| Approx Course Duration *: | Equivalent to Approx. 1 Hour/s |
| Access to Course Content: | 18 Months from the date of enrolment |
| Qualification/s: | Focus on ESG IWA 48 Principle 5 Environmental |
| CPD Hours: | 1 Continuing Professional Development Hours |
Environmental performance is a core pillar of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and increasingly central to regulatory expectations, stakeholder trust, and long-term resilience. Principle 5 of ISO IWA 48:2024 provides structured, practical guidance on how organisations can identify, manage, and measure environmental risks, opportunities, and impacts.
This microcredential focuses exclusively on Principle 5 Environmental, guiding learners through environmental frameworks, life-cycle thinking, risk-based decision-making, and the use of meaningful environmental KPIs. You’ll explore how environmental considerations connect to climate change, biodiversity, water, energy, materials, supply chains, and resilience.
Rather than prescribing rigid reporting rules, ISO IWA 48 emphasises credible, evidence-based environmental management that aligns with global frameworks such as ISO 14001, ISO 50001, ISO 14064, and the GHG Protocol; making this course highly applicable across industries and regions.
Who this course is for
This course is designed for professionals who are responsible for environmental performance within an ESG context, or who support organisations in managing environmental risk and sustainability outcomes.
It’s well suited to:
- ESG, sustainability, and environmental managers
- Risk, compliance, and governance professionals
- Consultants supporting ESG or climate initiatives
- Operations, facilities, and supply-chain leaders
- Auditors and assurance professionals building ESG capability
No prior ESG or ISO certification experience is required.
This course supports organisations seeking alignment with emerging global ESG disclosure standards and strengthens audit-ready, defensible ESG governance practices.
What you’ll learn
By completing this microcredential, you’ll learn how to:
- Interpret the intent and scope of ISO IWA 48:2024 Clause 5
- Apply life-cycle, geographical, asset, and supply-chain thinking to environmental risk
- Use a structured environmental framework to identify risks and opportunities
- Assess environmental impacts using science- and evidence-based approaches
- Translate environmental risks into concrete actions and targets
- Understand examples of environmental actions across climate, energy, water, biodiversity, and materials
- Apply environmental KPIs, including first- and second-priority indicators
- Support credible ESG reporting through transparent data and record-keeping
What you’ll be able to do
After completing the course, you’ll be able to:
- Support organisations in embedding environmental considerations into ESG strategy
- Identify and prioritise material environmental risks and opportunities
- Assist with setting environmental targets and implementation programmes
- Apply and interpret environmental KPIs aligned with international standards
- Strengthen environmental governance, transparency, and stakeholder confidence
- Prepare for advanced ESG implementation, assurance, or audit pathways
This microcredential can be stacked with other ISO IWA 48 ESG modules or used as a foundation for future ESG internal auditor, lead auditor, or assurance-focused training within ATOL’s learning pathways.
A stackable, certified microcredential focused on environmental responsibility within ESG systems.
Why this microcredential matters: Principle 5 addresses environmental aspects of ESG, including impacts on climate, biodiversity, resources, emissions, and environmental stewardship.
Organisations must understand how environmental performance links to risk management, regulatory expectations, and long-term sustainability.
This microcredential contains the following lessons, with a knowledge check and a short-format exam upon completion.
| Focus Area | Key Takeaways |
|---|---|
| Environmental Impacts and Dependencies | Identify environmental aspects including climate change, biodiversity, resource use, pollution, and ecosystem impacts across operations and value chains. |
| Environmental Objectives and Strategy | Align environmental priorities with ESG strategy, materiality outcomes, and risk management processes. |
| Environmental KPIs and Metrics | Establish measurable environmental indicators covering emissions, energy, water, waste, circularity, and environmental performance trends. |
| Monitoring and Improvement | Use evidence-based monitoring, benchmarking, and transparent methodologies to track progress and drive continual improvement. |
Course details:
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Microcredential
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Approx 1 hours full-time study*
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Stackable Digital Microcredential
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Standard: IWA 48:2024 ESG
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No prerequisites required
* All ATOL courses are delivered in such a way you can work through them at your own pace, the actual time to complete the training may change depending on the individual learners' experience and/or learning style
NO PREREQUISITES