Environmental Update (April 2009)
Environmental Management Systems
At present, there are a number of environmental management
systems in operation, these include: -
- ISO 14001: 2004
- BS8555
- EMAS
- Green Dragon Environmental Standard
This article focuses on the requirements on ISO 14001:
2004.
ISO 14001 is an internationally recognised Environmental
Management System (EMS) which when externally certified helps to
confirm that organisations are meeting a set of standards and are
continually improving in terms of environmental performance.
ISO stands for the International Organisation for
Standardisation which is an international standard setting
organisation comprised of representatives from various national
standards' organisations (such as The British Standards Institute).
'ISO' was chosen as the abbreviation rather than 'IOS' because in
Greek 'isos' means equal. This reflects the aim
of the organisation which is to equalise and standardise cultures;
it also deals with the fact that when interpreted into different
languages its initials would change.
ISO 14001 has been developed around the Deming Cycle- 'Plan',
'Do', 'Check', 'Act' which manifests itself in the standard into 5
sections: -
- Environmental policy;
- Planning;
- Implementation and operation;
- Checking; and
- Management Review.
ISO 14001 endorses the principle of 'continual improvement'.
Each of the 5 stages include a number of clauses which have to
be met (17 in total); these are set out below: -
|
ISO 14001 Stage
|
Clause
|
|
1. Environmental Policy
|
Environmental Policy
|
|
2. Planning
|
Environmental Aspects
|
|
Legal and other requirements
|
|
Objectives, targets and programmes
|
|
3. Implementation and Operation
|
Resources, roles, responsibility and authority
|
|
Competence, training and awareness
|
|
Communication
|
|
Documentation
|
|
Control of documents
|
|
Operational control
|
|
Emergency preparedness and response
|
|
4. Checking
|
Monitoring and measurement
|
|
Evaluation of compliance
|
|
Non-conformity, corrective and preventative action
|
|
Control of records
|
|
Internal audit
|
|
5. Management Review
|
Management Review
|
Why is certification to ISO 14001 important?
If helps to continually improve organisation's environmental
performance (including the meeting of environmental legislation).
ISO 14001 helps to measure, monitor and improve the impact an
organisation has on the environment, making sure that their
footprint is as small as possible.
Being environmentally responsible is no longer something that
has to cost a lot, in fact, by adopting some of the measures
proposed in the ISO 14001 system organisations can save money.
Organisations can gain external recognition for what they do as
a business.
How does it affect an organisation?
ISO 14001 will only be successful if all staff are involved and
play their part. Over time, organisations should see a number
of changes, for example, more efficient use of resources, cost
savings, increased training.
How does it work in practice?
ISO 14001 is an ongoing system, based around the 17 'clauses'
(as outlined above) and the concept of continual improvement as
structured through a Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) model.
In practice, the following key steps need to be taken: -
- A team is usually established to help set up the procedures and
paperwork that will form the basis of the system.
- An assessment of the organisation's environmental aspects needs
to be conducted (this can be done in a baseline environmental
review, however it is not compulsory).
- An Environmental Policy has to be prepared and approved by
senior management.
- Information needs to be collected on the resources used by the
organisation (paper, cardboard, electricity etc) in order to
establish some simple baseline figures.
- Targets will be set to reduce consumption in a number of key
areas. As the system progresses, the management team should report
back in terms of how the organisation is meeting targets.
- Audits need to be completed to ensure that the organisation is
doing what they said they would do.
- Performance should be reviewed by senior management and
Directors to make sure that progress is as they would hope.
- The final stage is external certification (although this is
optional) in order to give the system the seal of approval.