ISO 9001 and other ISO standards will add requirements related to climate change to clauses 4.1 and 4.2 related to context of the organization and relevant interested parties respectively. These changes do not, fortunately, require carbon neutrality goals and organizations should push back against such agendas if they cost money. On the other hand, energy efficiency initiatives not only reduce carbon emissions, they also save money to enable lower prices, higher wages, and higher profits. It is also important to pay attention to climate-driven weather events that can impact continuity of operations.

Course Objectives:

Attendees will learn where climate change is and is not relevant to their management systems, and how to address the new requirements accordingly.

Why Should You Attend:

The good news is that, if your organization has a process to address supply chain risks that can affect continuity of operations, it is already accounting for climate change because climate drives weather events. Attendees will also learn how to push back against dysfunctional stakeholder requests for carbon neutrality and Net Zero while however offering stakeholders benefits from removal of energy wastes from the supply chain. The savings flow to the bottom line and can be shared as lower prices, higher profits, and higher wages. The energy not wasted is, even if renewable, probably fungible via the power grid with fossil fuels.

Course Outline:

1. ISO 9001:2015 and other ISO standards will add a requirement to Clause 4.1 related to the context of the organization that says users must determine whether climate change is relevant to their management systems. While it might be tempting to write it off as not relevant, it is if the supply chain is subject to force majeure (greater force) from climate-driven weather events. 

• Clause 4.2 regarding interested parties and their needs will add that they may have requirements related to climate change.

• The changes do not however require Net Zero, carbon neutrality, or similar agendas.

2. The presenter's recommendation is to push back against carbon neutrality initiatives that lack economic justification. Climate change is important but not urgent. "Important" means it is a fact of nature, and climate-driven weather events can affect supply chains and continuity of operations. "Not urgent" means a large share might not even be subject to human control, and spending money to try to stop it could be worse than futile. "Worse than futile" means we spend the money but still get the climate change. The story of King Canute, who ordered the tide to not come in, is highly instructive.

• Attendees at the UN's climate conferences use private jets, thus showing that they do not believe it is urgent.

• Sellers of carbon credits and carbon offsets usually have a profit motive, but add no value to the supply chain.

• The enormous cost of direct air capture (DAC), which seeks to extract low-concentration carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for sequestration, seems to compare unfavorably with sponsorship of trees via the US Forest Service. The latter does not have a profit motive, its agenda is to plant trees.

3. Benjamin Franklin told us long ago that a penny saved is a penny earned, and a kilowatt-hour saved is the price of a kilowatt-hour earned. Eradication of energy waste from the supply chain enables higher profits, higher wages, and lower prices. Even if the energy is from a renewable source, it is probably fungible via the power grid with fossil fuels and therefore carbon emissions.

• The Second World War board game Hunt for the Coal Thief is highly instructive, and its interactive nature may have made it even more effective than Allied energy conservation posters and campaigns. The Coal Thief, who is modeled on the folk figure known as the Sack Man or bogeyman, wants to steal energy from homes and factories, and he is very clever. He can however be found and removed by, for example, using a candle flame to locate a draft in a house. 

• The ISO 50001:2018 standard for energy management systems shows how to use gap analysis to identify energy wastes in processes, but the approach depicted in Hunt for the Coal Thief empowers workers to find other energy wastes in their homes and workplaces as well.

4. Climate-driven weather events constitute force majeure (greater force) risks to supply chains and therefore continuity of operations. The organization should already have a process to identify and mitigate these risks; if so, it has indeed determined that climate change is relevant and has taken action on this.

• As but one example, the Susquehanna River in Northeast Pennsylvania is infamous for overflowing its banks during, for example, Hurricane Agnes in 1973. Automotive suppliers whose factories are next to it now know they need levees for protection.

• Futures trading has been used for centuries to mitigate risks associated with agricultural shortages or surpluses, which can be caused by climate-driven weather events.

What You Get:

• Training Materials including a copy of the slides and accompanying notes (pdf file)

• Live Q&A Session with our Expert

• Participation Certificate

• Access to Signup Community (Optional)

• Reward Points

Who Will Benefit:

• All people with responsibility for ISO 9001 and other standards that will reflect the new climate requirements.