity of their carbon emission figures. [25:00] How else will the verified data be utilised across Culligan? – Sustainability is a key focus for Culligan, this information provides a starting point for meaning reduction in their impact, in addition to satisfying stakeholder requirements and requests for the data. It short, it benefits everyone. Culligan have recently published their 3rd annual ESG report, and the verification is referred to regularly throughout that report, in addition to their external communications throughout the year. This step has shown that they’re not simply jumping on the Net Zero bandwagon, they want to really understand their impact so that they can make meaningful change. In the short-term, they’re looking to tackle their scope 3 emissions within the next 12 months, and hopefully get third-party verification for those as well.   [27:15] What are Culligan’s medium and long terms goals for sustainability? – Scope 3 is the next thing they want to tackle, however, that will not be a small undertaking. They used predominantly purchased goods and services data to estimate their upstream emissions, so they need to hone in on those and ensure that they retain the same level of accuracy and consistency as the process used to calculate the scope 1 and 2 emissions. The ESG journey is not linear, and will constantly adapt and flex as they move forward. Their main goal is simply to reduce emissions, through a reduction in resources used and the promotion of sustainability efforts such as reducing the use of single use plastic. [29:05] What is the biggest misconception about the verification process? – For Martin, this is the fear of the unknown. For a large organisation like Culligan, this was daunting at first. Having to communicate to all their different stakeholders what the requirements are and what data and evidence was needed. For the verification process, it was a worry if they were in for a long and painful process. In actuality, it was 8 days worth of preparation followed by 8 days of reviewing, which was much more painless than anticipated! It’s all about establishing effective processes to manage this task on an annual basis. It will soon become business as usual, so the burden will reduce year on year. It can be challenging to start with, which is where third-party expertise can help fill the gaps in your knowledge. [31:35] Martin’s book recommendations – The Coming Storm: Why water will write the 21st century by Liam Fox [26:35] Martin’s favorite quotes – ‘We don't need 100 perfect activists, but millions of imperfect ones’ – Clover Hogan founder of Force of Nature. ‘Preserve wildlife. Pickle a squirrel.’ – Philosophy from a London bathroom stall. If you’d like to learn more about Culligan, check out their Website and Linkedin. If you’d like any assistance with Carbon Verification, feel free to get in touch with Carbonology, they’d be happy to help. We’d love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here’s how: ●     Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin ●     Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one. Subscribe to keep up-to-date with our latest episodes: Stitcher | Spotify | YouTube |iTunes | Soundcloud | Mailing List

Andrew Barnes, Head of Asset Management at Greater Anglia, shares his expertise in navigating the complexities of ISO 55001 certification. He discusses lessons learned during their three years of recertification, focusing on effective asset management strategies that minimize risk and enhance service levels. From humorous anecdotes about his early career to insights on preparing for ISO standards, Barnes emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and innovation in the transportation sector, shedding light on how they keep operations running smoothly.

ISO certification is more than just earning a certificate, and it requires continuous maintenance to both retain certification and drive effective improvements. Over the course of your 3-year certification cycle, you will need to ensure your Management System is regularly updated and reviewed so that it remains relevant to the way you’re currently working. That in addition to annual tasks such as internal auditing and management review, it can be a lot to keep on top of. Which is why some turn to external ISO Support. In this episode, Steph Churchman explains what ISO Support is, the challenges of managing ISO internally and the benefits of external support. You’ll learn ·      What is ISO Support? ·      What tasks can you outsource ·      Challenges of managing ISO internally ·      What are the benefits of ISO Support?   Resources ·      Isologyhub ·      ISO Support Plan   In this episode, we talk about: [02:05] Episode Summary – Steph explains what is meant by ISO Support, explains the challenges with managing ISO internally and the benefits of engaging in external support.   [02:20] What is ISO Support? ISO certification involves a 3-year cycle, where you will be subjected to an annual Surveillance audit by your certification body. On year 3, you will need to undertake a recertification audit, which will determine if you can keep your ISO certification. During that cycle, you will be required to complete annual tasks such as internal auditing, documentation updates and management review to ensure that your management system is effective in driving continual improvement. ISO Support is a service provided by an external party to help facilitate the management of these annual tasks, usually undertaken by a dedicated ISO consultancy. [03:40] What tasks can be outsourced? To learn about what tasks can be outsourced, check out a previous episode. [03:55] ISO Management Challenge #1: Internal auditors not being comfortable about auditing their peers - It may be the case that certain individuals do no get on, however if someone manages a key process or area of the business, they still need to be audited. There’s also the chance for auditors to be misunderstood, or have trouble getting the answers they need from auditees. Auditing requires the ability to effectively communicate and make yourself understood. It’s quite common for auditees