New technologies, shorter production cycles and customized customer requests: Companies are already under pressure to act quickly and pragmatically. At first glance, sustainability seems like yet another challenge that adds effort and costs. But this impression is misleading. Sustainability is not a passing trend, but a purchasing criterion, a long-term investment and a genuine quality attribute.
Things become notable when you consider both topics together. Quality and sustainability actually have more in common than is apparent at first glance: Neither can be delegated to a single department; both have long-term effects; and both arise from the interaction of many people, processes and partners. The fact that this topic has made its way into quality management is also demonstrated by ISO 9001:2026: The new version of the standard explicitly addresses climate change in its text. This article shows how sustainability can be embedded in quality management, what role standards, stakeholders and supply chains play in this process and how companies are tackling the issue in practice.
ISO 9001:2026 replaces the previous version, ISO 9001:2015, and places greater emphasis on topics such as quality culture, ethical conduct and opportunity orientation. Climate change is now also an integral part of the standard's text. However, this is not strictly speaking new: The requirement was previously incorporated into ISO 9001:2015 via Amendment 1 and has now been adopted into the regular standard as part of the revision. It pertains to Chapter 4 ("Context of the Organization"):
Important to note: ISO 9001 remains a quality management standard. It does not require comprehensive climate management or specific climate protection actions, but rather a reasoned assessment. The focus is on how climate change affects the organization's ability to deliver products and services with consistent quality. You should be able to clearly demonstrate which criteria you used to assess relevance – even if the result is "not relevant". In practice, climate change thus belongs in the context analysis, in the assessment of risks and opportunities and in the identification of stakeholder expectations. Since standards such as IATF 16949 are based on ISO 9001, the topic is relevant there as well.
For companies, this is a good opportunity to treat sustainability not as a separate issue but to integrate it into existing quality processes.
Today, when people buy a product, they no longer look solely at price and function. Sustainable manufacturing, fair trade practices and responsible processes are increasingly perceived by customers as signs of good quality. A product manufactured under questionable conditions quickly appears to be of lower quality – even if it is technically flawless.
This is particularly evident in sectors such as the automotive industry, where politicians, investors, stakeholders and consumers alike set expectations. For companies, this creates clear pressure to act – but also an opportunity: Sustainable processes strengthen profitability and customer loyalty simultaneously and often have a positive impact on the quality of processes and products.
The crucial question is not whether companies should address sustainability, but why and how seriously. Acting solely out of economic motives falls short. Markets and stakeholders demand sustainability – but at the same time, companies also bear an ethical responsibility for their impact on the environment and society.
Purely window-dressing ("greenwashing") may temporarily mask the fact that outdated processes continue unchanged. In the long term, however, only what is actually put into practice is convincing: sustainabilitymust be firmly anchored in corporate values so that business partners, customers and, not least, the company's own employees find it credible. This requires a shift in perspective – away from a focus on short-term success and toward a strategy that considers economic, environmental and social aspects together.
To make sustainability tangible, it helps to distinguish between three dimensions, which must always be considered in interplay:
In each of these dimensions, there are control levers that can be influenced by quality processes. This is precisely where the intersections between quality management and sustainability lie.
In many companies, traditional quality management is associated with the image of certification and document management, and sometimes even that of a brake. If quality is understood solely as a "fire brigade" in the event of a problem, no one will believe it can contribute to future-oriented topics such as resource-efficient processes.
Yet quality has never been the sole responsibility of quality management. The term Quality-Oriented Management is more accurate: Quality is a Leadership Task and part of responsible corporate governance. The interests of customers and other stakeholders are incorporated into Quality Policy, Processes and Products – and the Quality Policy becomes a Leadership Tool put into practice rather than a document in a file folder.
The parallels are clear: Sustainability means conserving resources, fair collaboration and credible social responsibility. Good quality also results from cross-departmental collaboration and a strategy geared toward long-term success.
That is why it does not work to delegate sustainability to a single person as yet another management system. It affects every action a company takes and exerts its influence through these interactions. Quality provides the right tools for the job: processes, key performance indicators, improvement cycles and organizational development. One could say: Quality is a versatile tool for sustainable action.
The ISO 9001 requires organizations to understand the requirements of interested parties. These increasingly include sustainability expectations: legal requirements such as the Supply Chain Act, reporting obligations and specific customer requirements. These vary depending on the stakeholder – customers ask for sustainable products, employees for fair working conditions and investors for risk mitigation.
It is crucial to systematically identify these expectations, incorporate them into processes, document them and actually put them into practice. A good starting point: Define exactly what your stakeholders expect from your company.
Sustainability does not end at your own factory gate. Standards such as ISO 13485 require companies to systematically select and develop suppliers – with the risk of overregulation and a purely "as cheap as possible" mindset.
A more sustainable approach is to view suppliers as partners: A transparent onboarding process with audits, action plans and Part Approval Process provides guidance for both sides. Open complaint processes enable mutual learning, and Supplier Assessment – rather than merely serving as a control tool – becomes a dialogue about development potential.
Sustainability and quality are two sides of the same mindset: taking responsibility, thinking long-term and taking expectations seriously. Quality-oriented management embeds sustainability into strategy and daily operations, rather than treating it as an additional obligation.
Start with the expectations of your stakeholders, embed sustainability into your quality processes and manage goals and actions transparently using digital tools. Sustainable quality does not happen by accident – it results from the courage to change.
Sustainability topics can be integrated into existing quality processes rather than setting up a parallel system. Digital QM software supports this with features such as:
Quality thus contributes very concretely to sustainability: Every error consumes energy, materials and labor time. Those who avoid scrap, rework and complaints through FMEA, stable processes and statistical process controlconserve resources – and save costs at the same time.
With many additional modules – including Document Control, Quality Cockpit, Task and Action Management, Audit Management and Complaints Management – you can also integrate sustainability requirements directly into your quality processes. Learn more about Babtec software now!
