SKAO published a new Harmonisation Act relating to CO₂ Performance Ladder 4.0. This Harmonisation Act concerns the period within which organisations must be able to submit a plan to address minor non-conformities. This period has been shortened from 12 months to 3 months. The period allowed for actually implementing the corrective measures remains unchanged: this may still take place up to 12 months after the audit.
A certification body (CB) only issues a CO₂ Performance Ladder Certificate if an organisation meets the requirements of a specific level of the Handbook. If this is not (fully) the case, the auditor identifies so-called non-conformities. These may be major or minor non-conformities. For minor non-conformities, CO₂ Performance Ladder 4.0 states that the organisation has until the next audit (approximately one year) to draw up and implement a corrective action plan. It is more effective (as it allows the CB to assess the plan) and more common practice (including under ISO/IEC 17021-1) to prepare and submit the corrective action plan at an earlier stage.
Organisations must therefore draw up and submit a corrective action plan to the CB within 3 months after a minor non-conformity has been identified. The deadline for implementing the plan remains unchanged (before the next audit), meaning that the minor non-conformity does not need to be resolved within 3 months.
In some cases, a passage in the Handbook may require further clarification, or there may be evolving insight into how a requirement should be interpreted. In such cases, an additional rule is drawn up for that passage, which we refer to as a ‘Harmonisation Act’. The Handbook is normative, and this also applies to these harmonisation acts that have been added at a later stage.
View Harmonisation Act 2
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Today (25 March 2025), SKAO and the European Commission launched the CO₂ Performance Ladder Europe Community of Practice (CoP) on the EC’s Public Buyers Platform. This CoP will help public buyers integrate the CO₂ Performance Ladder into their procurement strategies, setting clear targets and embedding structural CO₂‑reduction measures. The CoP…
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