Conducting an ISO 14001 audit
Conduct
Open with a meeting: introductions, confirm objectives, scope, criteria and plan, communication and safety arrangements, confidentiality, method, and closing meeting. Collect evidence by interview, observation, and document and record review, using sampling. Trace from procedure to practice and back again. Ask open questions, verify statements rather than accepting them, and record evidence with what, where, when, who and which requirement. Hold team meetings and keep the auditee informed.
Findings
A nonconformity must state the requirement (clause or criteria), the evidence, and the location or process. Grade it using your programme's definitions, typically major or minor. Do not write a nonconformity for a 'should'. Opportunities for improvement are not nonconformities, and opinions are not findings.
Traps
Leading questions ('You do calibrate the meters, don't you?'). Accepting hearsay. Auditing documents only and never observing implementation. Combining several unrelated issues in one finding. Prescribing the fix. Failing to follow up an anomaly: one missing record may be isolated, a pattern may be systemic. Respect photography, confidentiality and safety rules.
Worked example
Finding: 'Clause 8.2: At the solvent store on 14 March, the spill kit was empty and the inspection log showed no entry since December, although procedure EPR-04 requires monthly inspection.' This gives requirement, evidence and location. Ask the auditee to confirm factual accuracy-not to agree it is a nonconformity.