Author: sHq_LoGiNz

ISO 14001 has officially been updated as of April 2026. The revision introduces several important updates that reflect how environmental and business expectations have evolved over the past decade.

For organizations already aligned to ISO 14001:2015, this update focuses less on rebuilding your system and more on reviewing, strengthening, and formalizing key elements, particularly those related to context, risk, and change management.

Changes in ISO 14001:2026

Organizational Context and Environmental Conditions (Clause 4)

What changed:

The 2026 revision places a stronger emphasis on understanding external environmental conditions. It now explicitly references topics such as climate change, biodiversity, and resource availability when determining organizational context and stakeholder expectations. It also reinforces the need to evaluate how stakeholder needs and expectations relate to these conditions.

What this means for your organization:

Organizations should revisit how they define context and identify interested parties to ensure:

• Environmental conditions (e.g., climate, resources) are considered where relevant
• Stakeholder expectations tied to these conditions are evaluated
• Any resulting requirements are clearly incorporated into the system

 

Leadership and Integration with Business Processes (Clause 5)

What changed:

Alignment between the environmental management system (EMS) and organizational strategy is not new, but the 2026 revision reinforces this linkage through clearer connections to context (Clause 4), stakeholder expectations, and risk-based planning (Clause 6).

What this means for your organization:

Organizations should confirm that:

• Environmental objectives are aligned with broader business direction
• EMS requirements are integrated into core business processes
• Leadership roles and accountability are clearly defined and understood

 

Planning (Risks, Aspects, and Change Management) (Clause 6)

What changed:

Several important updates occurred within Clause 6:

• Risks and opportunities are now a distinct step (Clause 6.1.4), clarifying expectations around how they are identified and addressed
• These risks and opportunities must consider not only environmental aspects and compliance obligations, but also organizational context and stakeholder expectations
• Environmental aspects should account for impacts during both planned changes and potential emergency situations
• A new Clause 6.3 introduces a formal requirement to plan and manage changes that affect the environmental management system

What this means for your organization:

Organizations should review and refine their planning processes to ensure they:

• Consider risks and opportunities beyond traditional aspect-impact significance and compliance alone
• Reflect broader context and external environmental conditions where relevant
• Link risks and opportunities to actions and objectives

In addition, organizations should have a repeatable and documented approach to managing change, including:

• Evaluating environmental impacts before changes occur
• Addressing new or modified activities, processes, or locations
• Ensuring changes are implemented in a planned and consistent manner

For many, this is the most substantive area of focus in the transition.

 

Support and Documented Information (Clause 7)

What changed:

The 2026 revision emphasizes documenting key planning processes to ensure they are applied consistently and with confidence.

What this means for your organization:

Organizations may need to better define and document how the following processes are performed:

• Environmental aspects identification
• Compliance obligation tracking
• Risk and opportunity evaluation

 

Operational Control and Lifecycle Considerations (Clause 8)

What changed:

The updated standard reinforces the need to apply lifecycle thinking and consider how much control or influence the organization has over external processes and activities.

What this means for your organization:

Organizations should be prepared to demonstrate how environmental considerations are applied in practice across:

• Procurement and supplier interactions
• Contractor and outsourced activities
• Other externally provided services

 

Performance Evaluation (Clause 9)

What changed:

The 2026 revision includes minor clarifications to monitoring, measurement, analysis, and evaluation requirements, and introduces a more structured approach to management review, including a clearer definition of inputs and outputs.

What this means for your organization:

Most organizations will not need significant changes in this area but should confirm that:

• Monitoring and evaluation processes align with updated terminology and structure
• Management review inputs and outputs are documented and consistently applied
• Outputs from management review are clearly captured and aligned with system performance

 

Improvement (Clause 10)

What changed:

The 2026 revision includes minor updates to the structure and wording, aligning it with the latest ISO management system format. Requirements for continual improvement and corrective action remain largely unchanged.

What this means for your organization:

Most organizations will not need to make significant changes in this area, but it’s a good opportunity to confirm that:

• Nonconformities are consistently identified and addressed
• Corrective actions are implemented and tracked to completion
• Continual improvement efforts are clearly linked to system performance and outcomes

 

A Shift in Emphasis

Looking across these updates, the 2026 revision reflects a broader shift in how environmental management systems are expected to function.

