PECB ISO 14001 Foundation cheat sheet

ISO 14001 follows the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle: Plan = environmental aspects, compliance obligations, objectives; Do = support, operation; Check = monitoring, measurement, evaluation, internal audit, management review; Act = improvement.

The standard is built on the High Level Structure (Harmonized Structure) shared by all ISO management system standards: clauses 4 Context, 5 Leadership, 6 Planning, 7 Support, 8 Operation, 9 Performance evaluation, 10 Improvement.

An environmental aspect is an element of an organization's activities, products or services that interacts or can interact with the environment; an environmental impact is a change to the environment, adverse or beneficial, wholly or partly resulting from those aspects.

Life cycle perspective means considering stages from raw material acquisition through design, production, transportation/delivery, use, end-of-life treatment and final disposal; it does not require a formal life cycle assessment (LCA).

Compliance obligations include legal requirements and other requirements the organization subscribes to (e.g., industry codes, customer requirements, voluntary commitments, agreements with authorities).

Risk and opportunity under ISO 14001 covers both environmental risks (aspects with adverse impacts) and compliance risks, plus opportunities such as resource efficiency, market advantage and reduced liability.

Three core commitments in the environmental policy: protection of the environment (including prevention of pollution and other specific commitments relevant to context), fulfilment of compliance obligations, continual improvement of the EMS to enhance environmental performance.

Prevention of pollution uses techniques such as source reduction, process/product/equipment change, resource substitution, reuse, recovery, recycling, and treatment or containment as a last resort.

Continual improvement applies to the management system itself; environmental performance improvement is the measurable outcome (e.g., reduced emissions, energy use, waste) that the EMS is intended to deliver.

Clause 4: determine external and internal issues, interested parties and their relevant needs and expectations, and the scope of the EMS; the scope must be documented and state the activities, products and services covered.

Clause 5: top management must demonstrate leadership, establish the environmental policy (documented, communicated, available to interested parties), and assign roles, responsibilities and authorities.

Clause 6.1.2: determine environmental aspects and associated impacts within the scope, considering life cycle perspective, change, abnormal conditions and reasonably foreseeable emergency situations; determine significant aspects using documented criteria.

Clause 6.1.3: determine compliance obligations and evaluate how they apply; clause 6.2 requires environmental objectives at relevant functions and levels, measurable where practicable, with plans (what, resources, who, when, how evaluated).

Clause 7: provide resources; ensure competence of persons whose work affects environmental performance or compliance obligations; ensure awareness; establish documented information for communication and document control.

Clause 8.1: establish operating criteria and control planned processes, including outsourced processes and design/development considering life cycle stages; clause 8.2 requires emergency preparedness and response, including planned responses and periodic testing where practicable.

Clause 9.1: monitor, measure, analyse and evaluate environmental performance and compliance; calibrate or verify monitoring equipment; clause 9.1.2 requires evaluation of compliance and knowledge of compliance status.

Clause 9.2: conduct internal audits at planned intervals against the organization's own criteria and the standard's requirements, and report results to management; clause 9.3 requires management review at planned intervals with defined inputs and outputs.

Clause 10: determine opportunities for improvement and take action to achieve intended outcomes; handle nonconformity by reacting, evaluating the need for corrective action, correcting and reviewing effectiveness; retain documented information as evidence.