to ask for further clarification on questions asked, so you need to be able to work with them so that they understand what you’re really asking. [04:45] ISO Management Challenge #2: Internal auditors not being particularly objective or impartial when auditing leadership – It can be hard to be impartial towards leadership, even if it is ultimately in their best interest! These dynamics can be habitual, but by not pointing out genuine issues or opportunities for improvement, you dimmish the purpose of the exercise. This also involves any leadership being receptive to feedback given. If this hasn’t been taken well in the past, it’s understandable for individuals to be hesitant doing so again, even if it’s a necessary part of the process. [05:35] ISO Management Challenge #3: Fed up with paying for training for a high turnover of internal auditors - Internal Auditing will require a qualification, which will cost money. It’s not a tremendous amount for these courses, but it would be an extra thing to budget for, and then there’s factoring the time to complete the course which takes away from that individuals other responsibilities. It can also be frustrating when your only Internal Auditor moves on and so you have to train another. Depending on the business, this could happen quite frequently and so ends up being a repetitive expense. You will also need to ensure any current auditors are competent to audit against any new ISO Standards that you may add along the way. [06:35] ISO Management Challenge #4: Managers not having time to update processes - Your Management system is likely owned by either just 1 individual or by a small team within the business. Those involved will already have their plates full with day-to-day operations, and anything ISO related is just another task to add onto that pile. In the eyes of many, they may seem unimportant in comparison, and will continually get shuffled down the priority list until it’s time for a Surveillance Audit. There will also be a certain amount of documentation to review and update on a regular basis. Even those with mature systems can experience trouble with duplicated processes, or confusion with old versions, and finding the time to sit and refresh all of that is often hard to accomplish. [07:30] ISO Management Challenge #5: Managers not aware of their legal, regulatory or ISO Standards requirements - As ISO Standards lay out best practice, they do require businesses to be aware of and adhere to relevant legislation and regulations. Managers will likely not be an expert in ISO Standards or legislation, so it can be easy for things to get missed if they’ve not had sufficient training beforehand. It will take time for relevant individuals within a business to be trained, or complete CPD to be fully competent to ensure full ISO and legal compliance. [08:25] ISO Management Challenge #6: Not updating key information i.e. Risk Register, BCP’s, environmental/energy metrics - Monitoring and measuring is a big part of ISO Management. You need to document certain metrics if you want to track them effectively. You will also need to update key documentation, as nothing stays the same forever. Major business changes may prompt updates to key policies and procedures. You may have opportunities to improve that fall out of audits that require certain documentation to be updated. Or correcting things where non-conformities have been raised. These updates are necessary to keep the momentum of a management system going. It needs to grow with you, which it will fail to do if everything documented is only applicable to how your business operated a few years ago. [09:15] ISO Management Challenge #7: Not reviewing key information i.e. Objectives, Environmental/H & S/Data Security trends - Objectives is another key metric that should be reviewed on a regular basis. To not only establish if you are making progress with them, but also to possibly adjust if the original plans were too lofty. They should still be a challenge to obtain, but we’re all only human and sometimes our first estimates about what’s achievable might be a tad too ambitious. There is also a need to review audit results to see if there’s any trends in areas such as info sec, sustainability and risk. This could be opportunities for improvement or some reoccurring issues that need to be addressed. All of this monitoring is going to require dedicated time from relevant personal, including feeding back results and following through with further actions. [10:55] ISO Support Benefit #1: Expertise and Specialisation - Dedicated ISO consultants will keep you up-to-date with the latest standard revisions, interpretations, and best practices. This includes their experience with helping businesses to plan and conduct annual maintenance. They are there as a guiding hand and can be a great sounding board for you if you have questions surrounding ideas or actions that you’re unsure about.  Their help ensures your system is maintained effectively and most importantly, compliantly. [11:40] ISO Support Benefit #2: Cost Savings - While there's a fee for outsourcing, it’s often more cost-effective than maintaining an in-house team or dedicating significant internal resources. As mentioned earlier, you would need qualified internal auditors at the very least, this will require training costs. You also need to consider the time taken out of individual’s typical working schedule to be able to conduct annual ISO maintenance, this will take away from their day-to-day tasks. We took this into consideration when creating our ISO Support Plan option, which is a 3-year contract that allows you to stay at a fixed rate for those 3-years. It’s a set it and forget it approach to ISO Support, which is flexible on both the number of days required annually in addition to the tasks you’d like support with. [12:35] ISO Support Benefit #3: Reduced Workload for Internal Staff - It’s often the case that Individuals, especially in SMEs, often wear many hats. Adding ISO maintenance onto that will impact on their day-to-day activities. Outsourcing frees up their time and resources, allowing them to focus on core business activities rather than the complexities of ISO maintenance. A lot of people don’t take training into consideration for people who get handed the task of maintaining a management system. It’s a lot of unnecessary stress when they’ve likely already got enough on their plate. Outsourcing will take a lot of that burden away, and give them a chance to lean on consultant guidance and be able to learn how to manage the tasks without fear of jeopardising the company’s certification.  [13:30] ISO Support Benefit #4: Impartiality and Objectivity - An external consultant can offer an unbiased perspective on your management system's performance, identifying areas for improvement that might be overlooked by internal staff due to familiarity, bias or ingrained practices. A fresh pair of eyes can provide a lot of valuable insight, in addition to their lessons learned from other clients. It also helps to have another unbiased voice on your side if you have suggestions for improvement that need presenting to leadership. It should also be noted that impartial audits are a requirement of ISO Standards, this is so you’re not marking your own homework all the time. It’s another level of assurance that you are doing what you say you’re doing. [14:20] ISO Support Benefit #5: Continuity and Risk Mitigation - Employee turnover can disrupt internal ISO maintenance. Outsourcing provides continuity, as any external provider will be available for the duration of an agreed contract, there’s no ambiguity on how long you have their support for. They will help you plan out what needs to be done, and facilitate this with the relevant individuals within your business. [15:00] ISO Support Benefit #6: Improved Efficiency and Effectiveness - External specialists will have the experience to help streamline processes and tools for maintenance activities. Making the system and it’s running more efficient, leaving you with more time to implement worthwhile changes that reap tangible results. Having their guidance from the start means you’ll be hitting the ground running. At Blackmores, we ensure that annual activities are planned out in advance so everyone can be prepared and work on a consistent schedule. [15:40] ISO Support Benefit #7: Enhanced Compliance and Audit Readiness - Outsourced consultants are going to be more adept at ensuring the system remains fully compliant with ISO standards. As they can proactively identify and address non-conformities that could easily be missed by those with significantly less auditing experience. There is a level of experience that is tricky to achieve if you do not regularly conduct internal audits. Consultants know what to look for, and will often have significant industry experience to know what stones to unturn to find issues and opportunities. Afterall, that is the purpose of internal audits, to not only check that process, policies and procedures are being followed, but to seek out where you can be doing better, or fixing issues as your business changes and adapts. [16:40] ISO Support Benefit #8: Focus on Core Business Activities - By offloading the burden of ISO maintenance, you can re-allocate your focus and resources to core business activities and strategic initiatives. ISO Consultants can take a lot of the mental burden of managing ISO systems away. There will still be homework to do on your side, as ultimately, you know how your business works best, but a consultant will guide you through what needs to be done. We know that many of you tasked with ISO compliance in your business have another primary role that requires a lot more of your attention. So make it easier on yourselves with the help of an expert, so you can get on and do what you need to do with minimal interruption. [17:30] ISO Support Benefit #9: Potential for Scalability and Flexibility - Outsourced services can often be scaled up or down based on the business's needs, offering flexibility that an internal team might not be able to provide, especially during periods of growth, crisis or during large projects. ISO Consultants can help either pick up the slack or give you more of the rope to handle annual ISO maintenance depending on what you need or want. At Blackmores, we have an ISO Support Plan that can be tailored to your exact needs, including the options to complete tasks such as:- ·      Conducting impartial internal audits ·      Providing surveillance support ·      Updating legal registers ·      Documentation updates ·      Conducting annual management reviews With 3 levels of support available, we have no issue with you increasing or decreasing days required each year, or varying the tasks depending on where you need the most support. If you’d like any assistance with ISO Support, feel free to get in touch with us, we’d be happy to help. We’d love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here’s how: ●     Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin ●     Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one. Subscribe to keep up-to-date with our latest episodes: Stitcher | Spotify | YouTube |iTunes | Soundcloud | Mailing List

ISO Standards are often a must have due to stakeholder requirements, whether that’s from your customers, investors or regulators. The need for multiple ISO certifications is also becoming more common, which can become a tricky task to juggle if you’re managing these as separate systems. The solution? An Integrated Management System. In this episode, Steph Churchman explains what an integrated management system is, how the Annex SL format facilitates integration and the benefits and challenges involved with an IMS. You’ll learn ·      What is an Integrated Management System? ·      Why consider an IMS? ·      What is the Annex SL format? ·      What are the benefits of an IMS? ·      What are the challenges of implementing an IMS?     