What Is ISO 14060? A Guide to the New International Net Zero Standard

In June 2026, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) released the draft of ISO 14060, the first international standard built specifically around organisational Net Zero. It sets out what a credible Net Zero pathway looks like, how to plan and deliver one, and how progress can be checked by an independent third party.

This guide explains what ISO 14060 is, where it sits alongside standards a business may already know (such as SBTi, ISO 14064-1 and ISO 14068), the four claims it introduces, the key dates, and how it is likely to affect mid-market and smaller businesses. It gives you a clear, practical understanding of the standard and what it could mean for your business.

What is ISO 14060?

ISO 14060, titled "Net zero aligned organizations", is the set of rules for what a business needs to do to credibly work towards Net Zero. It spells out how to set science-based targets, build a plan to hit them, take action, and report honest progress, all in line with the Paris Agreement.

Put simply, it answers a question many businesses now face. What does it take to say you are working towards Net Zero, and prove it?

A few things set ISO 14060 apart:

• It looks at your whole business, not a single product or event. The standard measures an organisation's total emissions, from its own operations through to its supply chain (Scopes 1, 2 and 3). The footprint of one product, or a one-off event, sits under different standards. 
• It is reduction-first. The priority is cutting your own emissions, not buying your way out of them. Carbon credits cannot be counted towards your reduction targets, and only durable carbon removals can be used to cancel out the small amount of emissions that are genuinely impossible to eliminate.
• It can be independently checked. This is the first international Net Zero standard where a claim can be verified by an outside party, which gives it a credibility that a self-declared pledge does not have.
• It applies to almost any organisation. Companies, partnerships, charities, universities, public or private. It was written mainly for non-financial organisations, with a separate standard, ISO 32212, covering banks and other financial institutions. It does not apply to whole countries or cities.

The standard grew out of ISO's 2022 Net Zero Guidelines (known as IWA 42) and will replace them once published. It is being led by BSI, the UK's national standards body, alongside ICONTEC in Colombia.

What does "organisational Net Zero" mean under ISO 14060?

The standard puts a firm definition behind a term that has been used loosely for years. A business reaches organisational Net Zero when it has cut the emissions across its whole footprint as far as is genuinely possible, then cancels out the small amount left over using durable carbon removals.

That leftover has a specific name: residual emissions. These are the emissions still there at your target date after you have done everything technically and economically feasible to cut them. The word feasible matters. You cannot label an emission "residual" just because it is awkward or expensive to deal with. If a business expects more residual emissions than its sector's pathway suggests, it has to publish a feasibility analysis explaining why those emissions genuinely cannot be reduced further. The effect is that Net Zero means near-total reduction first, with removals filling only the real gap.

When does ISO 14060 come into effect?

ISO 14060 is currently a Draft International Standard (ISO/DIS 14060). That matters: as a draft, it is open for comment and subject to change, and it cannot be treated as a finished International Standard until it is formally published.

The key dates so far:

• 17 June 2026: the draft was released for public consultation, ahead of London Climate Action Week.
• 12-week consultation: the draft is open to ISO's national member bodies in more than 170 countries, with national positions expected by early September. Member voting on the draft closes on 9 September 2026.
• Late 2026 or early 2027: final publication is anticipated, subject to the outcome of the consultation.

It is worth being clear on what "in effect" means here. ISO standards are voluntary. They are not laws, and no business is obliged to follow ISO 14060. Standards like this tend to gain weight in two ways: governments reference them in regulation, and customers, investors and buyers ask for them in contracts and tenders. So there is nothing a business has to do while it is in draft. Once published, it gives organisations a single, internationally recognised framework for planning, delivering and proving credible Net Zero, and a clear reference point for any customer or investor asking how a business is approaching it. 

How does ISO 14060 work?

The standard sets out a framework that runs from commitment to public claim. In order, a business:

1. Commits at leadership level and sets the boundary of its footprint.
2. Measures a full-scope footprint (Scopes 1, 2 and 3), using ISO 14064-1 or the GHG Protocol.
3. Builds a transition plan and sets science-based targets.
4. Takes action, and prepares to remove carbon for the emissions it cannot cut.
5. Reports progress at least once a year, and makes one of four claims.

Running through all of it are principles including urgency, honesty about progress, transparency, and fairness between richer and poorer economies. The sections below cover the parts that matter most in practice.

What targets does ISO 14060 require?

Targets have to cover all three scopes and align with a recognised, science-based pathway consistent with 1.5°C. They come in two forms:

• A long-term target to reach Net Zero by the date set by your chosen pathway.
• Interim targets along the way. The first falls within five years of setting your targets, and later ones no more than ten years apart. Each scope gets its own.

Behind these sits the organisational GHG budget. Rather than only judging you on your final Net Zero year, the standard caps the total emissions you can release between your base year and that year. Think of it as a carbon allowance for the whole period, not just an end point. It is why early action matters so much: a plan that coasts for a decade then promises steep cuts in the 2040s can blow through its budget long before 2050, even if the final target looks fine. ISO 14060 is built around deep, early reductions.

