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We welcome back Derek for the final part in the ISO 14001 Steps to Success series, where we discuss hints and tips for ensuring that your Environmental Management System (EMS) is compliant and ready for your Certification Body Assessment visit.  The hints and tips include:-

• Develop an Internal Audit Schedule
• Thoroughly audit against the all the clauses of ISO 14001 including legal compliance
• Focus on revisiting where the gaps were identified in the Gap Analysis
• Ensure all employees have received communications on the EMS and forthcoming internal audits
• Typical findings from an audit and how these are interpreted – Major non-conformities, Minor non-conformities, Observations and Opportunities for improvement.
• What to expect in an internal audit and how to prepare
• Importance of speaking to the right people in the audit
• Typical areas of non-conformances – Operations and documentation
• Mistakes to avoid – Checking waste transfer documents
• Management Review – ISO 14001 is prescriptive in providing very clear input and outputs. This is typically completed via a Senior Management Meeting, and helps to review risks, performance against environmental objectives.

See further information of ISO 14001 Steps to Success If you are keen to get started today, we also have a FREE ISO 14001 Checklist for our ISO Show listeners, contact us today for your free copy. To help out the ISO Show:

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We welcome back Derek for the second part in the ISO 14001 Steps to Success Podcast, sharing key considerations for creating an Environmental Management System (EMS).

An average EMS is a 30 page manual – however others have a light touch – just a few pages and links to documents.  As Derek points out you don’t actually need a manual, however Derek recommends having a structure and a ‘helicopter’ view so that your environmental documents and controls can be easily accessed by employees.

ISO 14001 already has a structure – we only need to cover clauses 4.0 – 10.0 which does provide a structure if you are looking for one.  The EMS will include a scope – which is simply a description of what you actually do as an organisation.  It will also cover how you operate from an environmental perspective, including leadership commitment, monitoring and measurement of the environmental performance.

The onus doesn’t necessarily need to be on an ‘Environmental Manager’, as many businesses don’t need one. However, identifying and understanding roles and responsibilities is key and can be referenced in a Job Description/Organisation Chart and/or Process Maps to make it crystal clear ‘who does what and when’.

Controls need to be established to mitigate risk, and to control and minimise the environmental impact i.e. CO2 emissions of the organisation. Derek’s preferred method is to create visually engaging processes in collaboration with the process owners.  It’s always good to get operatives involved in the creation and implementation of the environmental system, as they will know exactly what waste the company is producing and how it can be reduced, which will in theory, ultimately result in cost reductions.

Once the EMS is documented, taking into consideration the culture of the organisation you need to keep looking at different methods of sharing and educating the workforce on how to reduce your environmental footprint.

See further information of ISO 14001 Steps to Success 

We look forward to catching you on the next episode of the ISO Show where Derek will cover the final episode in the series on how to implement ISO 14001.

If you are keen to get started today, we also have a FREE ISO 14001 Checklist for our ISO Show listeners, contact us today for your free copy. To help out the ISO Show:

• Share the ISO Show on twitter or Linkedin
• Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one.
• Also available on Spotify and YouTube

Join us on our ISO Show 3 part series on Implementing ISO 14001.  The leading global environmental standard, is still as popular as ever for businesses that are serious about acting responsibility and not just paying ‘lip service’ to ‘going green’.

Derek Hall, Senior Consultant at Blackmores shares the benefits and values of ISO 14001, including how putting good environmental management into practice can improve the bottom line.

The first step on the ISO 14001 journey is to begin with looking at what the company ‘wants’ and ‘needs’ and how this works with the associated interested parties i.e. employees, contractors and clients.  Following the ISO 14001 Gap Analysis,  the organisation will need some ‘breathing space’ to reflect on the findings, share the report with the management team, before planning the next steps.

Prior to creating the Environmental Management System (EMS) structure its worthwhile beginning with three key areas:-

• Identifying significant environmental aspects – Creating an Aspects and Impacts Register Review energy, waste, water, procured goods etc in relation to what the company does
• Understand the environmental legal compliance obligations – these need to relate directly to the organisations activities, locations and services delivered.
• Establish Environmental objectives – Once the environmental aspects and legal compliance requirements are understood, setting realistic objectives can help to reduce operational costs and give an organisation a competitive edge.

If you are keen to get started today, we also have a FREE ISO 14001 Checklist for our ISO Show listeners, contact us today for your free copy. To help out the ISO Show:

• Share the ISO Show on twitter or Linkedin
• Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one.
• Also available on Spotify and YouTube