Dive Brief:
- The International Organization for Standardization has released a draft of an international standard to help companies develop “credible and comprehensive” net-zero transition plans, according to a Wednesday press release.
- The release of the draft standard for “net-zero aligned organizations” — ISO 14060 — opens a 12-week public consultation period to national standard-setting bodies around the world.
- “[ISO 14060] is not a target-setting standard, it's a standard about supporting organizations developing their own transition plan based on where they are, the context in which they operate,” ISO Head of Sustainability and Partnerships Noelia Garcia Nebra told ESG Dive. “This is a standard that can be validated and verified by a third party, which is also bringing a level of accountability and credibility that other standards do not.”
Dive Insight:
ISO’s draft net-zero standard has been in the works since 2022. ISO said in the release that the international working group convened to develop the public consultation draft was the largest in the organization’s history and called the standard the “first international independently verifiable standard” to support net-zero transition planning. The global standard-setting body’s membership consists of 177 national standards bodies, with one per country.
The standard is designed as a tool to guide organizations through the process of developing a transition plan and provide best practices thinking through their net-zero strategies, Nebra said. The standard sets requirements for companies or organizations that claim net-zero aspirations, net-zero aligned transition plans, net-zero aligned progress or net-zero achievement, according to a copy of the standard seen by ESG Dive.
“This is a standard that is sector agnostic. It fits for any organization of any size or any geography,” Nebra said in an interview. “It is not only for the top organizations that have already figured out their net zero paths, but really what it tries to do is to bring everyone on board.”
ISO’s draft standard outlines general guidelines like principles, a framework and the role of carbon credits, as well as takes organizations through governance, emissions quantification, target-setting for emissions reductions, actions to reach net-zero, reporting, validation and more. The standards aim to help guide organizations through the decision points of making a transition plan and help them connect their net-zero planning and strategies to the operational side of the business, according to Nebra.
“[The standard is] not just calculate and report about it,” she said. “It's calculate, and now once you understand where you are today, then start looking at what are the different opportunities for reduction.”
The process was convened by the national standards bodies from the United Kingdom, the British Standards Institution and Colombia’s ICONTEC, according to the press release. BSI Chief Executive Susan Taylor Martin said that the public consultation release represents a milestone and said, “consensus achieved across hundreds of international experts in the process.
“In a time of growing economic and geopolitical uncertainty, businesses need stable ground rules that allow them to plan and act with confidence,” Martin said. “The ISO Net Zero Aligned Organizations Standard provides a globally recognised framework that helps organizations build resilience, manage climate risk, and demonstrate that their business plans are future-proofed.”
ISO’s release for public consultation comes ahead of London Climate Action Week and less than a week after the Science Based Targets initiative finalized updates to its Corporate Net-Zero Standard. ISO’s standard is designed to be compatible and interoperable with the Science Based Targets initiative’s recently updated Corporate Net-Zero Standard, and other existing frameworks, Nebra said.
SBTi CEO David Kennedy said in an emailed statement Wednesday that SBTi is working to build alignment and interoperability. The organizations hope the standards can be used alongside each other, and Kennedy said ISO’s draft “will particularly support companies new to climate action and those in developing economies.”
Now, ISO’s member bodies will have until early September to convene stakeholders from the private sector, governments, academia and practitioners in their respective countries for national consultations. National consensus positions from the standards bodies are expected back to ISO by this time, the press release said.
“It's the whole draft that is under consultation … comments can come back in [regarding topics] from the foreword to the end,” Nebra said. “We are really exposing the whole document to get feedback; I don't think there is a wider open consultation process.”
The final standard is expected in 2027, with the timeline dependent on responding to and incorporating feedback into future iterations.
The net-zero transition planning standard released Wednesday was developed “primarily for non-financial institutions.” However, ISO released a net-zero transition planning standard for financial institutions earlier this month. That standard — ISO 32212 — includes guidance on how financial institutions should develop and maintain transition planning objectives and targets and integrate those objectives and targets into financing decisions and engagement activities, according to a copy seen by ESG Dive.
