ISO's "High Level Structure" - The Framework Uniting Management Systems

Federal agencies and sites are responsible for managing a host of various resources and activities such as energy, resiliency, water quality, and other environmental aspects. Business practices developed into a formalized management system can provide confidence that action is being taken to meet objectives. When faced with managing multiple resources and activities, many organization unintentionally create multiple independent management system. While specific details are needed to address management of different resources and activities, development of an agency wide management system platform common to all resources and activities being management provides efficiencies and operational improvement. The International Standards Organization (ISO) created the High-Level Structure so that its various management system standards are built on a common platform to make implementation highly interchangeable. The technical sections of the High-Level Structure are: context of the organization, leadership, planning, support, operation, performance evaluation, and improvement. Key ISO standards such as ISO 9001 – quality management, ISO 14001 – environmental management, ISO 22301: security and resilience, ISO 50001 – energy management, and ISO 46001 – water efficiency all follow the High-Level Structure. Federal agencies could leverage the commonality of the ISO High-Level Structure to comprehensively manage multiple resources and activities they are responsible for. This presentation will detail the High-Level Structure and discuss the standards and organizational benefits that result from use of multiple High-Level Structure conformant standards. A focus will be placed on the relationship between ISO 14001, ISO 50001, and ISO 46001.