ISO 14068-1 carbon neutrality consulting for a claim that survives the verifier, the regulator and the customer.

What it is

What is ISO 14068-1 and what is it used for?

ISO 14068-1, renumbered ISO 14068 in September 2026, is the international standard for achieving and demonstrating carbon neutrality. It recognises two kinds of subject: an organisation, or a product, a term the standard uses for goods, services, buildings and events alike. It sets out the route from commitment to claim: the subject and its boundary, quantification, a management plan, reductions, offsetting with qualifying carbon credits, and a report. It builds on ISO 14064-1, ISO 14064-3 and ISO 14067 rather than replacing them.

The idea at its centre is a hierarchy. Cutting direct and indirect emissions and enhancing removals within the value chain come first; offsetting covers only what is left, and the standard treats carbon neutrality as a pathway along which the footprint falls and the need for offsetting falls with it. A claim that rests on purchased credits with no reduction behind it does not fit that hierarchy.

Current edition. ISO 14068:2026, Climate change management — Carbon neutrality, was published on 11 September 2026 and replaced ISO 14068-1:2023, which had been published on 30 November 2023 as Climate change management — Transition to net zero — Part 1: Carbon neutrality. ISO describes the new edition as a minor revision and lists two changes: the title has been updated and the part number removed. Because those are the only changes listed, a programme built to ISO 14068-1:2023 carries across; the reference in your report, claim and verification changes on a timetable agreed with your verification body. Clause numbers on this page are those of ISO 14068:2026. The standard also succeeds PAS 2060, which BSI withdrew on 1 December 2025.

Who it is for

Who needs an ISO 14068 carbon neutrality claim?

ISO 14068 is for any organisation that wants to say that it, or something it sells, is carbon neutral, and needs the statement to hold when somebody looks behind it: manufacturers, property owners, event operators, hospitality groups, banks and the suppliers their customers are asking to decarbonise. Organisations come to Sterling from four starting points:

• Your board has committed to carbon neutrality and needs a method behind the words. A date announced in an annual report has to become a subject, a boundary, a footprint and a plan a verifier can test, well before it arrives.
• A customer, a retailer or a tender asks for a verified carbon neutral claim. Establish whether they mean the organisation or one product, which period, and which verification they will accept, before a single credit is purchased.
• You sell carbon neutral products, buildings or events to consumers. Since 27 September 2026, EU rules ban telling consumers that a product has a neutral, reduced or positive greenhouse gas impact on the strength of offsetting. Product and event claims aimed at EU consumers need a legal review before they are repeated.
• You hold a PAS 2060 declaration or an ISO 14068-1:2023 claim. PAS 2060 has been withdrawn and ISO 14068-1 has become ISO 14068:2026. The footprint, plan and credits you already have are the starting point; the review shows what has to change before the next verification.

The intended benefit is a claim you can repeat each period, and a footprint that keeps shrinking. The claim reports reductions; delivering the plan creates them.

Business benefits

How ISO 14068 turns a carbon neutral claim into one you can defend

A carbon neutrality claim earns its keep when nobody can pick it apart: not the customer's procurement team, not a journalist, not a regulator reading the small print. We begin with the parts of your position that would fail that test first.

• A claim with a verifier behind itFootprint, plan, credits, report and claim tested by an independent verification body, so what you publish has been checked by someone else.
• Money spent on reductions firstThe hierarchy puts reductions and removal enhancements within your value chain ahead of credits, so the budget goes to energy, fuels, suppliers and design before offsets.
• Credits that qualify before you payEvery credit, and the programme that issued it, checked against the standard's criteria before purchase, so no spend is written off at verification.
• One footprint, several usesThe inventory or product footprint behind the claim is the same one that feeds CDP, EU sustainability reporting and a science-based target, mapped once to the GHG Protocol scopes.
• Less exposure on green claimsClaim wording drafted to the standard and checked against the rules of the markets you sell in, including the EU ban on offset-based neutrality claims for products sold to consumers.
• A pathway, not an annual purchaseA management plan with an ambition, evaluated and revised, so the footprint and the offsetting bill are both meant to fall period after period.

Judge the programme on a handful of measures: the footprint against the first period claimed, the share of it removed by reductions rather than covered by credits, the verifier's findings and the proportion of removal credits. A bigger credit purchase is not a climate result.

Requirements

What are the main ISO 14068 requirements?

ISO 14068 is not a management system standard and does not use the harmonised structure. After the scope, the normative references and the terms (clauses 1 to 3), 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. The table is a plain-language map; your programme is checked against the full text of the current edition during the engagement.

Verification process

How do you get an ISO 14068 carbon neutrality claim verified?

Achieve carbon neutrality for the subject first; then an independent verification body tests the claim and the evidence behind it. Sterling works with you on the footprint, the plan, the credit checks, the report and the claim; the verification and its opinion belong to the verification body, and that independence is what buyers and regulators rely on.

1. 01
   Commit, choose the subject and fix the period.Agree whether the claim covers the organisation or a product, service, building or event, where the boundary runs, the period and the audience.
2. 02
   Gap analysis: review the current position against the requirements.The gap analysis looks at the footprint you already have, any plan, credits held and claims made, keeps what stands up and sets out the actions, owners, dates and resources for the rest.
3. 03
   Quantify the footprint and write the management plan.Emissions and removals quantified for the subject and period, the plan written with its ambition, and the reductions and removal enhancements in it put in hand.
4. 04
   Offset what remains, report and review internally.Credits checked against the criteria, purchased and retired for the remaining footprint; the report and the claim drafted; an internal audit and a management review close the findings first.
5. 05
   Go through independent verification.Your chosen body agrees the level of assurance and materiality with you, plans the work, examines the evidence behind the claim and issues a statement with its opinion; findings are answered before the claim goes public.
6. 06
   Keep the claim alive, period after period.Each new period is quantified, the plan evaluated and revised, reductions continue, offsetting shrinks as they take effect, and the claim is verified again before it is renewed.