Resources ·      Isologyhub   In this episode, we talk about: [02:05] Episode Summary – Steph explains what an Integrated Management System is, how the Annex SL format makes this possible and dives into the benefits and challenges associated with an IMS. [02:20] What is an Integrated Management System? Often abbreviated to ‘IMS’, it simply refers to a management system based off certification to or alignment with multiple ISO Standards. For example, a company may be certified to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 but will only have 1 Management system rather than 3 sperate systems. [03:30] What is the Annex SL format? The Annex SL format was applied to most ISO Standards back in 2015. This format helped to create a consistent 10 clause structure which makes it simple to integrate multiple ISO Standards. Before this was introduced, not all Standard clauses aligned, making it difficult to audit against and combine with other Standards, even if they had similar requirements. [04:00] The Annex SL 10 Clause Structure explained:– ·      The first 3 clauses are explanatory clauses. These give you more context for the purpose of the standards, as well as providing a helpful glossary of terms and definitions that you’ll come across in the Standard. These clauses aren’t audited against ·      Clause 4 - Context of the Organisation: This is where you’ll be establishing your scope, your interested parties and looking at where your risks and opportunities are. It’s setting the foundation for your Management system. ·      Clause 5 Leadership: This is where you’ll need commitment from top management. They will need to be involved with tasks such as establishing key policies, assigning roles & responsibilities and communicating the Management System once you’re ready to launch it. ·      Clause 6 Planning: This is where you will look at the risks and opportunities raised during the context phase and plan what actions you’ll take to address them. This is in addition to setting your business objectives. ·      Clause 7 Support: This is where you will establish the resources you have available to create and facilitate the running of the Management system. This clause gives you guidance for considerations such as people, infrastructure, monitoring and measurement needs, competence of staff and key communication requirements. ·      Clause 8 Operation: This clause is where the main differences can be found between ISO Standards. It provides guidance on considerations for key processes and procedures relating to the Standard focus. ISO 9001 for example contains a rather chunky clause 8 as it details requirements for products and services, including the development and provision of them. While ISO 27001’s clause 8 focuses more on information security risk assessments and risk treatment plans. ·      Clause 9 Performance Evaluation: This is where you establish the who, what and when involved in the monitoring, measurement and evaluation of your management system. This is also where Internal Auditing requirements are detailed. ·      Clause 10 Continual Improvement: This is the driving force of all ISO Standards. In this last clause you’ll find requirements for Management review and non-conformity and corrective action. That’s simply about reviewing the effectiveness of the Management system and putting plans in place to correct any non-conformities raised, or act on any of those opportunities for improvement. [08:00] IMS Benefit #1: Cost Saving – ISO Implementation can get costly, especially if you’re investing in a consultancy to help you in addition to the certification body costs involved in the actual assessment. You can save money by implementing multiple standards at the same time. At Blackmores, we’re happy to help you implement multiple ISO’s at the same time. This saves on the time spent if you were to do them separately, as we typically combine elements of the selected standards in project days such as during a Gap analysis, document creation and internal audits. On the certification body side, you can save on assessment days by assessing against an integrated management system, rather than assessing against 2 separate management systems. Many will do their best to accommodate integrated assessment and surveillance audits. [09:05] IMS Benefit #2: Reduced Duplication and Increased Efficiency - There are elements of a Management system that you can combine to not only save money but also reduce document and process duplication, which leads to a more efficient system. We’ve seen companies trying to manage separate systems over the years, and often times they end up just causing confusion, or only being adhered to by specific departments within a business. This results in duplicated work as shared elements of compliance are being managed in two different ways, often with slightly different styles of documents. Save yourself the trouble and headache by integrating all relevant management system documentation into 1 system. It makes it so much easier to update and keep on top of, and to enable it to act as a real tool for continual improvement rather than being thought of as a chore to upkeep. [10:10] IMS Benefit #3: Improved Communication and Collaboration - An integrated system encourages communication between all elements of your business. This holistic approach is often broken down into silos for select departments to focus on select objectives, which in turn encourages invested teamwork which will contribute to the business’s success as a whole. Internal Audits will also allow employees from every level to feedback to the system, highlighting key areas for improvement that could be rolled out. We see a lot of companies leveraging integrated management systems in various ways, often using them as a springboard to launch company wide initiatives that encourage further collaboration. These are then tracked, monitored and reported on in a similar way to other company objectives, all guided by the processes put in place by the Management system. [11:20] IMS Benefit #4: Enhanced Risk Management - Integrating multiple Standards will mean you have greater comprehension and risk assessment of multiple different aspects across your business, such as quality, environmental and Health & Safety. Many start with ISO 9001, as that’s a fantastic solid foundation for a Management system, it builds in all the core policies and procedures needed to run a business smoothly, but it doesn’t touch on the specifics