What are the three new words in ISO 9001:2026?
Quality culture. Ethical behaviour. Climate change.
Those are the three phrases people ring up about, and they have produced more nervous phone calls than every other change in the sixth edition put together, mostly because they sound like they need a programme, a policy and a budget. They do not. Between them they occupy about sixty words of requirement text, and this article quotes every one of those words.
One correction before we start. Quality culture and ethical behaviour are genuinely new to the requirements in the 2026 edition. Climate change is not. The climate change sentence came into ISO 9001:2015 with Amendment 1:2024 and the sixth edition simply carries it forward. If your site handled that amendment, you have already done the climate change work.
Exactly what does the standard say about quality culture and ethical behaviour?
Four places. Here they are, word for word, in the standard’s own spelling.
Clause 5.1.1 i). Top management shall demonstrate leadership and commitment with respect to the quality management system by, among eleven other things, “promoting quality culture and ethical behaviour”.
Clause 5.1.1, Note 2. “An organization’s quality culture and ethical behaviour are reflected in its shared values, attitudes, practices and actions.”
Clause 7.1.4, the note. The note lists the factors a suitable environment can include: “a) social (e.g. non-discriminatory, calm, non-confrontational); b) psychological (e.g. stress-reducing, burnout prevention, emotionally protective); c) physical (e.g. temperature, heat, humidity, light, airflow, hygiene, noise).” Then the last sentence: “Some factors can be influenced by the organizational quality culture and ethical behaviour.”
Clause 7.3 e). The organisation shall ensure that persons doing work under its control are aware of, as the fifth item on the list, “the organizational quality culture and ethical behaviour”.
That is the whole of it. One requirement on top management to promote. One requirement that people are aware. One note that defines what culture is reflected in. One note sentence acknowledging that culture influences the working environment. Notes are not requirements.
And what does it say about climate change?
Two places.
Clause 4.1. After the sentence on external and internal issues, a sentence of its own: “The organization shall determine whether climate change is a relevant issue.” This is the Amendment 1:2024 wording, carried into the sixth edition.
Clause 4.2, the note. “Relevant interested parties can have requirements related to climate change.”
That is all of it. Determine whether it is relevant. Record the determination. The second one is a note, so it creates nothing. You are not required to have a carbon plan, an emissions target or a sustainability report under ISO 9001.
What does this look like on a real site?
Take the site ASC uses as a case study through both ISO 9001 courses: a chilled ready meals factory in Kempton Park, about 1.2 million meals a month, 400 people on two shifts. The case is a training scenario built from real audit patterns. No real company is named.
There is a scoreboard in the corridor between the change room and the production hall. Everyone walks past it twice a shift. It shows four things by shift: tonnes, service level, downtime and waste. There is no quality measure on it. Not complaints. Not rework. Not right first time.
Last quarter a shift supervisor released a batch of low fill product to hit the truck. Nothing was said. Not a word, from anybody, in either direction. Around the same time two operators reported that they had been told to “just sign” a check sheet.
Now read Note 2 again. “An organization’s quality culture and ethical behaviour are reflected in its shared values, attitudes, practices and actions.” The scoreboard is a practice. The silence after the low fill release is an action, or rather the absence of one, and everyone on that shift read it correctly: the four things on the board are the four things that count. The “just sign” instruction is an attitude, and the fact that two operators reported it is also an attitude, and a better one.
An auditor who stands in front of that scoreboard for thirty seconds has a line of enquiry for the rest of the day, and it will start with 5.1.1 i) and end at 7.3 e).