Rather than operating primarily as compliance-focused programs, environmental management systems are increasingly expected to:

• Reflect changing environmental conditions such as climate and resource constraints
• Incorporate external expectations from stakeholders and the broader operating environment
• Be integrated into planning, risk management, and organizational decision-making

While many of these concepts were introduced in earlier versions of the standard, the 2026 revision reinforces their application and makes them more visible across multiple clauses.

The 2026 revision is best understood as a clarification and strengthening of the 2015 framework, rather than a fundamental change.

 

Where to Start

A practical first step is to conduct a focused gap assessment against ISO 14001:2026, with attention to:

• Organizational context and environmental conditions
• Risk and opportunity identification
• Change management processes
• Lifecycle and supplier considerations

Following that, updates can be prioritized and integrated into your existing system over time. Organizations will have a transition period, typically up to three years, to align their systems with the updated standard.

Do you have questions or need help with a gap assessment or understanding ISO 14001:2026? Our team is here to help with it all, reach out today! 

^{Students in Lani Reeder’s class proudly show off their VR farm environment.}

Verizon

Lani Reeder’s students were working on an entrepreneurial lesson about marketplaces in ancient Rome when they had a bolt of inspiration. “The kids started asking questions: Do we still do this today, in modern times? Why can’t we make our own marketplace with our own goods and have our own system?” says Reeder, a Verizon Innovative Learning Schools Coach and Lab Mentor at Long International Middle School in St. Louis, Missouri. She said yes and watched them run with it.

Working inside the school’s Verizon Innovative Learning Lab, the students wrote business plans, prototyped products, created branding and even built their own currency — using emerging technology as their toolkit. Reeder sourced the original lesson plan on Verizon Innovative Learning HQ, which is “a hub of lessons and projects that you can choose from. You can use a little bit of it. You can use the whole thing. You can use it as a jumping-off point,” she explains.

Many students chose to create projects that would make life better for others. Eighth-grader Oghuz Erkin launched Grow, a concept bringing fresh fruit and vegetables from farmers directly into communities. Along with classmate Kenny Nguyen, the pair built a QR code-accessible, VR farm environment and designed a branded logo. “Using VR is very realistic and interesting. I’ve had a lot of fun doing this,” says Erkin.

Classmates Dawan Womack and Daniel Gadafi focused on disaster relief, engineering a delivery vehicle to transport essential supplies to people in need, such as those affected by a natural catastrophe. The device, built with pocket-size computers, could be controlled via tablet and programmed to return on its own. “[The computer] sends us the message that it is doing the task,” Womack explains. “And once it does that, [the device] will come right back to us using the same code that we use for delivering the items.”

Projects like these strengthen multiple skill sets at once — not just tech literacy but collaboration, problem-solving, communication and motivation — all of which contribute to students’ future endeavors and show them what they need “to be successful and college ready,” Reeder explains. “I think these engaging lessons are impacting their attendance. They want to come to school. They’re actively learning. They are learning how to communicate with one another. Their critical thinking—I see it blossom every day.”

“I think these engaging lessons are impacting their attendance. They want to come to school. Their critical thinking — I see it blossom every day.”
Lani Reeder

Verizon Innovative Learning is a key part of the company’s responsible business plan to help move the world forward for all. As part of the plan, Verizon has an ambitious goal of providing 10 million youth with digital skills training by 2030. Educators can access free lessons, professional development, and immersive learning experiences to help bring new ways of learning into the classroom by visiting Verizon Innovative Learning HQ.

Originally published on DICK’S Sporting Goods Sideline Report

Hunter Gilstrap didn’t grow up dreaming of becoming a professional athlete. As a kid in a small town in South Carolina, he was more interested in comic books and drawing than organized sports. Soccer was something his parents signed him up for at the local YMCA in 1990. To him, it was just another activity to try.

That changed in the summer of 1994.

