ISO 50001

ISO 50001 Energy management systems - Requirements with guidance for use, is an international standard created by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It supports organizations in all sectors to use energy more efficiently through the development of an energy Management System. The standard specifies the requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and improving an energy management system, whose purpose is to enable an organization to follow a systematic approach in achieving continual improvement of energy performance, including energy efficiency, energy security, energy use, and consumption.[1]

The standard aims to help organizations continually reduce their energy use, and therefore their energy costs and their greenhouse gas emissions.

ISO 50001 was originally released by ISO in June 2011 and is suitable for any organization, whatever its size, sector or geographical location.[2] The second edition, ISO 50001:2018 was released in August 2018.

The system is modelled after the ISO 9001 Quality Management System and the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) and the 2018 version has clauses modular with both.[3]

A significant feature in ISO 50001 is the requirement to "... improve the EnMS and the resulting energy performance" (clause 4.2.1 c). The other standards mentioned here (ISO 9001 and ISO 14001) both require improvement to the effectiveness of the Management System but not to the quality of the product/service (ISO 9001) or to environmental performance (ISO 14001). It is anticipated that by implementing ISO 9001 and 14001 together an organization would improve quality and environmental performance, but the standards do not currently specify this as a requirement.

ISO 50001, therefore, has made a major leap forward in 'raising the bar' by requiring an organization to demonstrate that they have improved their energy performance. There are no quantitative targets specified – an organization chooses its own then creates an action plan to reach the targets. With this structured approach, an organization is more likely to see some tangible financial benefits.

  1. ^ Eccleston, Charles; March, Frederic; Cohen, Timothy (2011). Inside Energy: Developing and Managing an ISO 50001 Energy Management System. CRC Press. ISBN 9781439876701.
  2. ^ "ISO 50001:2018 - Energy Management Systems". International Organization for Standardization. 2011-06-09. Retrieved July 30, 2011.
  3. ^ Lakhe, Ramesh; Nassir, Sayyad; Dharkar, Kranti (2019). ISO 50001:2018 Energy Management System Requirements & Implementation. Independently Published. ISBN 9781090748300.