ISO 14001 and Beyond

Environmental Management Systems in the Real World

Sheldon Christopher

• Editorial: Routledge
• Año: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351283342
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Negocios y empresa
• Categoría: Negocios en general

On September 1st 1996, ISO 14001 was published, worldwide. Written over five years in consultation with international industrial experts, non-governmental organizations and regulators, this environmental management systems standard will help organizations manage their impacts on the environment, no matter what their size, nature or location. The implications for the future are enormous. But what does the standard mean in the real world? What changes do managers have to make to accommodate its principles? What decisions need to be faced and when? Is it really going to make a difference or is it just another case of global greenwash? Will it be another missed opportunity for you, your organisation, or your market? At the start of what promises to be a worldwide explosion of interest in standardised EMSs, ISO 14001 and Beyond looks at their creation, their use, and their limitations, attempting to discover the essential truth about this important management tool and where it will take industry. ISO 14001 and Beyond assembles the leading thinkers and practitioners in the field to record their thoughts and experiences on the new standard, its advantages and disadvantages. The book is designed to provide the reader with enough information with which to form an opinion on the future, and how that will influence subsequent actions. It also provides reassurance that, although the problems are real, so are the solutions. ISO 14001 and Beyond gives you the opportunity to read what some of the best minds have made of the standard so far and what they think lies ahead. There are reports covering a global spectrum of concern: from the US, Russia, Japan, Canada, Germany, the UK, and more; from multinationals, small- and medium-sized enterprises, local government, universities and professional bodies. All this material is gathered together in one book to give you the best, most meaningful information for the crucial decisions that you will need to make in the coming months.

Part 1
Laying Down the Law

How Self-Regulation Came of Age

1
Beyond 14001

An Introduction to the ISO 14000 Series

Dick Hortensius and Mark Barthel

THE IDEA of setting up an ISO Technical Committee (TC) to develop international standards on environmental management did not simply come out of thin air. During its preparations for the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED; the ‘Earth Summit’), in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD) came to the conclusion that the international business community would need to develop international standards on environmental performance to ensure that companies operating around the world could do so on a level playing field. These findings complemented the prevalent thinking at that time in COPOLCO (the committee platform ISO provides for consumer interests), which believed that it was imperative that the growing number of initiatives in the field of product eco-labelling were harmonised at an international level. These two drivers, along with other forces, led ISO to conclude that the development of international standards for environmental management was essential to environmental protection and future world trade.

Accordingly, in 1991, ISO established a Strategic Advisory Group on Environment (SAGE) to investigate all the areas of environmental management and performance where the development of international standards might be beneficial to the business community. Although SAGE did not itself have the authority to develop standards, it was able to recommend to ISO that a new technical committee be established to develop international standards in environmental management.

In 1993 ISO set up this new technical committee, ISO/TC207 ‘Environmental Management’, to develop the standards proposed by SAGE and to investigate the possibility of developing further supporting standards. The secretariat to this new technical committee was provided by the Canadian Standards Association (CSA). ISO/TC207 subsequently created six subcommittees and one working group,¹ and allocated work on different areas of environmental management to them. The secretariats of these subcommittees (and the working group) are held by personnel from different national standards bodies, and the chairmen of the subcommittees are appointed by the same member body that holds the Secretariat (see Fig. 1). The complete organisational structure of ISO/TC207 is given in Appendix A and some basic information on the history, organisation and working procedures of ISO in Appendix B.

Figure 1: Who’s Who in ISO/TC207 ‘Environmental Management’

The UK standards body, BSI, holds the secretariat to Subcommittee 1 (ISO/TC207/SC1), which is responsible for the development of ISO 14001, Environmental Management Systems: Specification with Guidance for Use, and ISO 14004, Environmental Management Systems: General Guidelines on Principles, Systems and Supporting Techniques.

The Dutch national standards body, NNI, holds the Secretariat to ISO/TC207/SC2 ‘Environmental Auditing and Related Environmental Investigations’, which has been responsible for the development of ISO 14010, Guidelines for Environmental Auditing: General Principles, ISO 14011, Guidelines for Environmental Auditing: Audit Procedures: Auditing of Environmental Management Systems, and ISO 14012, Guidelines for Environmental Auditing: Qualification Criteria for Environmental Auditors.

The two SC1 standards were published on 1st September 1996; while the SC2 standards were published on 1st October 1996. These five standards form the backbone of the ISO 14000 series of environmental management standards.² Other standards under development in the ISO 14000 series include standards for environmental performance evaluation (EPE), lifecycle assessment (LCA) and environmental labels and declarations. (See Appendix C for a summary of the current status of the ISO 14000 series standards.)

In June 1996, ISO/TC207 met for the fourth time in Rio de Janeiro four years after the Earth Summit had taken place there. This meeting was hosted by the Brazilian national standards body, ABNT, and was attended by more than 650 delegates from over 60 countries and liaison bodies, illustrating the worldwide interest in these standards.

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the development of these important environmental standards and establishes the relationships and interlinkages between the different ISO 14000 series standards. The significance of these standards to the business community, government and consumers are then discussed, along with an outline of the various stake-holder groups involved in their development. The chapter ends with some remarks on the integration of environmental management with quality and occupational health and safety management and an outlook on the future of the ISO 14000 series.

