ISO 50001: the energy management system

What ISO 50001 is

It is the international standard for energy management systems (EnMS). The version in force is ISO 50001:2018, updated by Amendment 1:2024, which brings climate change into the factors to be considered.

It provides a structured, data-driven method for continually improving a company’s energy performance: measure actual consumption, find where it is wasted, act, and check the results. It follows the structure common to the other ISO standards (Plan-Do-Check-Act), so it sits well alongside management systems already in place.

Who needs it, and why

• Energy-intensive companies, or any business with substantial consumption, that want to cut the bill by working from data rather than instinct.
• Companies caught by statutory energy duties and looking for the most efficient way to meet them.
• Companies aiming to cut emissions: managing energy is the first concrete step towards decarbonisation and any sustainability programme.
• Companies bidding for tenders where energy efficiency earns points.
• Anyone wanting a system that lasts, rather than a one-off intervention.

Is it mandatory? The certification is voluntary. But it becomes very worthwhile where it discharges statutory duties or unlocks tax relief, as set out below.

The real advantage: obligations and incentives

ISO 50001 is not just a certificate on the wall: in many cases it saves money on taxes and compliance, and that changes the economics of the whole exercise.

In Switzerland, for energy-intensive companies, an energy management system fits into the large consumer model and the target agreements with the Confederation — instruments that can open the way to exemption from the CO2 levy and to a refund of the grid surcharge. A structured EnMS is the basis for managing those commitments in an orderly way rather than enduring them.

In Italy, the legislative decree transposing the European energy efficiency directive requires large companies and energy-intensive businesses to carry out a periodic energy audit. A company holding a certified ISO 50001 energy management system is exempt from that duty, because the system already covers continuously what the audit does once.

Thresholds, percentages and conditions vary over time and case by case: we check them together, on your situation, at the first contact.

The link with environment and carbon footprint

Energy and emissions are two sides of the same problem. A company that measures and manages consumption under ISO 50001 already holds most of the data needed for the carbon footprint and for sustainability reporting. And a company with an ISO 14001 environmental system starts ahead: the two standards share structure and logic, and combine into a single system.

The path, step by step

1. Initial review — the free preliminary assessment: where you stand, what you already have, what is missing.
2. Planning — boundary, objectives, responsibilities.
3. Energy review — mapping actual consumption and the significant energy uses: the heart of the standard.
4. Setting indicators and the baseline — the references against which improvement is measured.
5. Building the management system — procedures, monitoring, improvement plans.
6. Training the staff.
7. Internal audit.
8. Certification audit — the assessment by the independent third-party body.
9. Maintenance — annual surveillance, renewal on a three-year cycle.

How the cost breaks down

There are two items and they stay separate: our consulting fee and the fee of the certification body, an independent third party. The variables are size, the number and type of energy uses, the number of sites, and how available the starting consumption data is. We discuss it openly at the first contact, on your case rather than off a generic price list.

Why BS & Partners

• A multidisciplinary approach: measuring the energy of a production process means understanding the process. Our grounding in structural and mechanical engineering lets us read real consumption and real flows, rather than estimating by eye.
• The link with environment and carbon footprint: we manage energy as part of a wider picture, not as an isolated obligation.
• Ten years in business, 117 projects, work in 9 countries.
• The firm and the way we work: the BS & Partners profile.