ISO 14068 (formerly ISO 14068-1) requirements explained: video brief

Ten principles and the hierarchy approach

ISO 14068 is not a management system standard and does not use the harmonised structure. After the scope, references and terms, its requirements run in the order a claim is built, from principles to claims in clauses 4 to 13, followed by four annexes, one of them normative. This short film walks through that sequence.

Clause 4 sets ten principles: transparency, conservativeness, the hierarchy approach, supporting transition, ambition, urgency, a science-based approach, avoiding adverse impacts, accountability, and a value chain and life cycle approach. In practice every choice on boundaries, data, reductions and credits is recorded with its reason, so a verifier sees each principle applied rather than asserted. The hierarchy approach is central: reduce emissions and enhance removals first, and offset only residual emissions.

From subject to claim

The following clauses set the approach and framework, the subject of the claim and its boundary, and the quantification of the carbon footprint, building on ISO 14064-1 for organisations and ISO 14067 for products. A carbon neutrality management plan sets the commitment, targets and actions, and the standard then covers greenhouse gas emission reductions and removal enhancements, offsetting with carbon credits that meet its criteria, the carbon neutrality report and the claim itself, including how it may be communicated.

The standard applies to organisations and to products, including goods, services, buildings and events, whose carbon neutrality claim has to stand up to checking. ISO 14068:2026, published on 11 September 2026, is a minor revision of ISO 14068-1:2023 that renames the standard. Claims are verified by an independent verification body working to ISO 14064-3, accredited under ISO/IEC 17029 with ISO 14065.

Buying carbon credits alone does not make an organisation carbon neutral: the hierarchy puts reductions in direct and indirect emissions, and enhanced removals within the value chain, ahead of offsetting, and credits cover only the footprint that remains. Credits must meet the standard's criteria and come from programmes that meet its criteria for crediting programmes. ISO 14068 superseded PAS 2060, which BSI withdrew on 1 December 2025.