■ The ISO 14000 Standards and their Interlinkages

The scope of ISO/TC207, and therefore the scope of the ISO 14000 series, covers ‘standards in the field of environmental management tools and systems’. Explicitly excluded from this scope are:

• Test methods for pollutants (because these are dealt with by other technical committees; see Appendix B)
• Setting limit values regarding pollutants and effluents
• Setting of environmental performance levels
• Standardisation of products

From this scope it becomes clear that the ISO 14000 series will not interfere with any national environmental legislation. The setting of limit values and performance levels remains the prerogative of (national) governmental authorities. The ISO 14000 series should provide management tools for organisations that aim to control their environmental aspects and improve their environmental performance. How other stakeholders, such as governments and consumers, may benefit from this will be addressed later on in this chapter.

Figure 2: The Structure of the ISO 14000 Series of Standards

Figure 2 shows, in schematic form, the relationship between the standards in the ISO 14000 series. The philosophy behind the whole structure is that the environmental management system of a company is of central importance and that the other standards are intended to support specific elements of the organisation’s environmental policy and management.³ In addition to the standards being produced in ISO/TC207, there are of course many other technical standards that companies can use within their environmental management system: for example, standards for the execution of environmental measurements and standards that relate to (environmental) technical requirements for installations, etc. There are many other ISO technical committees that develop these types of standards.

■ Environmental Management Systems

Of central importance in the ISO 14000 series are the environmental management system standards, ISO 14001 and ISO 14004. These standards allow an organisation to take a systematic approach to the evaluation of how its activities, products and services interact with the environment and to control those activities to ensure that established environmental objectives and targets are met.

The basic structure of environmental management according to ISO 14001 and ISO 14004 is shown in Figure 3.

⅒ ISO 14001

ISO 14001 specifies the requirements for an environmental management system (EMS) against which an organisation may be certified by a third party.⁴ It provides a specification detailing the requirements an organisation must meet in order to achieve third-party certification, including:

• The development of an environmental policy
• Identification of environmental aspects
• Establishment of relevant legal and regulatory requirements
• Development of environmental objectives and targets
• The establishment and maintenance of an environmental programme in order to achieve its objectives and targets
• Implementation of an EMS, including training, documentation, operational control and emergency preparedness and response
• Monitoring and measurement of operational activities, including record-keeping
• EMS audit procedures
• Management review of an EMS to determine its continuing suitability, adequacy and effectiveness

Annex A of ISO 14001 contains additional guidance on the use of the requirements and is intended to avoid misinterpretation of the specification; while Annex B contains information on the linkages and broad technical correspondences between ISO 14001 and ISO 9001, Quality Systems: Model for Quality Assurance in Design, Development, Production and Servicing (the equivalent Quality Management Systems standard).

Figure 3: Environmental Management System Model for ISO 14001 and 14004

⅒ ISO 14004

ISO 14004 has been developed by ISO to provide additional guidance for organisations on the design, development and maintenance of an EMS. It is not intended to be certified against. In effect, ISO 14001 is intended to provide the specification for an organisation’s EMS, while ISO 14004 will act as a ‘stepping stone’ to the specification for many organisations who may feel that they require some additional guidance and background information on the underlying principles, systems and supporting techniques necessary to develop an EMS.

ISO 14004 includes details of:

• Internationally-accepted principles of environmental management and how they can be applied to the design and development of all the components of an EMS
• Practical examples of the issues an organisation will need to ensure they have addressed in the design of their EMS, including guidance on how to identify the environmental aspects and impacts associated with their activities, products and services
• Practical help sections to provide an organisation with assistance in navigating the various stages of EMS design, development, implementation and maintenance

In order for the environmental management system to function properly, support tools are required. Further management tools are needed to check whether the EMS meets the requirements of the organisation, is properly implemented, and that the desired outcomes are achieved. Accordingly, several standards on environmental auditing and one standard for the evaluation of environmental performance are being developed.

■ Environmental Auditing

The three auditing standards, ISO 14010, 14011 and 14012, provide support tools allowing an organisation to monitor whether its EMS conforms to planned arrangements (especially the requirements of ISO 14001), to monitor its effectiveness and suitability and to suggest how the data gathered during an audit may be formatted for presentation to management in order to facilitate management review of the performance of the EMS and the organisation’s overall environmental performance. The environmental audit is an independent verification of whether the environmental management system conforms to specified criteria. Such an audit can be carried out by the company itself (internal audit), but this is often done by external auditors: for example, within the framework of a certification procedure (third-party audit).

⅒ ISO 14010

ISO 14010 is the generic environmental auditing standard that lays down guidelines on the general principles involved in environmental auditing. It contains:

• Definitions of environmental audit and related terms
• General principles of environmental auditing, e.g. objectivity, independence and competence of auditors, the application of systematic audit procedures and the reliability of audit findings and conclusions
• A framework for the structure and format of an audit report

⅒ ISO 14011

ISO 14011 goes one step further in that it provides guidance on the audit procedures that facilitate the planning and conduct of an EMS audit. It includes guidance on:

• Audit objectives
• The roles and responsibilities of those involved in the audit, including the client
• The development of the audit scope, audit plan and working documents
• Collecting audit evidence and review of audit findings
• Preparation and documentation of the audit report

⅒ ISO 14012

ISO 14012 lays down guidance on the minimum qualification criteria for environmental auditors and lead auditors. It provides information on the following requirements:

• Educational and professional qualifications
• Formal and on-the-job training
• Competencies and personal attributes and skills

ISO 14012 also provides pointers to employers and clients on how to evaluate the suitability of auditors according to the above criteria.

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