INFORMATION ABOUT ISO 14001:2015

INFORMATION ABOUT ISO 14001:2015:

All ISO management system standards are subject to a regular review under the rules by which they are written. Following a substantial ISO user survey the committee decided that a review was appropriate and created the following objectives to maintain its relevance in today’s market place and in the future:

• Integrate with other management systems

• Provide an integrated approach to organizational management

• Reflect increasingly complex environments in which organizations operate

• Enhance an organization’s ability to address their environmental impacts. ISO 14001 was originally written with the environment in mind and that remains the priority for ISO 14001:2015

The Main Changes in the ISO 14001:2015 are:

•Strategic Environmental Management: There is an increased prominence of environmental management with in the organization’s strategic planning processes.
A new requirement to understand the organization’s context has been incorporated to identify and leverage opportunities for the benefit of both the organization and the environment. Particularfocus is on issues or changing circumstances related to the needs and expectations of interested parties (including regulatory requirements) and local, regional or global environmental conditions that can affect, or be affected by, the organization. Once identified as a priority, actions to mitigate adverse risk or exploit beneficial opportunities are integrated in the operational planning of the environmental management system.

•Leadership: To ensure the success of the system, a new clause has been added that assigns specific responsibilities for those in leadership roles to promote environmental management with in the organization. Protecting theenvironment – The expectation on organizations has been expanded to commit to proactive initiatives to protect the environment from harm and degradation, consistent with the context of the organization. The revised text does not define ‘protect the environment’ but it notes that it can include prevention of pollution, sustainable resource use, climate change mitigation and adaptation, protection of biodiversity and ecosystems, etc.

•Environmental Performance: There is a shift in emphasis with regard to continual improvement, from improving themanagement system to improving environmental performance. Consistent with the organization’s policy commitments the organization would, as applicable, reduce emissions, effluents and waste to levels set by the organization.

•Life Cycle Thinking: In addition to the current requirement to manage environmental aspects associated with procured goods and service, organizations will need to extend their control and influence to the environmental impacts associated with product use and end-of-life treatment or disposal. This does not imply a requirement to do a life cycle assessment.

•Communication: The development of a communications strategy with equal emphasis on external and internal communications has been added. This includes a requirement on communicating consistent and reliable information, and establishing mechanisms for persons working under the organization's control to make suggestions on improving the environmental management system. The decision to communicate externally is retained by theorganization but the decision needs to take into account information reporting required by regulatory agencies and the expectations of other interested parties.

•Documentation: Reflecting the evolution of computer and cloud based systems for running management systems, the revision incorporates the term ‘documented information’, instead of ‘documents’ and ‘records’. To align with ISO 9001, the organization will retain the flexibility to determine when ‘procedures’ are needed to ensure effective process control.

NB. It does not contain the complete content of the standard and should not be regarded as a primary source of reference in place of the published standard itself.

RavinderKakkar
Head of theCertification Body