[UPDATE: see below.]
In the “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up Department,” ISO has published the free climate change amendments to various management system standards as environmentally-damaging physical hardcopies, requiring shipping by post, rather than climate-friendly PDF digital downloads.
I know you don’t believe me, so here’s the screenshot of the ISO 9001 amendment page as of 5 AM Eastern on February 23:
And the same hardcopy-only offer also exists for ISO 14001, the standard on environmental management systems. You can see that here.
If you needed any more proof that ISO’s newfound love for “climate action” was just a political stunt by Secretary-General Sergio Mujica, you need not look very far. Mujica has refused to impose restrictions on carbon-burning international travel for ISO plenaries and official proceedings, and has likewise refused to move ISO standards to digital-only offerings. The decision to force standards users to buy a physical copy of the new — and mandatory — update to ISO 9001 is just baffling, given Mujica insists ISO is committed to climate change.
But to be honest, he’s only in this for his own personal ambitions. Mujica doesn’t care at all about the environment, and just wants to have an offramp for when his role at ISO ends due to term limits in two years.
UPDATE 24 February 2024: ISO has now released PDF versions of the update for each management system standard.
Clever LinkedIn folks noticed that the webpage includes an embarrassing “Lorem Ipsum” graphic of the wrong standard. “Lorem ipsum” is nonsense text used by publishers when they want to add random filler text to a document.
The rollout of this document not only violated ISO’s rules on the development of standards, but has been a complete trainwreck. ISO is a publishing company, and doesn’t know how to publish documents.
Christopher Paris is the founder and VP Operations of Oxebridge. He has over 35 years’ experience implementing ISO 9001 and AS9100 systems, and helps establish certification and accreditation bodies with the ISO 17000 series. He is a vocal advocate for the development and use of standards from the point of view of actual users. He is the writer and artist of THE AUDITOR comic strip, and is currently writing the DR. CUBA pulp novel series. Visit www.drcuba.world
