ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 9001:2015: analyse the relationship between these management systems standards and corporate sustainability

Abstract Two of the main standards of management systems known worldwide have undergone revision recently, namely: the ISO 9001 (Quality Management System) and the ISO 14001 (Environmental Management System). The new versions were published in September, 2015. In view of the changes which have taken place, the aim of this study is to analyse the relationship between these management systems standards with corporate sustainability. To achieve this objective, first the corporate sustainability requirements were identified based on the Corporate Sustainability Index, Ethos Indicators and the Global Reporting Initiative. The dimensions of corporate sustainability were divided into the following: social, environmental, economic, socio-environmental, socio-economic, economic-environmental and economic-social-environmental. Afterwards, two matrices were constructed for each standard in order to relate their requirements with the corporate sustainability ones. In the first round of analysis, matrices were sent to two specialists in the areas studied and then the results were compared. Relationships were classified as strong, weak or null. They identified some divergences among the answers from the experts. In order to solve the doubts, the second round of consultation was held with three experts. After receiving the experts´ responses, their responses was calculated through mode the Consolidated Relationship Matrices were built based on the consolidated responses from the experts. The ISO 14001:2015 showed a strong relationship with the environmental, social, socio-environmental, socio-economic, economic-environmental and economic-environmental-social dimensions and null with the economic dimension. Regarding the ISO 9001:2015, it can be observed that most of the sustainability requirements grouped into socio-economic and economic-environmental-social dimensions showed a strong relationship with the standard. The social and economic-environmental dimensions presented a weak relationship and in the environmental and economic dimensions there was a null relationship. The socio-environmental dimension presented weak and null relationships. It can be concluded that the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 standards contribute to corporate sustainability, however, they alone do not ensure that all the requirements of the sustainability recommended by the Corporate Sustainability Index, Ethos Indicators and Global Reporting Initiative will be achieved.