Published for World Standards Day – 14 October 2025
When we explored ISO’s Year Ahead: Exciting Updates for 2025 and Beyond in January, we highlighted the significant revisions taking shape across ISO’s management system standards. Ten months later, those developments are unfolding much as expected.
Across quality, environmental, health and safety, business continuity, information security, and risk management, 2025 has brought steady progress toward updates that will define the next generation of integrated, resilient management systems.
As we mark World Standards Day 2025, it’s the ideal moment to reflect on what has advanced, what’s next, and how these standards together are shaping a more connected and sustainable future.
ISO 9001: Progress toward the 2026 revision
The revision of ISO 9001 reached a major milestone in August 2025 with the release of the Draft International Standard (DIS). This version is now under review by national standards bodies, and once finalised, will form the basis of ISO 9001:2026, expected for publication next year.
The forthcoming edition builds on the familiar 2015 framework but introduces clearer, more deliberate language to address today’s operational realities.
Notable developments include:
- A sharper distinction between risk and opportunity, helping organisations assess uncertainty in both directions.
- Stronger emphasis on leadership and organisational culture, underscoring the role of values and ethics in consistent quality outcomes.
- Expanded guidance on planning and managing change, ensuring system integrity during transformation or growth.
- Recognition of external factors, including digitalisation, supply chain complexity, and climate context.
These refinements reflect nearly a decade of applied learning from ISO 9001:2015, ensuring the standard remains relevant while remaining accessible to organisations of every size and sector.
For practitioners, this is the right moment to start familiarising themselves with the draft. Conducting early gap analyses and engaging leadership teams now will make the eventual transition smoother once the 2026 version is formally published. For anyone very keen to get ahead, you can purchase a copy of the DIS directly from ISO for a limited time.
ISO 14001: Deepening the environmental lens
At the start of this year, we noted that ISO 14001 was also entering a new phase of revision which at the time, was expected to be released as a series of amendments to the 2015 revision, rather than issued as a new version. Thankfully, ISO have changed this approach, and will now issue the update as a fully revised version of the standard, which is likely to be ISO 14001:2026, and is currently expected to be released in early 2026.
The revisions reaffirm the 2015 edition’s lifecycle approach while refining the standard’s connection to global sustainability priorities.
The updated standard introduces:
- More explicit integration of climate and biodiversity considerations within environmental aspects and risk assessment.
- Enhanced guidance for planning and controlling change that could affect environmental performance.
- Increased focus on risk and opportunities within the EMS, providing further clarity on the intent of the clause.
- Improved clarity and examples in annexes to aid implementation.
The direction is clear: ISO 14001 is evolving from an awareness framework into a catalyst for environmental improvement and strategic decision-making. Organisations with mature systems will find alignment straightforward, but those still developing their EMS may find the new version a valuable guide for embedding sustainability more deeply into business planning.
ISO 45001 and the 45000 Series: Broadening the definition of safety
In occupational health and safety (OH&S), 2025 has brought renewed energy to the ISO 45001 revision process, the first major update since the standard’s initial publication in 2018. The next edition, expected around 2027, will reflect a broader understanding of workplace wellbeing and the changing nature of risk.
Early work within the ISO/TC 283 committee indicates several key themes:
- Psychosocial and mental health risks will become a core part of hazard identification and assessment, recognising the human factors that affect well-being.
- Climate-related risks – such as heat stress, extreme weather, or environmental disruptions – will be acknowledged as potential health and safety concerns.
- Renewed focus on worker participation and inclusion, strengthening consultation and collaboration as central elements of the OHSMS.
- Alignment across the 45000 series, ensuring supporting standards (including ISO 45002 and ISO 45003) provide consistent guidance for implementation and performance measurement.
These changes reflect a maturing perspective: OH&S management as an enabler of resilience and engagement rather than simply the absence of accidents. Organisations adopting a proactive, inclusive approach to well-being will be best placed to adapt once the revised standard is released.
