ISO 14000 is concerned with environmental management.
• World’s first series of internationally accepted standards of
environmental management system. • Guide to Environmental Management Principles, Systems and Supporting techniques. • Voluntary standards that will lead to the common worldwide approach to environmental management systems. • To Minimize negatively affect the environment (i.e. cause adverse changes to air, water, or land) • comply with applicable laws, regulations, and other environmentally oriented requirements. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS:
• EMS is a method of going about your business while
managing environmental risks. • Provides order and consistency to the organization. • Involves incorporating environmentally responsible practices into everyday business processes. • Recognizes and controls environmental risks while creating • measurable improvements in performance. STANDARDS UNDER ISO 14000 SERIES • ISO 14001 is an EMS standard. • ISO 14010 series of standards are about auditing. • ISO 14020 is about environmental labeling. • ISO 14030 is a standard on environmental performance evaluation. • ISO 14040 series are on environmental life cycle assessment(LAC). Generic standards ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 are generic standards.
• Generic means that the same standards can be applied:
to any organization, large or small, whatever its product or service, in any sector of activity, and whether it is a business enterprise, a public administration, or a government department
• Generic also signifies that no matter what the organization's scope of
activity if it wants to establish a quality management system, ISO 14001 gives the essential features or if it wants to establish an environmental management system, ISO 14001 gives the essential features. Management systems • Management system means what the organization does to manage its processes, or activities in order that • its products or services meet the organization’s objectives, such as • satisfying the customer's quality requirements, • complying to regulations, or • meeting environmental objectives • To be really efficient and effective, the organization can manage its way of doing things by systemizing it. • Nothing important is left out. • Everyone is clear about who is responsible for doing what, when, how, why and where. • Management system standards provide the organization with an international, state-of-the-art model to follow. Management systems (cont.)
• Large organizations, or ones with complicated processes, could not
function well without management systems. • Companies in such fields as aerospace, automobiles, defence, or health care devices have been operating management systems for years. • The ISO 14001 management system standards now make these successful practices available for all organizations. DOCUMENT CONTROL • Procedures for controlling all documents required • by the standard are required to be established and • maintained. • These procedures must ensure the following: • The documents can be located , • The documents are periodically reviewed,and • approved by authorized personnel, • The current versions are available at locations where operations essential to the functioning of • EMS are done. • Obsolete documents are promptly removed • Further, documentation must be legible, OPERATIONAL CONTROL. Operations and activities associated with the significant environmental aspects are required to be identified. These activities must be planned,and an organization must: establish and maintain documented procedures to cover situations where their absence could lead to deviations from the environmental policy and the objectives and targets, stipulate criteria in the operational procedures, and establish and maintain procedures related to the environmental aspects and communicating those relevant procedures and requirements to suppliers and contractors EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE. • Procedures to identify potential for and respond to accidents and emergency situations, are required to be established and maintained. • In addition, the emergency procedures must be reviewed and revised, when necessary, especially after an accident or emergency situation. • Where practicable, it is required that these procedures are periodically tested through drills, exercises, etc.