EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
ISO 14001
2015 is an environmental management standard.
It defines a set of environmental
management requirements.
These requirements can be found in the following sections:
- Context
- Leadership
- Planning
- Support
- Operations
- Evaluation
- Improvement
ISO 14001 was first published in 1996
and updated in 2004. This
third edition was published in September of 2015. It
cancels and
replaces all previous editions.
The purpose of this
standard is to help organizations to protect the
environment and to respond to changing environmental
conditions.
According to ISO 14001, any organization can achieve these
goals
if it establishes an environmental
management system (EMS) and
if it continually tries to improve the suitability,
adequacy, and
effectiveness of this system.
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SCOPE OF THE ISO 14001 STANDARD
ISO 14001
applies to all types of organizations. It doesn't matter
what they do or what size they are. It can help any
organization
to protect the environment and to respond to changing
environmental conditions.
According
to ISO 14001 2015, your organization's EMS
must meet
every requirement if you
wish to claim that it complies
with this
standard. However, how you choose to meet ISO's
requirements will
depend on and be
influenced by many
factors. It will depend
on
your organization’s
context, its structure, its activities,
its objectives,
its compliance
obligations, and its products and
services; and will
be influenced by its risks
and opportunities and by its environmental
aspects
and impacts.
Consequently, environmental management
systems can vary quite a bit.
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HOW TO USE THE ISO 14001 STANDARD
If you
don't already have an environmental
management system
(EMS), you can use this ISO 14001 standard
to establish one.
And once you've established your EMS, you can use it:
According
to ISO 14001, any
organization can achieve these
goals by establishing an EMS and then using it to manage
the
environmental aspects and impacts of its activities,
processes,
products, services, and systems.
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ENHANCE ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE
According
to ISO 14001, an EMS will enhance your organization's
environmental performance because it will:
- Reduce your environmental risks.
- Implement your environmental policy.
- Achieve your environmental
objectives.
- Meet your environmental compliance
obligations.
- Take advantage of your
environmental opportunities.
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SUPPORT SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
You can
also use an EMS to support sustainable development.
Why? Because an EMS will show you how to take a
systematic
approach to environmental management. Such an approach
will
not only contribute to your organization's long term
success but
it will also support sustainable development. It will do
all of this
by helping your organization to:
- Prevent or reduce adverse
environmental impacts.
- Implement environmentally sound
practices and programs.
- Coordinate environmental
initiatives with interested parties.
- Control how products are managed
throughout their life cycle.
- Mitigate the adverse impact that
environmental threats can have.
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CERTIFY YOUR ORGANIZATION
You can
also use this standard to get certified. Once you’ve
established an EMS that meets ISO's requirements and
deals
with your organization’s own risks and requirements, you
can
ask a registrar
(certification body) to audit
your system. If you
pass the audit, your registrar will issue an official
certificate that
states that your organization's EMS meets ISO's
requirements.
While ISO 14001 2015 is
designed to be used for certification
purposes, you don’t
have to become certified. You can be
in compliance without being formally certified by an
accredited
certification body (registrar).
You can self-audit your EMS and
then announce to the world that it complies with the ISO
14001
standard (assuming that it
does). Of course, your compliance
claim may have more credibility if an independent
certification
body agrees with your assessment.
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