Environmental: ISO 14001

Benefits of Implementing an Environmental Management System

The benefits of an Environmental Management System for your organisation include:

Strengthened stakeholder confidence – ISO 14001 reduces risk of liability, keeps ahead of legislation and regulatory developments and reduces the environmental burden through elimination, reduction and options
Greater competitive advantage – your organisation would achieve improved cost control, improved organisational effectiveness and image of organisation
More secure long term viability – environmental management standard facilitates effective management, demonstrates environmental focus and introduces change in a controlled manner
Employee involvement and motivation – ISO 14001 demonstrates innovation and forward thinking approach to customers and prospective employees. It clearly defines employees’ functions and establishes environmental awareness and clear methodologies
As ISO 14001 is an internationally recognised standard, when businesses are operating in numerous locations around the world they can register as 14001 compliant. This eliminates the need for multiple registrations or certifications. ISO 14001 can also reduce trade barriers between registered businesses.
Other benefits of using ISO 14001:2004 can include reduced cost of waste management, savings in consumption of energy and materials, lower distribution costs, and improved corporate image among regulators, customers and the public.
Other benefits of ISO 14001 include: strengthened stakeholder confidence, greater competitive advantage, more secure long term viability and employee involvement and motivation

Environmental Management System: ISO 14001 Background

Fundamental Elements of ISO 14001 Environmental Management System

The critical elements of an environmental management system are:

Defining environmental aspects
Analysing relevant environmental impacts
Removing the impacts
Improving environmental performance

The ISO 14001 states that where the organisation operates should be where the concern for the environment should be concentrated such as with air, water, land, fauna, flora and human interactions. Clearly defining and differentiating between activities, associated aspects and the resulting environmental impacts is crucial to any effective environmental management system however this causes lots of companies difficulty quite often when initially developing their system. The above aspects should be dealt with greater significance in order for a successful environmental management system.

PDCA model applied to ISO 14001 Environmental Management System

PlanDoCheckAct The Plan – Do – Check – Act (PDCA) cycle is the foundation of all ISO management system standards. The cycle ensures development, continuous improvement and control of the management system. The cycle ensures constant monitoring of the organisation’s effectiveness. It consists of the following:

Plan – environmental management system implementation using of ISO 14000 guidelines
Do – conducting life cycle assessment and managing environmental aspects
Check – conducting audits and evaluating environmental performance
Act – using and maintaining the environmental management system through continuous improvement

ISO 14001:2004 provides a framework for a holistic, systematic and strategic approach to the organisation’s environmental policy, plans and actions. An organisation’s top management can manage environmental issues by prevention and identification of areas for cost savings in energy consumption, raw material usage and waste disposal with an effective environmental management system based on ISO 14001.

Plan – Environmental Policy

The first step is to define an environmental policy and to establishing good environmental performance as a strategic objective. It is important that the your organisation’s managers are driven and focused to achieve the relevant requirements.

The management team should start with identifying operations that interact or could potentially interact with the environment in the future. The interactions can be direct or indirect. Directly such as in the manufacturing industry or indirectly such as in the primary sector like raw materials. The management team’s goals and targets have to be measurable so they can be reviewed and improved by your internal audits in order to be successful.

Do – Implementation

This step involves implementing the system that has been planned by the management in the previous step. Conducting a life cycle assessment and managing environmental aspects and greenhouse gases is involved in implementing an environmental management system.

The resources and the members of your organisation that are responsible for maintaining and control of various processes that are put in place have to be defined. The members responsible for these processes have to be trained and should have documentation for all procedures and processes including operational and documentation control and emergency procedures and responses.

Check – Auditing

This stage involves conducting internal audits and measuring environmental performance periodically which ensures that your organisation’s targets and objectives are being met. Greenhouse gas performance also has to be measured. Your management team has to make sure that the employees responsible for various processes are monitoring and maintaining them adequately.

The requirements limited to key process characteristics should be monitored in order to make the whole audit system more effective. If your organisation already has a quality system, the 14001 can be integrated or make reference to it.

Corrective and preventative action documentation for various setbacks or processes is required to be presented as is the case with other management systems. The corrective and preventative action documentation emphasizes the environmental mind set the organisation needs on every level and ensures continuous incremental improvement.

Act – Continuous Improvement

A planned management review has to be conducted in order to ensure continuous improvement which involves:

Evaluating audits

Ensuring the meeting of your organisation’s objectives and targets
Ensuring the meeting of ISO 14001 requirements
Devising improvements to the processes
Evaluating changing circumstances such as legal requirements

In comparison to the quality management systems the continuous improvement process for ISO 14001 is slightly different. It includes the following aspects:

Expansion – more and more business areas should get covered by the implemented EMS
Enrichment – more and more activities, products, processes should be involved in the EMS
Upgrading – improvement in structure and framework of the EMS through know-how gained by the business when dealing with environmental issues

The continuous improvement of your environmental management system should move from operational measures to a strategic approach on how to deal with environmental challenges

Key steps to getting certified for ISO 14001 Environmental Management System

In order to get certified for ISO 14001 Environmental Management System there are a number of steps involved:

Applying

The first step involves the application for certification

Gap Assessment

This is where:

An on-site analysis of your current system is conducted
This will then be assessed against the standard
A report is then prepared to highlight the gaps between your current system and the standard

The gap assessment is optional and is not required for the certification process.

Preliminary Assessment – Stage 1

Your documentation has to be inspected and various areas have to be reviewed including:

The proposed scope of your registration
The status of implementation of your management system
The appropriate regulatory and legal requirements
Your management policies and objectives
Whether the system addresses the key areas of your business
Your site-specific activities – top level process review
Your key management elements, e.g. internal audits, reviews and complaints procedures
Your readiness to move onto Stage 2 of the assessment, the Registration Assessment

There should be a period of several weeks between preliminary assessment and registration assessment so that any issues can be sorted in relation to the preliminary assessment. If there are major non-conformities a second preliminary assessment will have to be carried out.

Registration Assessment – Stage 2

This involves a full review of your management system in order to confirm that your management system is controlled. When the registration assessment is complete a notified body issues a detailed report along with the outcome which recommends registration or not. If any issues arise during the assessment you will be expected to submit an action plan which should describe what changes are to be made to the management system in order to reduce or eliminate the risk of the same issues occurring again.

Surveillance & Re-assessment

A notified body visits each company at least once a year to make sure the management system is being maintained and that it is achieving it’s expected outcomes. A part of the management system is reviewed in depth during each visit.There is an expiry date on the certificate and the certificate expires every three years. Before the expiry date occurs a detailed assessment of the whole management system is undertaken to ensure every element of the system is performing satisfactorily and the results of the previous visits are taken into account.

During the registration period, changes are inevitable. In order to make sure the management system remains sound the notified body works with each registered organisation. Usually, change can be reviewed and assessed during routine surveillance visits. The notified body reserves the right to suspend or revoke certification in cases where change leads to the breakdown of the system.