ISO 14001 Environmental Systems Handbook

Ken Whitelaw

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781136391569
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

ISO 14001 Environmental Systems Handbook Second Edition outlines the scope and purpose of the standard, making it accessible to all. The author begins by explaining the concepts of the standard, which sets the tone for a practical guide to implementation of an ISO 14000-compliant environmental management system, which also covers the consultant's and auditor's perspective. The case studies from industries that have actually undergone the process have been updated to include information on their progress toward environmental objectives in the 18-24 months following implementation. A new case study from a service organisation ( a car lease company) will be added. Finally there is input from training organisations and certification and accreditation bodies to assist with trouble-shooting and assessment. Additional information is also included on international legislative issues. Comparisons with ISO 9000 will also be fully updated to reflect revisions to this standard. The book will offer the reader a range of options for implementation, and guidance on which is the best option to suit the particular organisation's culture.

Chapter 1 Concepts and the ‘spirit' of ISO 14001

DOI: 10.4324/9780080478807-1

Introduction

Before describing the steps an organization needs to take to implement the Standard itself, some of the underlying concepts are considered so that an understanding may be reached as to why the clauses of the Standard are written as they are. An understanding of the intention of the Standard – the ‘spirit’ – is also considered. For, unless the requirements of the Standard are understood at an early stage, the resultant EMS may have weak foundations. Such a system will not give the performance improvements intended – thus wasting the resources of the implementing organization.

The structure and the purpose of the clauses and sub-clauses are addressed in straightforward language and, where possible, simple, illustrative examples are given. This chapter sets out the framework whereas Chapter 2 details all the steps necessary for practical implementation of ISO 14001. The first parts of this chapter explore the concepts behind what any EMS should set out to achieve. Later, attention is focused on how such concepts are refined for ISO 14001 environmental management systems: the reasons for the clauses; why they are phrased in the way that they are; and what they require of an organization in practical terms.

Concepts of environmental control

On a personal level

We all have an impact on the environment by the mere act of living from day-to-day. An EMS, in its simplest form, asks us to control our activities so that any environmental impacts are minimized. This broad and simplistic approach has its merits. However, such a loose, unstructured approach may lead us to improve in the wrong direction or, indeed, may leave us without any clear direction at all. On a personal level, it is tempting to control and minimize those impacts we feel we can tackle easily. Perhaps our attitude towards environmental issues is influenced by a topical environmental event, and therefore, we can be influenced to act without thoroughly understanding some of the more complex issues.

Thus, as individuals, we may focus on, and minimize, environmental impacts which are trivial in nature compared with other impacts (which are far more significant and require more considered thought processes). As an example, we may commit ourselves to a futile exercise without attacking the root causes of pollution or the use of non-renewable energy sources. We may, in our working environment, always: re-use paper (writing on both sides); re-use paper clips; recycle plastic drinks cups. Such measures require only a little thought, and very little personal physical effort. Yet we may use our car to drive to the office in a city – contributing to air pollution, traffic congestion and so on – when alternative transport could be used (for example, the humble bicycle or public transport). However, this latter option for environmental control requires much forethought (such as planning the journey time around bus timetables). There is some personal inconvenience and physical effort in this choice as well as some loss of freedom and flexibility. This is not to say that re-use of paper clips should be discarded as an environmentally responsible option but that we must be aware of its environmental significance compared to the other, more significant, environmental impacts.

At a business level

Moving from individual actions to corporate actions, and using the analogy above, unless a structured approach is taken the organization may focus on what it believes to be its environmental impacts, a belief based upon ‘gut feel’ and ease of implementation. In reality, this does not address real issues but promotes a ‘green’ feel-good factor or perceived enhancement of image – both internal and external to the organization – which is not justified. For example, a company engaged in the extraction of raw materials by mining may have an environmental objective to save energy. By implementing a ‘save energy by switching off lights’ campaign in its site offices it may feel it has achieved ‘green’ status and may proudly boast of such an environmentfriendly approach.

There will be some energy saved by administration personnel switching off lights and heating when they are not being used for long periods. However, such savings in energy are trivial compared to the massive impact that the mining industry has on the environment: the visible impact of the site and surrounding land; the associated increased noise levels from the operation of such a site; the high use of energy both in extraction technology and transport activities; the use of chemicals in the purification process; and of course, the use of non-renewable resources (the raw material that is being mined). Unless the mining company considers the relative scale and significance of environmental impacts, then by claiming to be ‘green’ it has really missed the whole point of environmental control and impact minimization.

Thus, this concept of significance is fundamental and must be at the heart of any environmental management system. An organization must move away from this ‘gut feel’ approach to a structured system that demands as a minimum from the organization, an understanding of the concepts behind and strong linkages between:

• Identifying all environmental aspects of the organization's activities
• Using a logical, objective (rather than subjective) methodology to rank such aspects into order of significant impact upon the environment
• Focusing the management system to seek to improve upon and minimize such significant environmental impacts

It should be noted that the criteria used for attributing significance to environmental impacts should be clearly defined. The process of evaluating each aspect against the criteria should be readily apparent. The ‘significance value’ of an impact can be a numeric one, an alphanumeric one or a significance rating resulting from an informed decision-making process undertaken by a team, or even one person. This methodology of rating of significance is very important – it must be robust and withstand scrutiny, and be reproducible during the life of the EMS. Rating is examined in greater detail in Chapter 2.

For example, for one company the most significant environmental impact could be the sending of mixed waste to a landfill site – a fairly common environmental aspect shared by most manufacturing organizations. The organization must then decide on an objective to aim for in reduction of such waste. This objective could be to reduce progressively waste sent to landfill by 3% per annum. Individual targets to support this objective could be set to: progressively segregate waste; recycle a certain percentage; and, perhaps, sell off a certain percentage of segregated waste (for example, brown cardboard). All these measures would reduce the number of skips of waste sent to the landfill site.