Gilstrap attended an overnight soccer camp at Furman University with a friend, the same week the World Cup final was played and the first hosted in the U.S. The entire camp watched the match together, and for the first time, soccer felt bigger than a weekend game. He was drawn to the goalkeepers. Not just their role, but their presence. They wore the loudest uniforms on the field, and at camp, they got their own jerseys.

“I was extremely jealous,” he remembered. “From there, the rest was history.”

Gilstrap decided he wanted to be a goalkeeper and went all in. He studied the few matches he could record on TV and watched them over and over before heading outside to copy what he’d seen. A visual learner, he supplemented limited local coaching by attending multiple camps each summer and seeking out anyone who could help him refine his game.

His goal was clear: play college soccer. And Gilstrap did just that, playing for the Clemson Tigers from 2001 – 2004 and for the College of Charleston as graduate student in 2005.

Professional soccer wasn’t yet part of the picture. Major League Soccer barely existed, and the pathway wasn’t obvious. But Gilstrap kept moving forward, letting the next step reveal itself.

In 2006, he was drafted by Miami FC and got his first taste of professional soccer through league play and international friendlies.

A year later, he joined the Cleveland City Stars and quickly became a fan favorite. He helped lead the team to a league championship in 2008. A brief stint overseas in South Africa followed before he returned to Cleveland to captain the team in 2009 season. Gilstrap earned recognition not just for his play, but for his leadership, which was a steady presence in a demanding, results-driven environment.

From 2010 through 2014, he became a cornerstone of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, earning the league’s Goalkeeper of the Year honors and First Team AllLeague recognition. He also spent a season with the Carolina RailHawks before returning to Pittsburgh for his final professional season in 2016.

For a goalkeeper, success isn’t always defined by highlight-reel moments. It’s about long stretches of readiness and staying sharp when nothing is happening. It’s scanning the field, organizing defenders and preventing problems before they start.

“You can’t hide back there,” Gilstrap said. “If you make a mistake, everyone sees it. So, you learn quickly how to reset.”

That role taught him something else: communication isn’t about volume.

Early in his career, Gilstrap was known for being loud, sometimes obnoxiously so he admitted. Over time, he learned that yelling complicated instructions rarely helped anyone. What worked were simple, precise cues:

“Left shoulder.”

“Step.”

“Man on.”

Short. Actionable. Clear.

That mindset followed him long after he stepped away from the game.

Today, Gilstrap works in tech communications at DICK’S Sporting Goods, supporting organization-wide technology initiatives through storytelling, leader messaging and tech-wide moments that help teams understand what’s changing and why it matters. The atmosphere may be different, but the stakes are real, especially when thousands of teammates rely on clear, timely information.

“In soccer, people don’t want a novel,” he said. “And in technology, it’s the same. People want to know what’s changing, why it matters and what they need to do next.”

His role has evolved over time. Working within the Office of Technology, he supports tech-wide communications and brand efforts, from graphic design and video production to event planning, leadership messaging and major organizational launches. The work is varied and rarely routine, a rhythm that feels familiar to a former professional athlete.

The transition out of sports wasn’t seamless. Like many athletes, Gilstrap had to navigate imposter syndrome and redefine his sense of value away from the field. What ultimately grounded him was recognizing that his greatest asset wasn’t technical expertise alone, but his ability to organize information, simplify complexity and guide people through change.

Gilstrap hasn’t completely stepped away from the game. As owner and head coach of Pro Player Goalkeeping, he trains goalkeepers of all ages, focusing on both technique and mental resilience.

“The save is the easy part,” he said. “The real work is being ready before the ball ever gets there.”

Most of his teammates at DICK’S don’t picture him diving across goal lines and most goalkeepers don’t think about technology initiatives. But the throughline is the same. In every role, Gilstrap helps people stay organized, confident and ready when something doesn’t go as planned.

Whether it’s organizing a back line before a corner kick or preparing a team for a company-wide update, the role still feels familiar: see the whole picture, communicate clearly and be ready when the moment comes.

Written by Rebecca Hoolahan

Originally published on DICK’S Sporting Goods Sideline Report

Hunter Gilstrap didn’t grow up dreaming of becoming a professional athlete. As a kid in a small town in South Carolina, he was more interested in comic books and drawing than organized sports. Soccer was something his parents signed him up for at the local YMCA in 1990. To him, it was just another activity to try.

