ISO14001 Step by Step

A practical guide

Naeem Sadiq, Asif Hayat Khan

• Editorial: IT Governance Ltd
• Año: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781849281744
• Categoría: Informatique
• Categoría: Sciences générales de l'informatique

This pocket guide helps those who may be lacking in specialist knowledge achieve compliance with the ISO14001 Standard for Environmental Management. The authors, two experienced auditors, are acknowledged experts in the area and have drawn on material from the UK’s Environment Agency. The pocket guide will prove invaluable, not only for auditors and trainers, but also for managers across many sectors of industry.

CHAPTER 1: ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, OBJECTIVES AND PROGRAMMES (CLAUSES 4.2 & 4.3.3)

Environmental policy

An environmental policy is a statement of an organisation’s top management commitment, which defines the direction and intentions of the organisation with regard to its environmental performance. The policy must be consistent with the nature, scale and environmental impacts of the organisation’s activities, products and services – and must be approved by the top management.

Summary of requirements

The following diagram provides an overview of what an environmental management system (EMS) policy statement must contain:

Figure 1: EMS policy requirements

How can this requirement be met by an organisation?

The following points define what an organisation is required to do in order to meet the requirements of the standard:

• Top management must document and approve an environmental policy that reflects its vision and commitment to being an environmentally responsible company.
• The EMS policy must be communicated to all employees. An organisation can choose many methods to communicate its policy, such as training sessions, video messages, displays at prominent locations, newsletters, embedded in e-mails, etc.
• Top management must review the EMS policy at planned intervals to ensure its continued suitability and adequacy.

An example of an environmental policy is shown below:

Eco-Friendly Inc. (EFI) environmental policy

EFI is committed to providing fast-moving home use products in an environmentally responsible manner. The company will fulfil its environmental commitment by:

• assessing the environmental risks and operating the business in a way that ensures prevention of pollution through the application of economically viable best available environmental practices
• ensuring compliance with applicable environmental legislation
• collaborating with suppliers for sustainable sourcing of raw materials, as well as with the transporters, carriers, business partners and other concerned organisations for improving end-to-end environmental performance
• continually improving products, processes and ways of doing business which reduce levels of environmental impact through sustainable initiatives, such as energy, water and natural resources conservation, waste and gaseous emissions reduction (particularly the greenhouse gases), and exploring opportunities for reuse and recycling.

Objective, targets and programmes

Summary of requirements

• The organisation is required to set goals that it wants to achieve with regard to its environmental performance and set targets to meet those goals.
• The organisation shall also establish and implement programs for achieving its objectives and targets.

Considerations while setting environmental objectives and targets

While setting objectives and targets, the organisation must consider the following:

• EMS policy: top management’s commitment and vision, as stated in the company’s EMS policy.
• Significant environmental aspects: targets and objectives must be set for the aspects where existing control measures are not sufficient and where environmental risk is either not tolerable, or not likely to remain tolerable in the near future.
• Legal and other requirements: if an organisation is currently not meeting, or not likely to meet, any of the legal requirements pertaining to its environmental management system, it should consider establishing objectives to improve its performance relating to these requirements.
• Technological options and financial considerations: needless to say, the organisation should consider technological options and financial viability while establishing EMS improvement objectives.
• Operational and business requirements and views of interested parties: these are yet other factors for consideration while establishing EMS objectives. Environmental concerns, such as coastal and marine life, banning chromium from the leather industry, using environmentally friendly dyes in textiles and garments, and minimising the use of non-biodegradable plastic, noise, smoke or traffic congestion often raised by interested parties, ought to be considered while establishing EMS objectives.

Some examples of EMS objectives and targets are shown in Figure 2, overleaf.

Figure 2: EMS objectives and targets

Environmental programmes

An environmental programme is a roadmap or a plan for achieving an environmental objective. It defines responsibilities, means and time-frames by which the objectives are to be achieved. An example of an environmental programme is given in Figure 3, overleaf.

Figure 3: Example environmental programme

Measurement, monitoring and changes to environmental objectives, targets and programmes

The organisation is required to monitor the extent to which its environmental objectives and targets have been met. This information must be fed to the top management for review of the EMS. This information may be needed to ascertain:

• whether the objectives and targets are being achieved as planned
• whether there is a need for additional resources
• whether there is a need to modify the planned objectives, targets and programmes.

CHAPTER 2: IDENTIFYING ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS AND DETERMINING SIGNIFICANT IMPACTS (CLAUSE 4.3.1)

Summary of requirements

Establish and implement procedure(s) to:

• identify environmental aspects of all activities, products and services that are performed within the defined scope of the organisation
• determine those that have or can have significant impacts on the environment
• establish an EMS which must be based on consideration of the significant environmental aspects.

Terms used

Environment: because of its products, processes and activities, an organisation constantly interacts with its surroundings. These interactions could relate to water, air, land, natural resources or even flora, fauna, aquatic life or community. The complete set of surroundings in which an organisation operates may be considered its environment.

Environmental aspect: an organisation may interact with environments in many ways. These could relate to the activities that it carries out, the products that it makes and the processes that it uses to make these products. Any such component that interacts with the environment is considered to be an environmental aspect of the organisation.

There are two types of environmental aspects:

• direct environmental aspects: those aspects over which a company can be expected to have an influence and control, for exampl...