ISO 14001 renewal: how to keep your certificate valid

The certificate runs for 3 years. Within that period it does not stand still: each year you answer the re-audit online and confirm that your environmental management system is still in place. There is no visit and no appointment to arrange.

Certificate validity

3 years from issue. The certificate number and QR code on the PDF stay the same and lead to the public verification page.

Yearly re-audit

A short online questionnaire on the same requirements as the first self-assessment. It confirms the certificate for the following year.

Review by SICE

The certificate is issued by G6 Agency AG under licence from SICE. SICE reviews every assessment before a certificate is issued.

Cost of the re-audit

Included in the yearly fee. There is no separate invoice for it.

• How the process works

The re-audit asks whether the system still matches how you actually work. A quarter of an hour with your records is usually enough to find the points that have moved. Go through these six areas, which follow the key requirements of ISO 14001:2015.

1. 01

   Environmental aspects

   Check whether energy, water, material use, waste or emissions have changed. A new machine, a second site or a different solvent supplier all belong in the register.

2. 02

   Compliance obligations

   Look at permits and their expiry dates, and at new or amended rules that apply to your activity. Add them to the list of obligations.

3. 03

   Environmental policy

   Confirm that the policy is current, signed by management and known to the people who work under it.

4. 04

   Objectives and actions

   Mark which objectives were reached and which are still open. Set at least one new target for the coming year, so the improvement is visible.

5. 05

   Emergency preparedness

   Check the plan for spills, fire or leaks: contact lists, responsible persons, date of the last exercise.

6. 06

   Monitoring records

   Collect meter readings, waste volumes and any reports. These are the evidence that you monitor performance, as clause 9 requires.

The yearly confirmation is what keeps the certificate current. If it is missing, the certificate no longer has a confirmed year behind it. Anyone who scans the QR code, such as a purchasing department or an auditor at a customer, sees the status shown on the public verification page.

Do not plan on a grace period. Complete the re-audit as soon as you notice it is due, and check the status in your customer account.

Cancellation works differently. You can cancel at any time in the customer account, effective at the end of the current paid year. The certificate then ends with that year.

• General questions about Zertify

On the classic route with an on-site audit by a certification body, the certificate also runs for 3 years. In between come surveillance audits, usually every year, where an auditor visits the site. At the end of the cycle a recertification audit covers the whole system again.

The table shows how the yearly check differs in practice.

• Compare the certification routes
• Certification without an on-site audit

You start with the online self-assessment for ISO 14001. It has 34 yes/no questions. 14 of them are mandatory requirements of the standard and must all be answered yes. Of the other 20, at least 14 must be yes. After you pass and pay, the certificate arrives within 4 hours.

The price is CHF 699 (€699) in the first year, then CHF 469 (€469) per year including the yearly online re-audit. The subscription renews automatically each year. If you certify a second or third standard, 20% (2 standards) or 30% (3 or more) comes off, also on the yearly fee. Customers in Switzerland and Liechtenstein pay 8.1% VAT, already included in these prices. You do not need an account to buy.

Details on the standard are on its own page.

• ISO 14001:2015 at Zertify
• Prices and discounts
• Start the free self-assessment

Most of the work in a renewal comes from searching for records at the last moment. A simple habit removes it: one folder, or one shared sheet, where permits, meter readings, waste receipts and the objectives list are kept up to date.

Put the re-audit date in the calendar of the person responsible for the system, together with a short note on what changed since last year. A new site, a changed process or a departed environmental officer should be recorded when it happens, not months later. Management should see the same list, because ISO 14001 expects the system to be run from the top, not from a side office.