It should be noted the percentage savings, for example, should have an attainable figure based upon what is practicable in the situation and what other similar industries are achieving i.e. benchmarking. The organization should use easy-to-measure data to support this waste minimization objective and this is further examined, developed and discussed in Chapter 2. Remembering that any EMS is seeking to place controls upon its environmental impacts, then it is only common sense to have a plan for monitoring and measurement of controlling activities. Such a plan should readily show any deviations from the targets during a review, so that if a problem does occur, then the appropriate remedial or corrective actions can easily be taken.

This is environmental control. ISO 14001 provides the framework to allow such controls to be exercised in a structured and controlled way. By documenting such a system, personnel operating it have a framework to: work around; hang ideas onto; follow what is documented; record what was done; and learn from any mistakes that were made.

The spirit of ISO 14001

In the simplest of terms, and condensing the whole concept of ISO 14001 into one sentence, we can say that fundamentally the Standard requires an organization to:

Control and reduce its impact on the environment.

In simple terms, the Standard requires an organization to state how it goes about controlling and reducing its impact on the environment: doing in practice what it has stated in its environmental policy; recording what has occurred; and learning from experience.

What obligation does this impose upon an organization? ISO 14001 requires an organization to control its impacts on the environment. All aspects of business activity cause changes in the environment to a greater or lesser extent. Organizations deplete energy sources and raw materials and generate products and waste materials. These changes are referred to as environmental impacts. ISO 14001 defines an environmental impact as:

Any change to the environment, whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from an organization's activities, products or services.

Identifying and assessing the significance of environmental impacts is a critical stage in an organization's preparatory stages for ISO 14001. Thus the organization needs to understand that by operating its processes, by manufacturing its products or supplying its services, it is depleting natural resources and using non-renewable energy sources. At the same time it is also producing by-products in the form of waste materials.

This should not, however, promote guilty feelings within the organization! The Standard does not require organizations to feel guilty and apologetic. There is no hidden agenda to close the business down. The Standard requires management, by forethought and action, to use less scarce resources by better planning, use recycled materials and perhaps operate the process differently. An element of the controls required by the Standard will be dictated by the demands of legislation. Thus, to keep within the law, the organization will wish to ensure that all regulatory and legislative requirements concerning its environmental performance are satisfied. Increasingly, however, organizations are seeking to go beyond those legal requirements in order to ensure that their environmental integrity (of activities, products and services) meets the expectations of the stakeholders. So, in effect, compliance with the law is mandated by the legal authorities. Controlling environmental impacts is also mandated – not by the legal authorities but by the stakeholders – as there is an inherent requirement, from the above discussion, to improve or minimize environmental impacts.

During the period of planning the implementation, some organizations have wondered how the ISO 14001 system will operate at the point in time when all the environmental objectives of the organization have been fulfilled and where, perhaps, further improvements would be subject to the law of diminishing returns. What does the organization do next? Will ISO 14001 certification be lost? Does the organization attempt to improve in environmentally trivial areas, performing a meaningless paperwork exercise merely to generate evidence that the system is still alive, in order to retain certification?

The reality is that once the initial significant environmental impacts have been controlled and minimized, the other hitherto less significant impacts become more significant and a new cycle of improvement begins. Thus the cycle is never-ending and there is continuous improvement of the organization's environmental performance.

Two illustrations from history demonstrate (with hindsight) that our knowledge of environmental issues is usually flawed and that we, as individuals and organizations, acted in an environmentally responsible way based upon the knowledge available to us at that time:

• The use of CFCs (ozone-depleting chemicals) was not thought to be an environmental issue. We now know that it has a highly significant global environmental impact with possible long-term damage to our quality of life on Earth.
• Similarly, the widespread use of asbestos was at one time not thought to be an environmental issue nor a safety hazard.

Thus, the rules can change. New knowledge comes to light and new, tougher legislation will always be around the corner. Therefore, this status of ‘zero or trivial significant environmental impacts’ will never occur.

It is also tempting for a cynic of environmental management to compare two similar organizations manufacturing the same products. Although they manufacture the same products, one of them is noted for having a higher impact upon the environment than the other:

• Producing more waste to landfill
• Using more energy due to older plant
• Has more breaches of legislation – violations of discharge consents, for example
• Is visually offensive due to old, badly sited buildings
• Has more smell and noise nuisance

The cynic will ask how can both organizations achieve ISO 14001 if one appears to be not as environmentally responsible as the other? The answer is that they are both equally environmentally responsible if they are certified to ISO 14001. They are both equally committed to environmental improvement but the starting point for this environmental improvement is different for each of them.

They will both have the same potential environmental impacts but the landfill and energy-usage question may be due to better or worse technology – one organization may have access to capital from a parent company and will therefore perform better in these respects than their poorer competitor.

The environmental improvement objectives of the ‘poorer’ company may, in fact, be similar to their more affluent competitor but, for example, percentage improvement figures may be of a lower order. One longer-term objective could be to match the environmental performance prevalent within the organization's own industrial sector. This objective is very much dependent upon an organization's economic performance.

An EMS does not seek to be comparable – it proves only that each organization is seen to be committed to taking appropriate and practical steps to reduce their environmental impacts (within their individual capability and level of technology).

Providing tha...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1 Concepts and the ‘spirit’ of ISO 14001
• Chapter 2 Implementation of ISO 14001
• Chapter 3 The assessment process
• Chapter 4 Integration of environmental management systems with other management systems
• Chapter 5 Case studies
• Chapter 6 The auditor and auditing standards
• I Glossary
• II Accreditation criteria
• III Additional information
• IV EMAS
• Index