of environmental management or information security. For that, you’d need to integrate other standards to ensure you have robust measures to tackle those other elements. [12:15] IMS Benefit #5: Streamlined Auditing Processes - Internal Audits act as a good measure of where things are going right and wrong, in addition to being a dummy run for your certification assessment if it’s your first time going through the process. Internal Audits are also an element which can be combined, this allows you to save time for the auditees, which reduces the amount of disruption they may cause overall. It also reduces the overall amount of audit reports for review, saving a duplication of effort on auditing similar elements across multiple standards. [13:00] IMS Benefit #6: Better Decision-Making - By having a more unified view of all processes and performance across different management areas, leadership can make more informed decisions. ISO Standards require a Management Review, which is where you can review audit findings and put plans in place to resolve any non-conformities and address any opportunities for improvement. Don’t forget to highlight any achievements and lessons learned too! As these can be applied elsewhere in the business. [14:00] IMS Benefit #7: Increased Stakeholder Confidence - ISO Standards are a mark of best practice, they are an internationally recognised seal of approval that proves your commitment to either quality, safety and sustainability. This competitive advantage will also serve you when going for funding or to tender. [14:40] IMS Benefit #8: Improved Organizational Performance and Culture - An integrated Management system ensures that everyone is unified in their way of working. It also fosters a culture of continual improvement, that encourages participation from all levels within the business. Having a central integrated system makes things simple for everyone to understand. No one has to search out different processes for a separate quality and environmental management system, when they could all be combined and stored in 1 location. An integrated management system approach also allows for you to collaborate across multiple different focus areas such as quality, safety and sustainability. Objectives for each can be siloed and focused on by select departments, but can still be contributed to from any part of the business. Be open about the results in different areas of the business and encourage suggestions for improvement, this is how you’ll foster a culture of continuous Improvement. [16:05] IMS Challenge #1: Initial set-up and resourcing - Implementing ISO Standards aren’t a small task. If you’re implementing multiple ISO Standards from the start, you’ll need to consider the people, time and expertise needed to complete the task. This may include the assistance of a dedicated ISO consultancy, as they’ll have the expertise to guide you through the process smoothly. At Blackmores, we can help you implement an IMS that is bespoke to the way you work. It may be tempting to go with an out of the box solution, but these would need tailoring to be at all effective and likely won’t get you past certification with a UKAS accredited Certification Body. Learn about the differences between a UKAS and Non-UKAS accredited Certification Body on one of our previous podcasts. [17:30] IMS Challenge #2: Resistance to change - People will be used to working a certain way, often siloed into systems unique to their departments. Or if you’ve already held 1 ISO certification, integrating others will mean change to that existing system that others may not be open to at first. It will involve either new or updated policies and procedures that will take some time for everyone to adapt to. The key here is communication. Not only to communicate the change, but allow people to voice any concerns they have about new ways of working. You may also need to issue additional training to help others adapt. [18:20] IMS Challenge #3: Lack of top leadership commitment - If you want people to care about the management system, commitment to it needs to come from the top down. If the leadership doesn’t care about it, why should anyone else? Any good leadership should want a holistic approach for monitoring various elements of the business, if only to make more informed decisions. An integrated Management system can provide the base to facilitate this, and it’s in leaderships best interest to keep ahead of any emerging challenges or opportunities that can be leveraged. [19:10] IMS Challenge #4: Integration of IT systems and data - Integrating your management system may require the integration of IT systems and existing data. If you have separate management systems currently, they may be operating on different databases or formats that may be difficult to combine. In some cases, an integrated management system is a good opportunity to refresh the way you work, it could be seen as a chance to look at other tech options out there that could be more cost effective or introduce new much needed functionality. [19:50] IMS Challenge #5: Maintaining Scope and Avoiding Over-Complication - There is a risk that you may try to bite off a bit more than you can chew when integrating management systems. We recommend starting with a smaller scope, as this acts as a good test that can be rolled out to the wider business if it’s effective. Many may start with just one site and then seek to roll out the changes to the wider business over the course of a few years. This is definitely an approach we encourage, as each location will have its own teething problems to work through, which is much more manageable when tackled in chunks at a time rather than all at once. If you’d like any assistance with Integrated Management System Implementation, feel free to get in touch with us, we’d be happy to help. We’d love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here’s how: ●     Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin ●     Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one. Subscribe to keep up-to-date with our latest episodes: Stitcher | Spotify | YouTube |iTunes | Soundcloud | Mailing List