Scope 3 gets a clearer test. For most businesses, Scope 3 (the emissions in your supply chain and beyond) is the biggest and hardest part of the footprint. Instead of treating every category the same, the standard asks you to weigh each on two things: how big it is, and how much influence you have over it. Where both are high, which usually includes purchased goods and services and supplier emissions, you need a target. Less significant categories can be left out of target-setting, but you have to disclose which ones and still act on them.

What goes into an ISO 14060 transition plan?

A transition plan is required from the second claim stage onwards, and it cannot be a standalone document off to one side. It has to be built into how the business plans and budgets, with named owners and real resources behind it.

A plan is expected to set out your target and interim milestones, your anticipated residual emissions, timelines for specific actions, governance and funding, how you will work with your supply chain on Scope 3, and how you will build capacity to remove carbon over time. It has to be public, updated at least every five years, with any drift from earlier commitments explained openly.

Two details stand out. 

• Removals cannot be a last-minute purchase: the standard asks businesses to start building removal capacity within five years of setting targets, because credible removals take years to line up. 
• Data quality is considered a core requirement: Businesses have to keep improving the accuracy of their emissions data over time, and cannot use "our data isn't perfect yet" as a reason to delay. Spend-based data (estimating emissions from what you spend) is a fine starting point, but it is the least reliable way to show real reductions, because your footprint moves with your costs rather than your actions. Activity data (energy used, distances travelled, materials bought) is what proves emissions are genuinely coming down, and ISO 14060 pushes firmly in that direction. 

What happens to carbon credits and offsetting under ISO 14060?

This is one of the biggest shifts in the standard, and the part most likely to affect businesses that already have a Net Zero claim.

Carbon credits cannot be used to claim progress toward your emission reduction targets, interim or final. A business buying credits to show it is "on track" could not claim that under the standard, which wants real cuts in your own footprint. Credits keep a narrower role: contributing to global Net Zero beyond your value chain, supporting remedial action if you miss a target, addressing historical emissions, and counterbalancing genuinely residual emissions at Net Zero.

That last use is strict. Carbon removals can only be used to cancel out residual emissions if they are:

• Durable: stored for at least 100 years
• Additional: they would not have happened anyway
• Quantified: measured with a science-based, independently validated method
• Free from leakage: they do not just push emissions elsewhere
• Singly claimed: not counted by more than one organisation
• Credibly accounted for: independently verified

The more common, cheaper reduction or avoidance credits do not qualify here. For businesses whose plans lean on offsetting, this is the change worth reading twice. It does not make offsetting pointless, but it changes what it is for: supporting climate action beyond your footprint, rather than standing in for cuts within it.

Does every business have to reach Net Zero by 2050?

Not necessarily, and this part is often skipped in early coverage. ISO 14060 recognises that countries are moving at different speeds, in line with the Paris Agreement's principle that wealthier economies should decarbonise faster. Net Zero target years are set by country income, using World Bank classifications:

• 2050 for high-income countries, including the UK, US, Canada and most of the EU
• 2060 for upper-middle-income countries
• 2070 for lower-middle and low-income countries

For most businesses in the UK, US, Canada or the EU, the target year is 2050. A company with significant operations or supply chains in emerging markets can have a science-aligned target beyond 2050, worked out as a weighted average based on where its emissions occur. The standard asks businesses to be open about how this shapes the pathway they choose.

What are the four Net Zero claims under ISO 14060?

One of the standard's most practical features is a four-stage claims framework. Each stage builds on the last, so a business can show where it is on the path rather than jumping straight to a "Net Zero" statement.

The stages are:

• Net Zero aspiration: the starting point. Commit to reach Net Zero by a set date and to publish a transition plan, within two years.
• Net Zero aligned transition plan: footprint measured, targets set, plan published, and a commitment to deliver it. Held for up to five years.
• Net Zero aligned progress: on the pathway and meeting interim targets and removal milestones. Renewed every five years.
• Net Zero achievement: organisational Net Zero reached, with residual emissions counterbalanced by durable removals, demonstrated each year.

One rule catches out businesses that have already made a pledge. An organisation that has previously stated a Net Zero, carbon neutral or similar goal cannot use the first "aspiration" claim, and has to work toward the transition plan claim instead.

Missing an interim target does not automatically end a claim. Miss a Scope 2 or 3 target by up to 25% (while staying within your Scope 1 budget) and you can enter an adjustment period of up to three years and keep your progress claim, as long as you are open about it and report on catching up. Miss by more than 25% and the claim is lost, though a three-year remedial period is available to earn it back, with a binding plan published within twelve months. A business gets at most two of these periods across its whole path to Net Zero, and they cannot be used back to back. 

How does ISO 14060 compare with other standards?

It helps to see ISO 14060 as one piece of a wider set, not a replacement for the standards a business may already use. It references and builds on several of them.