Check the route before the price. Ask which body will verify the claim, whether its accreditation under ISO/IEC 17029 and ISO 14065 covers carbon neutrality, what level of assurance it proposes and whether it is independent of whoever sold the credits or wrote the claim, then confirm the answers with those bodies. An offer of a "carbon neutral certificate" within days, with no footprint, no plan and no retirement records, is offering a logo. How to choose a credible ISO 14068 provider · The certification buyer's checklist

Cost

How much does ISO 14068 carbon neutrality cost?

A carbon neutrality programme carries two kinds of cost. The work to quantify, plan, report and prepare for verification depends on the subject: one office building is a different job from a group with twelve plants, or from a product sold in forty markets. Credit costs depend on the size of what remains and the credit type your plan calls for, and should fall as the plan delivers. A Sterling proposal fixes the first and shows the second as a separate budget line.

Timeline

How long does an ISO 14068 carbon neutrality claim take?

For most organisations, four to nine months from kick-off to a first verified claim. The shorter end applies when a verified inventory or product footprint already exists; the longer end when the footprint has to be built from invoices, meters and supplier data first. Either way the claim covers a period that has already happened, and its footprint, plan, credit retirements and report must all exist before a verifier can test anything. We plan backwards from the date you need, with milestones tracked in Effivity.

If a product launch, an event date or a customer deadline fixes the calendar, tell us on the first call. We will say plainly whether it can be met and what has to be decided in the first two weeks. A claim date fixed before anyone has seen the footprint is a slogan with a deadline.

Challenges

Common ISO 14068 implementation challenges

ISO 14068 programmes tend to stall in the same five places. Each has a practical answer.

Your engagement

What your ISO 14068 engagement includes

Your agreed scope brings together everything a verifiable claim and a prepared team need. Many providers sell a footprint calculation, a credit bundle or a label and leave the rest to you; a Sterling engagement covers the whole route, from one team, under one all-inclusive proposal.

• Commitment, subject, gap analysis and plan

  The subject, boundary and period fixed, the gap analysis complete, and a delivery plan with owners and dates agreed before work begins.

• Footprint, management plan, credit checks, report and claim

  Quantification, the carbon neutrality management plan, the credit register and its checks, the report and the claim wording, built with your people on Sterling's templates.

• Effivity ISO & GRC software

  Your carbon neutrality workspace runs in Effivity from the first workshop, included with the engagement at no additional cost.

• Training for everyone

  Internal auditor training for the people who will audit the programme, as applicable to your standard, with preferential Sterling Academy course access and special pricing, including complimentary awareness training for your people as part of the engagement.

• Internal audit and management review

  Conducted or facilitated as agreed, with every finding closed with evidence before the verifier starts.

• Verification readiness and support

  Preparation for the verification body's review and any site visits, and support through its findings until the statement is issued.

The verification opinion remains with the independent verification body; Sterling does not verify claims and does not issue statements.

How we deliver

How Sterling supports your ISO 14068 implementation

Every ISO 14068 engagement runs on Sterling OS™, our delivery operating system: five phases, each with defined deliverables, decision owners and evidence. You decide how much of the work your people carry; the method, the software and the accountability stay constant.

1. 01
   Design™Guided implementation: your sustainability lead builds the footprint, plan and claim with Sterling's structure, templates, workshops and coaching.
2. 02
   Drive™Fully managed consulting: Sterling consultants carry the agreed work, from subject statement to carbon neutrality report, alongside your data owners.
3. 03
   Sustain™After verification: each new period quantified, the plan evaluated and revised, credits checked, internal audits and refresher training, year after year.
4. 04
   Automate™The programme running in Effivity: subject, footprint data, plan actions, credit register, report, audits and management review in one workspace.
5. 05
   Revise™Moves from PAS 2060 or ISO 14068-1:2023 to ISO 14068:2026, and changes in subject, boundary, markets or the quantification standards the footprint rests on.

At kick-off we agree the engagement team, the weekly working session, the deliverables and who decides what, so a missing supplier response surfaces in the first month, not in the verifier's findings.

Often combined with

Standards organisations pair with ISO 14068-1

• EMASEMAS registration explained: requirements, the validated environmental statement, the verifier and Competent Body route, cost factors and all-inclusive support.
• FSC and PEFC chain of custodyFSC and PEFC chain of custody certification and requirements: FSC-STD-40-004 V3-1, PEFC ST 2002:2020, the audit route and cost factors, with Sterling.
• GHG ProtocolGHG Protocol inventory consulting: scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions on boundaries and methods an outsider can test, ready for independent verification.
• ISCC PLUSISCC PLUS certification for circular and bio-based materials: requirements, mass balance, ISCC HUB registration, standalone documents and an all-inclusive plan.
• ISO 14001ISO 14001 certification consulting: aspects, impacts and compliance obligations controlled, with support until an accredited body certifies you.
• ISO 14005ISO 14005 implementation guidelines: build your environmental management system in phases, measure maturity and reach ISO 14001 certification at your own pace.