ISO 22301: Strengthening organisational resilience
The ISO 22301:2019 standard for business continuity management remains the recognised benchmark for building resilience in an increasingly volatile world. While no new edition is currently under ballot, 2025 has seen continued focus on its practical application, particularly around supply chain continuity, digital disruption and crisis recovery.
Ongoing work within ISO’s broader security and resilience (TC 292) portfolio is likely to inform future updates. This includes greater attention to systemic risks, interdependencies between organisations, and the role of leadership in ensuring continuity planning is both strategic and operational.
For organisations certified to ISO 22301, the priority remains maintaining dynamic, living continuity plans, integrating lessons learned from global events and ensuring testing, training, and communication remain current.
ISO/IEC 27001: Sustaining trust in the digital era
In an environment where information is one of the most valuable assets an organisation holds, ISO/IEC 27001:2022 remains the foundation for managing information security.
Although the 2022 version remains current, 2025 has seen increasing uptake of the supporting controls introduced in ISO/IEC 27002:2022, which modernised the security control framework around key themes such as identity management, cloud security, and threat intelligence.
Work is also progressing across related standards in the 27000 family, including guidance on privacy, data classification, and cybersecurity. Together, these reinforce ISO’s commitment to ensuring that information security management evolves in step with technological change.
For many organisations, the coming year will be about consolidation: fully embedding the 2022 controls and aligning governance, risk and compliance processes across business functions.
ISO 31000: Integrating risk across disciplines
ISO 31000:2018 remains the global reference for risk management principles and framework design. While the next revision is currently at the preparatory, working draft stage (meaning no public consultation, yet), there is clear evidence of renewed integration between ISO 31000 and the broader family of management system standards.
The message is consistent across the revisions now underway: risk management is not a standalone activity but an essential thread running through quality, environmental, safety, information security, and business continuity systems.
Recent guidance from ISO and various national committees highlights a growing focus on the relationships between risk, opportunity, resilience and governance, ensuring that decision-making at every level is informed by structured, evidence-based analysis.
This alignment underscores the role of ISO 31000 as the conceptual backbone of all other management system standards, shaping how organisations anticipate and respond to change.
Integration and alignment across standards
A defining characteristic of the 2025–2026 update cycle is coherence. ISO’s management system standards now share a consistent structure, common terminology, and complementary intent. This makes it easier than ever for organisations to integrate systems, reduce duplication, and manage performance holistically.
Quality, environment, safety, resilience, information security, and risk management are increasingly interconnected. The revisions reinforce that connection: each discipline supports the others in building confidence, ensuring continuity, and creating long-term value.
For practitioners, the opportunity lies in using these revisions to simplify, unify, and elevate their management systems, focusing less on parallel compliance and more on shared outcomes.
Looking ahead
The next 18 months should see the publication of ISO 9001:2026 and ISO 14001:2026, a draft international standard for ISO 31000, and continued development of the 45001 and 45000 series updates. While ISO 22301 and ISO/IEC 27001 remain stable for now, their principles are becoming more tightly integrated into this evolving framework.
Organisations preparing for transition should:
- Begin reviewing the ISO 9001 and 14001 drafts to identify upcoming changes.
- Strengthen links between management system disciplines to leverage shared processes.
- Refresh training and internal audits to reflect current expectations.
- Maintain active engagement with industry forums and standardisation bodies to stay ahead of emerging interpretations.
The revisions ahead are designed not to disrupt but to enhance, making management systems more practical, resilient, and aligned with modern business realities.
Reflecting on World Standards Day
The 2025 World Standards Day theme, “Shared Vision for a Better World,” reflects the incremental, collaborative work behind each revision: thousands of experts across countries and industries aligning around a common purpose, to make organisations safer, smarter and more sustainable.
As these updates come into effect, their collective impact will be significant. Together, they represent a renewed commitment to continual improvement and shared responsibility, the foundation of every effective management system.
Further reading
Explore our original article on ISO’s Year Ahead: Exciting Updates for 2025 and Beyond
Read about the adaptation of global standards due to climate change