What will an auditor actually ask?
| Clause | Who gets asked | The question behind the question |
|---|---|---|
| 5.1.1 i) | Top management | What did you personally do to promote quality culture and ethical behaviour, when, and what changed because of it |
| 5.1.1 Note 2 | Nobody. It is a note | But it tells you what the auditor is listening for: values, attitudes, practices, actions |
| 7.1.4 | The process owner | Have you determined, provided and maintained the environment necessary for your processes and for conforming product |
| 7.3 e) | An operator, a packer, a cleaner, an administrator | What happens here if you stop the line because something is wrong |
| 4.1 | The QMS lead | Show me where you determined whether climate change is a relevant issue, and when |
| 4.2 note | The QMS lead | Nothing is required. But if a customer has asked you a climate question, it belongs in the 4.2 register like any other requirement |
What evidence satisfies 5.1.1 i)?
Something top management did, with a date, and something that changed after it. On the case site, the three that would work are these.
- The scoreboard now carries complaints per million and right first time alongside tonnes and service level, with a dated decision from the managing director and a before and after photograph.
- The low fill release was investigated, the root cause was recorded as a release authority that was never defined for quality holds, the authority was defined in writing, and the supervisor who released the batch was not disciplined and said so in front of his shift.
- The “just sign” reports were acted on, closed, and the outcome was fed back to the two operators who raised them, because the next person who sees something is watching what happened to those two.
What does not satisfy it: a poster, a values statement in the induction pack, a culture survey with no action recorded against its results, and a slide in a management review that says quality culture is promoted.
What evidence satisfies 7.3 e)?
An operator who can answer a question about it in their own words. That is the whole test, and it cannot be met on paper. Awareness under 7.3 is verified by talking to people, which is why the induction pack matters less than what the person on the line saw happen last month.
The practical version: add the fifth awareness item to induction and to your toolbox talks, and rehearse the answer with people the way you rehearse a mock recall. On a site where 62 percent of the night shift do not have English as a first language, that also means rehearsing it in the language they will be asked in, and telling the auditor in advance that an interpreter from another department will be needed.
What does not satisfy it: a signed attendance register for a training session called Quality Culture Awareness, on its own, with nobody able to say anything about it afterwards.
What evidence satisfies 4.1 on climate change?
One row in the context register. The issue, the determination, the reason, the owner and the date. It passes whichever way the determination goes. On the case site the honest answer is yes and the reason is specific: municipal water supply interruptions in 2024 and 2025, load shedding covered by a generator, and a chilled cold chain. On a software company in Cape Town the answer might be no, and a recorded no with a reason is a conforming answer.
What does not satisfy it: a blank. There is no row, nobody considered it, and the QMS lead says it does not apply to us. The sentence says the organisation shall determine, and a determination that was never made cannot be shown.
Is a quality culture plan required?
No. There is no requirement anywhere in ISO 9001:2026 for a quality culture plan, a culture policy, a culture programme, a culture maturity assessment or a culture survey. The standard requires promotion by top management at 5.1.1 i) and awareness at 7.3 e), and it notes at 5.1.1 Note 2 what culture is reflected in. Anything beyond that is your choice, and it may well be a good choice, but it is not a requirement and an auditor cannot raise a nonconformity for not having it.
Keep that distinction visible when you write your own documents. A site that builds a culture programme because it read a consultant’s summary instead of the clause has bought work the standard did not ask for, and will still fail 7.3 e) if the operator on line 3 has nothing to say.
Where do I learn to build the evidence?
If you own the system, take ISO 9001:2026 Understanding and Implementation, R4800, about fourteen hours. Lesson 2.4 works the leadership interview item by item against the twelve things in 5.1.1, using this exact scoreboard and this exact low fill release, and the Context and Interested Parties Register tool carries the climate change decision row with its reason, owner and review date, alongside the scope statement tab.
If you are the person an auditor will interview on the floor, take Introduction to ISO 9001:2026, R1495, about four hours. You will finish it with your own answers to all five awareness items in 7.3, including e), about your own job.
Both courses, and the clause by clause change article and the twelve month transition plan, sit at ISO 9001:2026 training.
ISO 9001:2026 is a standard published by ISO. This course is an independent training product and is not approved or endorsed by ISO or by any certification body.