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Environmental Management Systems and ISO 14001 Certification
What is ISO 14001?
ISO 14001 is a framework for an Environmental
Management System and thereby provides a means of ensuring that
your business or organisation considers all aspects of its operation
that either actually or potentially have some impact on the environment.
The impact may often be some form of resulting pollution but can
also relate to consumption of non-renewable resources.
ISO 14001 is also being used increasingly
as a marketing tool to advertise an organisation's environmental
credentials to any potential customers as well as other interested
parties.
The following briefly describes the main areas of consideration if implementing ISO 14001:
Policy and Objectives
ISO 14001 requires a clear Environmental Policy statement and some improvement Objectives once the "Aspects" and "Impacts" have been identified. These may for example be to reduce an emission to a specified level, reduce electricity consumption or to recycle more. The policy statement also must be publicly available.
Defining your Environmental "Aspects"
It is necessary to identify the organisation's "Environmental Aspects"; these being the various ways that the organisation interacts with or impacts on the environment. The Aspects may be very obvious in say a chemical or steel works, but can equally be applied to relatively clean service sector industries. In a simple office based business the environmental aspects would for example include the use of electricity, water resources and the means of general office waste disposal. Aspects and their respective Impacts will need to be prioritised or weighted in order that more serious issues are dealt with first.
Legal Requirements
There is an ever increasing amount
of legislation relating to the environment and ISO 14001 requires
its adherents to identify and keep abreast of all relevant legislation.
This is likely to be the most difficult part of maintaining an EMS,
but there are various on-line resources that can be used.
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"the assessor was particularly complimentary
about the environmental documentation & follow up."
Waverley Contracting & Supply
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Objectives Targets and Programmes
Based on the organisation’s
Aspects and Impacts it is necessary to determine any improvements
that can be made relating to them, whilst taking account of the
importance or criticality of the particular Aspect. As with ISO 9001
the intention here is to put in place the means for continuous improvement.
Emergency Preparedness & Response
ISO 14001 also requires the organisation
to prepare for any potential emergency situations where these may
have an adverse impact on the environment. In an oil refinery for
example a plan would exist to cater for major oil spillages in order
to prevent widespread contamination, however all organisations are
expected to put in place the necessary preventive actions depending
on the emergency scenario envisaged, though in a simple office based
environment this requirement will be fairly minimal - e.g. fire
prevention.
If you would like more specific information
about how ISO 14001 can be implemented in your organisation,
just email
or call for an informal
discussion, or even just for some advice. |