The clearest distinction is between ISO 14060 and ISO 14068. ISO 14068 covers carbon neutrality, where a business balances its footprint by buying carbon credits. ISO 14060 sets a higher, longer-term bar: deep reductions first, with credits limited and residual emissions counterbalanced only by durable removals.

Against SBTi's Corporate Net-Zero Standard, the two share a lot of DNA. Both are reduction-first, cover Scopes 1 to 3, and stop credits counting toward reduction targets. The main difference is what they are. SBTi is a framework you submit targets to for validation by SBTi. ISO 14060 is a formal ISO standard whose claims can be checked by any accredited first, second or third party. 

Does ISO 14060 apply to SMEs and mid-market businesses?

Yes. It applies to organisations of every size, and includes a dedicated annex (Annex A) recognising that smaller businesses may not have the time, data or in-house expertise to meet every requirement straight away.

That annex offers practical routes rather than a lighter set of rules. A smaller business still has to meet the full requirements to make a claim, but the guidance suggests approaches such as using free tools for a first footprint, focusing Scope 3 effort on the categories that are both material and within their influence, and setting intensity-based targets (such as emissions per unit of product) where absolute targets are hard to commit to.

For mid-market businesses, the more immediate driver is usually commercial. Large customers with their own Net Zero targets increasingly ask suppliers to measure and reduce emissions, and a common, verifiable standard gives them a clear yardstick to ask for. A supplier that can point to a credible transition plan and targets is better placed in tenders and supplier assessments than one that cannot.

The draft also introduces a concept relevant to professional services firms such as consultancies and law firms: "serviced emissions", the emissions linked to the advice and services they provide. Service providers are asked to estimate these and build serviced-emissions targets into new contracts over time.

What does ISO 14060 mean going forward?

ISO 14060 is arriving as the rules around Net Zero consolidate rather than multiply. Businesses currently juggle national disclosure rules such as the CSRD, voluntary frameworks and investor expectations, and ISO's aim is to give them a single, internationally recognised reference.

Two things are worth watching. ISO and the GHG Protocol have formed a partnership to harmonise their carbon accounting rules, so the measurement standards underneath ISO 14060 are themselves being updated. And the direction on Scope 3, more coverage and less room for rough estimates, is shared across ISO 14060, the GHG Protocol's proposed Scope 3 revisions and the latest SBTi standard. None of this needs action while the standard is in draft, but the groundwork it asks for (an accurate footprint, science-aligned targets, a real plan and honest reporting) is the same groundwork almost every other framework rewards.

How does Seedling help?

Whichever standard a business ends up reporting against, the foundations are the same. Seedling gives teams the software and one-to-one expert support to build them: a full-scope, GHG Protocol-aligned carbon footprint, science-aligned Net Zero targets and a quantified reduction plan, and reports ready to share with clients, investors and supply chain partners.

For businesses that need their emissions data independently checked, third-party verification is available through our ISO 14064 verification service. If ISO 14060 is on your radar, or a customer has started asking about your Net Zero plans, we can help you get the underlying data and plan in place. Book a demo or start for free.

FAQs

Is ISO 14060 mandatory?‍

No. ISO 14060 is voluntary, and still a draft (ISO/DIS 14060) open for consultation. It is not law anywhere. Its value is in giving businesses, customers and investors a common, verifiable definition of organisational Net Zero.

When will ISO 14060 be published?‍

The draft was released for public consultation on 17 June 2026, with member voting closing on 9 September 2026. Final publication is expected in late 2026 or early 2027, subject to the consultation.

What is the difference between ISO 14060 and ISO 14068?

ISO 14068 covers carbon neutrality, where a business offsets its footprint with carbon credits. ISO 14060 is a Net Zero standard: it prioritises cutting emissions at source, does not let credits count toward reduction targets, and allows only durable carbon removals to counterbalance the emissions that remain.

How is ISO 14060 different from ISO 14001?

They do different jobs. ISO 14001 is a management system standard: it certifies that a business has a system in place to manage its environmental impacts, and an accredited body awards a certificate. ISO 14060 is not a management system standard and has no equivalent badge. It sets out how a business plans, delivers and proves a credible Net Zero pathway, and lets it make one of four Net Zero claims that can be independently verified. A business can hold both: ISO 14001 for how it manages environmental impacts, ISO 14060 for how it works towards Net Zero. 

How is ISO 14060 different from SBTi?‍

Both are reduction-first Net Zero frameworks covering Scopes 1 to 3. The difference is structure. SBTi validates a company's targets against its own methodology. ISO 14060 is a formal ISO standard whose claims can be checked by any accredited first, second or third party. 

Can you use carbon credits under ISO 14060?‍

Not to show progress against your reduction targets. The standard wants real cuts in your own footprint. Credits can still support action beyond your value chain, help address a missed target or historical emissions, and, at Net Zero only, durable carbon removals can counterbalance genuinely residual emissions if they meet six quality tests.

Can a business be certified to ISO 14060?

Not as a certification badge. ISO 14060 is a standard for making Net Zero claims that can be validated or verified by a first, second or third party. Third-party verification is expected to carry the most weight with customers and investors.