Environmental sustainability is at the forefront of current plans across various industries. Managing your organisation’s environmental impact is essential to stay ahead and competitive.
This is why the ISO 14001:2015 standard is essential, the standard provides the foundation for establishing, implementing, and maintaining an Environmental Management System (EMS).
Why ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management Systems Matter
An ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management System provides various advantages from improved compliance with local and international regulations to increasing resource efficiency. An EMS is crucial for providing your organisation with a foundation to manage your environmental impact and mitigate potential environmental risks that could negatively affect the environment and your emissions. By implementing an EMS, you will not only boost efficiency during operations and production you will also open global markets.
Benefits of an ISO 14001:2015 EMS
Implementing an ISO 14001:2015 EMS provides various advantages for environmental performance and sustainability. Some of these advantages include:
- Proactive environmental management to reduce waste and pollution.
- Ensure compliance with local and international regulations.
- Proactively identify and mitigate environmental risks at every stage of production.
- Reduction in company costs by lowering energy, waste, and material usage.
- Receive more tenders as ISO 14001:2015 EMS is often used as a barrier to entry in certain sectors.
- Promotes an environmentally aware culture within your organisation.
The 6 Steps of Implementing an ISO 14001:2015 EMS
If your goal is to implement an ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management System, it can be very overwhelming to know where to start. We have been able to break down the process into 6 steps.
Step 1: Receiving Support from Management
The biggest step in ISO 14001:2015 EMS implementation is receiving support from top management. Without the proper support, implementation will fail.
Step 2: Identify All Your Legal Requirements
Create a list of all the legal and other requirements for your EMS.
This includes:
- Environmental policy
- Evaluation of compliance
- The organisation’s environmental objectives and targets
- Management reviews
Step 3: Define the Scope of Your EMS
Defining the scope prevents your team from including areas of your organisation that might not affect the environment. Your main focus here is to define your environmental policies and environmental aspects.
Step 4: Defining Environmental Processes and Procedures
This step is where all necessary processes and procedures are to be identified to ensure consistent environmental results. These processes should also include responding to emergency environmental situations.
Step 5: Implement the EMS Processes and Procedures
Your new EMS processes are to be connected to established processes within your organisation. This looks like the tracking of waste from your facility. This is also where you decide which important processes will be documented.
Step 6: EMS Training for Staff
During the implementation of ISO 14001:2015 EMS processes your staff will require awareness training on the system and the processes they are involved in.
The 4 Steps of Maintaining Your ISO 14001:2015 EMS
Whether or not your goal is to receive certification for your ISO 14001:2015 EMS, maintaining your system and ensuring long term compliance is essential. Below is the average maintenance process we provide for our clients:
Step 1: Measure and Keep Records
You will be required to collect all the records of your EMS, as these documents are required during an audit to show your progress, corrective actions, and root cause analysis.
Step 2: Internal Audits
Your team will be required to be trained and able to perform internal audits on your ISO 14001:2015 EMS. Internal audits are to ensure there are no missing links in your organisation and that the processes that have been implemented are working long-term.
Step 3: Management Reviews
Management would need to stay involved during the entire process of implementation and maintenance of the EMS. To ensure all processes have enough resources management will need to review data and allocate resources effectively.
Step 4: Corrective Actions
Once nonconformances are identified they will require corrective actions using root cause analysis. These solutions are required to prevent the same non-conformances in the future.
Implement Your EMS Correctly with Comprehensive Training
To ensure all your dedicated staff members are able to efficiently understand EMS and implement the system within your organisation you would need to provide in-depth reliable training.
Our eLearning platform has various ISO 14001:2015 EMS training courses that enable your staff to not only understand an EMS on a foundational level but to implement the system and perform internal audits to ensure conformance to the ISO 14001:2015 standard.
Our online ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management System courses include:
- ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management Awareness
- ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management Internal Auditing
- ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management Lead Implementer
Have any questions about implementing an ISO 14001:2015 EMS? Speak to one of our Environmental Management System experts today on 012 644 0142 or email us at admin@wwise.co.za.