The number of certifications to ISO management system standards increased by 3% worldwide last year, according to the international standards body.
The annual survey of valid certificates for standards found that, in 2015, the quality management system, ISO 9001, remained the most popular. There were more than one million 9001 certifications in operation worldwide last year. ISO 14001, the environmental management system standard, had almost 300,000 registered certifications in 2015, an 8% increase on the previous year.
Martin Baxter, IEMA’s chief policy advisor, said: ‘The 8% annual growth in 14001 certification shows that environmental management systems remain a key business driver for improving performance. This is particularly important as organisations transition to the new version of the standard.’
There were around 12,000 registered certifications to the energy management system standard, ISO 50001, in 2015. This was a 77% increase on the 2014 total. 50001 has benefitted from policy initiatives, such as the energy savings opportunity scheme in the UK. One route to complying with the requirements of ESOS is to achieve certification to 50001.
Overall, a total of 1,519,952 certificates were issued in 2015, compared to 1,476,504 the previous year, an increase of 3%.
