ISO 14001

Before implementing ISO 14001, an initial review or gap analysis of the organization’s processes and products is suggested to help identify every aspect of the current operation, as well as any potential future operations be in contact with the environment, referred to as environmentally-related aspects (Martin 1998). Environmental issues can be both direct, like those that are used in manufacturing and indirect ones, like the raw material used (Martin 1998). This report aids the organization in establishing their environmental targets as well as goals and targets that should be measured and aids in the creation of management and contrli procedures and procedures and helps identify any legal requirements that are relevant and can later be incorporated into the standard (Standards Australia/Standards New Zealand 2004).

Do- implement the procedures

At this point, the organisation decides on the resources needed and determines the members of the company who are responsible for the EMS implementation and the contrli (Martin 1998). This includes the documentation of all processes and procedures that include operational and document contrli, the creation for emergency plans and response and the instruction of staff members, to assure they are able to energetically implement the processes required and report outcome (Standards Australia/Standards NewZ 2004). Participation and communication across all levels of the organization including top management, is an essential part of the process of implementation, with the success of the EMS being dependent on continuous involvement by everyone in the organisation (Federal Facilities Council report 1999).

Verify – assess and monitor the process, and then provide payoff

After the checking phase after the checking stage, a periodic planned management review is performed in order to assure that the goals for the EMS are being achieved and to determine the extent to which they are being fulfilled as well as to warrant that communications are effectively managed and to analyze changes in circumstances, such as legal requirements, to recommend improvements to the system (Standards Australia/Standards New Zealand 2004). These suggestions are brought back to the planning stage and integrated into the EMS in the future.

Take action – adopt actions to rise the performance of EMS in accordance with outcome

The primary requirement of continuous improvement processes (CIP) is distinct from that required by the quality systems. In ISO 14001, CIP ISO 14001 has three dimensions (Gastl 2009):

• Expanding: More and more sectors of business are covered by the EMS.
• enrichment Every day, more and greater activities including products, processes emission, resources, etc. are managed by the EMS.
• Upgrade: An improvement of the organizational and structural structure of EMS and the accumulation of knowledge regarding business-related environmental concerns.

The CIP-concept is essentially a call for the company to slowly move away from just operational environmental measures to an approach to strategic planning for dealing with environmental issues.

Benefits

ISO 14001 was developed primarily to aid companies in reducing their environmental impact. However, as well as a rise in the environmental standard and efficiency, businesses will reap numerous economic benefits such as a better compliance to the requirements of regulatory and legislative bodies (Sheldon 1997) through the use of this ISO standard. In the first place, it reduces the chance of environmental and regulatory penalties and increasing the efficiency of an organization (Delmas 2001) which outcome in the reduction of the amount of waste and resources used and operating expenses are reduced (ISO14001.com.au 2010.). Additionally, since ISO 14001 is ISO 14001 is a globally recognized standard organizations operating in a variety of locations around the world can be certified to be ISO 14001 compliant, eliminating the requirement for multiple registrations or certificates (Hutchens 2010.). Thirdly, there is a growing demand, fueled in the past decade from consumers to encourage companies to adhere to stricter environmental standards and standards, which make the implementation of ISO 14001 a greater necessity to warrant the sustainability of companies (Delmas and Montiel 2009) and offering them an edge over businesses who do not adhere to the standard (Potoki and Prakash, 2005). This, in turn, can positively impact the value of assets owned by a company (Van der Deldt 1997) and may result in improved perceptions by the public of the business, which puts them in a position to compete within the global marketplace (Potoki and Prakash 1997; Sheldon 1997). In addition, it could help lower the barriers to trade between registered companies (Van der Deldt 1997).

Companies can greatly benefit from EMS implementation by identifying of larger production facilities that are cleaner (e.g. that can dramatically reduce energy costs in factories). ISO 14001 can be a extremely effective tool to pinpoint these savings opportunities for certain companies. Many other organizations fail in their planning due to lack of commitment from senior management and a lack of understanding of the perfect way to implement it and are left with an inadequate EMS. The improvements that companies can implement include designing their structure and allocating enough resources, ensuring that they have education, establishing forums to discuss issues, setting quantifiable goals and working alike to the premise that continuous improvements are the norm (Burden 2010, 2010).

Conformity Assessment

ISO 14001 can be used in varying ways to help a business that is not for profit or for profit increase its management of its relationship to the environment. If all elements that comprise ISO 14001 are incorporated into the management system The company can decide to demonstrate that it has reached the full alignment or conformity to ISO 14001, the internationally recognized standard ISO 14001, by with any of the four options that are recognized. They include:

1. Self-determination and self-declaration,
2. Request confirmation of the organization’s conformity with the requirements of parties who have any interest in the business including customers or
3. Request confirmation of its self-declaration with a third party that is not related to the company or
4. seek certification/registration of its environmental management system by an external organization.

 (Source: ISO 14001: 2004, Clause 1: Scope c)

One choice isn’t better than the other. Each opportunity is suited to different market needs. The company that adopts the option chooses the feature best perfect for their business, based on their specific market requirements. Option 1 is sometimes incorrectly referred to as ‘self-certify” or “self-certification”. This isn’t a suitable reference in accordance with ISO definitions and terms, because it could lead to confusion on the market (Reference ISO/IEC 17000:2004(E/F/R)). Option 2 is commonly called a customer or 2nd party audit which is a valid market term. Option 3 is a third-party independent process carried out by an entity that is not certified by national standards bodies. The fourth option is certification. It’s an independent third-party procedure that has been extensively used by all kinds of businesses. Accreditation is also referred to in a few states as registration. Providers of accreditation or certification are certified by national standards organizations; the service providers are generally listed on the official website of the body that is national in standards.

ISO 14001 Consultancy

ISO 14001 relates to environmental issues. While it’s an international standard for systems however, it is a requirement for an organization to assess and identify the environmental impact of their actions and to take measures to minimize environmental impact. Many companies need to invest efforts into the implementation of extra environmental responsibilities, so they use ISO 14001 consultancy firms to resolve the environmental problems on a technical level. Training is the initial stage in the process of implementing ISO 14001. Organisations can then look into ISO 14001 consultancy.

ISO 14001 Software

ISO 14001 software can help your company to manage your environmental operations.

ISO 14001 Environmental Aspect Database

To ensure ISO 14001 implementation, it is vital to recognize and evaluate environmental factors and their impacts. Numerous organizations create an inventory or database of these elements. Commercial software is readily available to assist organizations to categorize their environmental elements.

Liste of ISO 14000 series standards

• ISO 14001 Environmental management systems–Requirements with guidance for use
• ISO 14004Environmental management systems – General guidelines on the principles, systems, and support methods
• ISO 14015Environmental assessment of businesses and websites
• ISO 14020series (14020 to 14025) Declarations and labels for the environment
• ISO 14030 discusses post production environmental assessment
• ISO 14031 Environmental performance evaluation–Guidelines
• ISO 14040series (14040 to 14049) LCA, or Life Cycle Assessment LCA discuss pre-production plan and environmental goal setting.
• ISO 14050terms and definitions.
• ISO 14062discusses making improvements to the environmental impact goals.
• ISO 14063 Environmental communication–Guidelines and examples
• ISO 14064Measuring, measuring and cutting down on Greenhouse Gas emissions.
• ISO 19011which specifies an auditing protocol that applies to the 14000 as well as 9000 series standards.