How do I get ISO 14001 certification?

ISO 14001 is designed to help organisations increase their environmental sustainability. It is put forward by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), a leading international standard-setting organisation that focuses on integrating best practises to enhance efficiency and creating standardisation across industries. In this article, we will discuss the benefits of ISO 14001 certification, the certification procedure in Australia and the requirements of ISO 14001.

What is ISO 14001?

Since its inception in 1996, the ISO 14001 standard has been adopted by over 3 million organisations across the globe, ranging from smaller businesses to some of the largest firms in the world. In order to maintain the rectitude of their standard, organisations must obtain certification by a third party organisation, that will assess their specific implementation of the standard and determine whether their application meets the recommendations set out in the standard. Organisations that obtain certification in this manner will openly display their achievement as a way to substantiate and advertise their commitment to enhance environmental performance and sustainability.

Benefits of ISO 14001 certification

The ISO 14001 standard sets out the requirements for an Environmental Management System (EMS) that helps organisations improve their environmental performance through more efficient usage of resources and reduction in waste, thereby gaining the trust of stakeholders and a competitive advantage.
In addition, the benefits of ISO 14001 include the following:

Improved brand image and credibility

An increasing number of customers are concerned about the environmental practices of a company, and commit to only buying products from those organisations that have a “green image.” One way to provide assurance to all these people that you have fully committed to managing your environmental impacts is to have a demonstrable environmental management system that identifies and controls these impacts.

Acquiring ISO 14001 certificate can enhance your credibility, help you maintain good public image and improve community relationships.

Help you comply with legal requirements

One of the benefits that is derived from implementing ISO 14001 to your organisation is that the framework helps to identify, monitor and comply with various environmental requirements that apply to your processes. Complying with various legal, regulatory and contractual requirements help to further boost your image and credibility.

Improved cost control

The ISO 14001 standard improves cost control by firstly reducing the number of liability costs, fines, clean ups and reparations. Secondly, it enhances energy conservation and refines input materials required by a company’s processes, thereby reducing cost of inputs.

ISO 14001 procedure in Australia

Before implementing the ISO 14001 standard in your organisation, it is beneficial to learn about the standard. This includes understanding why the standard is created, what is ISO 14001, requirements of the standard and the difference between ISO 14000 family of standards.

Initial environmental review and gap analysis

After understanding about why the standard was created, it is beneficial to perform an initial environmental review and gap analysis. An initial environmental review will focus on reviewing previous environmental issues of your organisation, helping you consider any regulations that may have an operational impact.

Moreover, an initial environmental review will allow you to identify and evaluate possible environmental issues in your organisation. Although, it is imperative to understand that the environmental review is not considered an audit, but an initial assessment aimed to help you create an EMS.

Create a project plan

Create a project plan to determine your tasks, timeline and resources that you would need to integrate an EMS into your organisation. This also includes identifying the educational needs of all your employees, who would need training to work with the ISO 14001 standard and the EMS. ISO 14001 PDCA will help you to create a project plan that works!

Designing and documenting environmental manual

Here, designing and documenting your ISO 14001 environmental manual and procedures is non-negotiable. The biggest portion of the project is to look at your current processes, redesign them to address the requirements of the standard and document all the modifications. In fact, documentation is one of the biggest requirements to achieving compliance, as it serves as evidence of your planning, implementation and evaluation.

ISO 14001 requirements

The ISO 14001 standard requires you to maintain documented evidence that your EMS meets the required standard. The purpose of your documentation is to ensure that robust environmental processes are in place. The requirements regarding what kind of documentation is needed are clearly stated in the standard, but ISO 14001 does not dictate how you record your evidence. Examples of ISO 14001 requirements include:

Scope of your EMS

The scope statement delineate the operational processes of your EMS and the boundaries that will be placed upon it. Establishing these boundaries will require you to outline which part of your organisation will be subjected to the EMS, including processes, sites, divisions, departments, etc.

Environmental policy

The environmental policy describes an organisation’s commitment to take responsibility for the effects on the environment and how it plans to adhere to legal requirements. The policy should include clear commitment to deliver upon the organisation’s environmental objectives.

Evaluation of environmental risks and opportunities

An organisation should be able to explain the methodology and approach they are using to evaluate the environmental risks and opportunities, along with the provision of documented evidence such as strategies, business plans or operational plans.

Evaluation of environmental aspects

Environmental aspects can be described as organisational activities that create an impact on the environment. The organisations need to submit evidence on how they plan to evaluate and address their environmental aspects.

Conclusion

The ISO 14001 standard provides requirements to establish an environmental management system for any organisation that wishes to improve its environmental performance. The benefits of acquiring the certificate include compliance with legal requirements, improvement in cost-control, higher rate of success when implementing changes and improved credibility.

After learning about the standard, the certification procedure includes conducting an initial environmental review, implementing a management system and conducting internal audits to identify any deficiencies. The standard requirements include the scope statement, evaluation of environmental aspects, evaluation of environmental risks and opportunities and the environmental policy.