That changed in the summer of 1994.

Gilstrap attended an overnight soccer camp at Furman University with a friend, the same week the World Cup final was played and the first hosted in the U.S. The entire camp watched the match together, and for the first time, soccer felt bigger than a weekend game. He was drawn to the goalkeepers. Not just their role, but their presence. They wore the loudest uniforms on the field, and at camp, they got their own jerseys.

“I was extremely jealous,” he remembered. “From there, the rest was history.”

Gilstrap decided he wanted to be a goalkeeper and went all in. He studied the few matches he could record on TV and watched them over and over before heading outside to copy what he’d seen. A visual learner, he supplemented limited local coaching by attending multiple camps each summer and seeking out anyone who could help him refine his game.

His goal was clear: play college soccer. And Gilstrap did just that, playing for the Clemson Tigers from 2001 – 2004 and for the College of Charleston as graduate student in 2005.

Professional soccer wasn’t yet part of the picture. Major League Soccer barely existed, and the pathway wasn’t obvious. But Gilstrap kept moving forward, letting the next step reveal itself.

In 2006, he was drafted by Miami FC and got his first taste of professional soccer through league play and international friendlies.

A year later, he joined the Cleveland City Stars and quickly became a fan favorite. He helped lead the team to a league championship in 2008. A brief stint overseas in South Africa followed before he returned to Cleveland to captain the team in 2009 season. Gilstrap earned recognition not just for his play, but for his leadership, which was a steady presence in a demanding, results-driven environment.

From 2010 through 2014, he became a cornerstone of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, earning the league’s Goalkeeper of the Year honors and First Team AllLeague recognition. He also spent a season with the Carolina RailHawks before returning to Pittsburgh for his final professional season in 2016.

For a goalkeeper, success isn’t always defined by highlight-reel moments. It’s about long stretches of readiness and staying sharp when nothing is happening. It’s scanning the field, organizing defenders and preventing problems before they start.

“You can’t hide back there,” Gilstrap said. “If you make a mistake, everyone sees it. So, you learn quickly how to reset.”

That role taught him something else: communication isn’t about volume.

Early in his career, Gilstrap was known for being loud, sometimes obnoxiously so he admitted. Over time, he learned that yelling complicated instructions rarely helped anyone. What worked were simple, precise cues:

“Left shoulder.”

“Step.”

“Man on.”

Short. Actionable. Clear.

That mindset followed him long after he stepped away from the game.

Today, Gilstrap works in tech communications at DICK’S Sporting Goods, supporting organization-wide technology initiatives through storytelling, leader messaging and tech-wide moments that help teams understand what’s changing and why it matters. The atmosphere may be different, but the stakes are real, especially when thousands of teammates rely on clear, timely information.

“In soccer, people don’t want a novel,” he said. “And in technology, it’s the same. People want to know what’s changing, why it matters and what they need to do next.”

His role has evolved over time. Working within the Office of Technology, he supports tech-wide communications and brand efforts, from graphic design and video production to event planning, leadership messaging and major organizational launches. The work is varied and rarely routine, a rhythm that feels familiar to a former professional athlete.

The transition out of sports wasn’t seamless. Like many athletes, Gilstrap had to navigate imposter syndrome and redefine his sense of value away from the field. What ultimately grounded him was recognizing that his greatest asset wasn’t technical expertise alone, but his ability to organize information, simplify complexity and guide people through change.

Gilstrap hasn’t completely stepped away from the game. As owner and head coach of Pro Player Goalkeeping, he trains goalkeepers of all ages, focusing on both technique and mental resilience.

“The save is the easy part,” he said. “The real work is being ready before the ball ever gets there.”

Most of his teammates at DICK’S don’t picture him diving across goal lines and most goalkeepers don’t think about technology initiatives. But the throughline is the same. In every role, Gilstrap helps people stay organized, confident and ready when something doesn’t go as planned.

Whether it’s organizing a back line before a corner kick or preparing a team for a company-wide update, the role still feels familiar: see the whole picture, communicate clearly and be ready when the moment comes.

Written by Rebecca Hoolahan