ISO 50001: The Energy Management Standard – A Key Tool For Climate Action?
In the past year, we have received many inquiries about ISO 50001, the energy management standard. We implement ISO 50001, along with ISO 14001 and R2 (the electronics recycling standard). Organizations throughout the world are being tasked with improving energy performance and reducing energy costs. It has hit a critical mass.
As discussed in prior articles, since its publication five years ago, ISO 50001 has gained much importance. In fact, nearly 7000 organizations were already certified to the standard at the end of 2014. After five years of existence, time has come to revise ISO 50001. Experts began that process in 2016.
With energy consumption being one of the most critical challenges facing the international community, the revision of ISO 50001 on energy management systems was given a major boost to its brand equity at the recently concluded Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM8). CEM8 is high-level global forum working to advance clean energy globally. During CEM8, there was an international workshop on “Improving Green Consumption” which featured the benefits of ISO 50001. Why?
CEM analysis shows that implementation of the ISO 50001 standard across global commercial and industrial sectors could drive cumulative energy savings of approximately 62 exajoules by 2030, sparing nearly $600B in energy costs and avoiding 6,500 million metric tons of CO2 emissions. The projected annual emissions savings are equivalent to removing 215 million passenger vehicles from the road. That makes the ISO 50001 standard a critical component in the global toolkit of climate action.
At CEM8, sufficient progress was achieved to enable the revision of ISO 50001 to move to a Draft International Standard, which is expected to be completed and released within three months. Publication of the new edition of ISO 50001 as an International Standard is planned for December 2018.
We’re often asked to clearly define ISO 50001, especially in contrast to ISO 140001, the environmental management system. It is best stated from ISO directly:
ISO 50001 specifies requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining and improving an energy management system. The aim is to enable an organization to follow a systematic approach in achieving continual improvement of energy performance, including energy efficiency, use and consumption.
Its focus is on energy, specifically.
Here is a great primer video from ISO.org:
We have a link to the standard’s documentation on the BIZPHYX knowledge base. Is this an imperative for your organization? Are you being asked to certify to ISO 50001 as part of a customer supply chain directive?
If so, we can assist your organization with implementing ISO 50001. BIZPHYX can show you how energy management and environmental management standards can help you meet corporate social responsibility goals and objectives.
For more information, contact info@bizphyx.com.