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ISO 14001

2005-02-28
ISO 14001 is the international environmental management system standard. It was published in 1996 and is designed to help organisations put in place the necessary structures to ensure that their operations comply with environmental laws and that major environmental risks and liabilities are properly identified, minimised and managed.

Put simply, ISO 14001 provides a mechanism for ensuring that an organisation:

thinks about the environment
decides what it wants to do
works out how to do it
actually does it
corrects deviations from the plan
reviews its directions for the future so that it can do better next time.

Certification for compliance with the standard in the UK is carried out by external certifiers who are formally accredited under a scheme run by UK Accreditation Services (UKAS). ISO 14001 has superseded the British standard, BS 7750, and is strongly supported by DETR for use by business.

It can help your organisation to:

reduce costs by making the bottom line your top priority
reduce energy and use of other resources and minimise waste
meet Government and Departmental targets for improved performance
ensure compliance with environmental legislation and regulations
reduce unforeseen environmental risks eg, escaping fuel into a water course

What are the main elements of ISO 14001 ?

There are five:

An environmental policy. This should commit you to legislative/regulatory compliance, continual improvement, the prevention of pollution and to appropriate objectives and targets.

Planning. This covers a review of environmental aspects. Plus: legal and other requirements; objectives and targets; and the setting up of a management programme to achieve them.

Implementation and operation. This includes management structure, training, communications, documentation, operational control and emergency preparedness. It means providing resources for your staff, defining who does what, identifying training needs, communicating effectively and exerting effective control over the activities relevant to your significant environmental impacts.

Checking and corrective actions. These are monitoring, corrective action, records and audits. This means: using accurate measurement methods; regularly checking that progress towards objectives and targets is on course; taking action to rectify any non conformance with environmental policy or legal requirements; recording the operation of your EMS; and conducting audits to identify problems and to prove conformity with your requirements.

Management Review. This is necessary to close the loop. That is, to ensure that the system continues to be suitable, adequate and effective through changes made in the light of experience.