PCEA flashcards
PCEA · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- EMS
- Environmental Management System: the part of an organization's management system used to manage environmental aspects, fulfill compliance obligations, and address risks and opportunities.
- Environmental aspect
- An element of an organization's activities, products, or services that interacts or can interact with the environment, such as emissions, waste, or resource use.
- Environmental impact
- Any change to the environment, whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from an organization's environmental aspects.
- Significant aspect criteria
- Documented criteria such as severity, likelihood, regulatory relevance, and scale used to determine which environmental aspects are significant and require operational control.
- Compliance obligations
- Legal requirements and other requirements an organization must or chooses to comply with, which must be identified, accessible, and considered in the EMS.
- Documented information
- Information required to be controlled and maintained by the organization and the medium on which it is contained, replacing the older terms documents and records.
- ISO 19011
- Guidance standard for auditing management systems, covering audit principles, managing an audit program, and conducting audits; it is guidance, not certification criteria.
- Life cycle perspective
- Considering stages from raw material acquisition through design, production, distribution, use, and end-of-life disposal when determining aspects and impacts.
- Audit criteria
- The set of requirements used as a reference against which objective evidence is compared, such as standards, procedures, permits, and legal requirements.
- Independence
- Freedom from bias and conflict of interest; auditors must not audit their own work and must be free of relationships threatening impartiality.
- Due professional care
- Application of diligence and judgment in auditing, proportionate to the importance of the task and the confidence placed in audit conclusions.
- Objectivity
- Auditors base findings only on verifiable, recorded evidence rather than opinion, and reports state that sampling limits certainty.
- Confidentiality
- Audit information is not disclosed without authorization or legal obligation; certification bodies must have binding codes of conduct.
- Threat to impartiality
- Any relationship, financial interest, or familiarity that could compromise auditor or certification body judgment; threats must be identified and eliminated or controlled.
- Fair presentation
- Reporting audit activities, findings, and conclusions truthfully and accurately, including obstacles encountered and unresolved diverging opinions.
- Audit program
- Arrangements for one or more audits planned over a time frame, including objectives, scope, schedule, resources, and procedures for managing them.
- Audit scope
- The extent and boundaries of an audit, including sites, organizational units, processes, and activities covered.
- Audit plan
- Description of activities and arrangements for an individual audit, including objectives, criteria, dates, team roles, and time allocation.
- Stage 1 audit
- Initial certification audit phase that reviews documentation, scope, site conditions, and readiness, including internal audit and management review status.
- Stage 2 audit
- Certification audit phase that evaluates implementation and effectiveness of the management system against the audit criteria.
- Risk-based audit scheduling
- Prioritizing audit frequency and depth according to significance of aspects, compliance status, prior findings, complaints, and operational change.
- Audit duration
- Time needed to accomplish the audit, determined by effective personnel count, complexity, and scope, and documented for certification audits.
- Opening meeting
- Formal meeting confirming audit scope, criteria, schedule, communication channels, and safety arrangements before evidence collection begins.
- Objective evidence
- Verifiable information, records, statements, or observations about facts relevant to the audit criteria; it must be documented to support findings.
- Nonconformity
- Failure to meet a requirement, graded major when systemic or legally significant and minor when isolated and not indicating system breakdown.
- Major nonconformity
- Nonconformity that affects the capability of the management system to achieve intended results, such as systemic failure or legal noncompliance.
- Audit trail
- Tracing an activity from procedure to record to practice, or in reverse, to confirm implementation and traceability of evidence.
- Sampling in audit
- Selecting a representative or risk-targeted subset of records, sites, or shifts; the rationale must be documented because conclusions rest on samples.
- Audit finding
- Result of evaluating collected evidence against audit criteria, typically stating the requirement, the evidence, and the significance.
- Correction versus corrective action
- A correction fixes the immediate nonconformity; corrective action eliminates the root cause to prevent recurrence, and its effectiveness must be verified.
- Audit conclusion
- Auditor judgment on conformity and effectiveness of the management system, stated in the report and distinct from certification decisions.
- Compliance evaluation
- Required periodic assessment of the organization's compliance status with identified legal and other requirements, with results retained as evidence.