ISO Revisions

ISO Revisions

ISO 14001 Whitepaper

Background and update to the 2015 revision
Approaching change
ISO 14001 at a glance
What is ISO 14001? More about ISO 14001’s structure
In the early 1990s BSI began working on BS 7750 and the British As an internationally recognized standard for environmental
Standard was published around the same time as the Earth management, ISO 14001 is built on the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)
Summit in Rio. Soon after, ISO started developing the international approach. This is the operating principle of all ISO management
environmental standard and it was finally published in 1996. In 2004 system standards, including ISO 9001.
minor changes were made to ISO 14001 to align it better with the Put in the context of environmental management, the PDCA
ISO 9001 Quality Management Standard, making its requirements approach works as follows:
clearer. This also meant that organizations no longer had to
duplicate their efforts when implementing the two systems. • Plan. Do an environmental review and identify what will affect
your organization. Define your objectives, targets and action plans
to improve your environmental performance – all in line with your
How does ISO 14001 work?
company’s policy.
ISO 14001 can be applied to all types and sizes of organizations
and helps them put systems and processes in place to boost their • Do. Implement your environmental management action plans.
environmental performance. This includes energy consumption,
waste management, regulatory compliance, supply chain requests
• Check. Monitor and measure your processes and operations
against the company’s objectives and report the results.
and resource planning.
By reducing their impact on the environment and following a • Act. Take actions to improve your environmental performance on
more sustainable business model, companies can save money and an ongoing basis.
energy, while helping to preserve the world’s resources for future
generations. Being ISO 14001 certified also means organizations are
more likely to achieve and comply with legal and industry legislation
– leading to fewer fines and lower clean-up costs.

ISO Revisions

ISO 14001:2015 The impact on organizations

ISO 14001:2015 will help organizations In future, environmental objectives will Lastly, organizations may need to collect
to put a policy in place that promotes take both internal and external factors into and provide information about the impact
environmental protection specific to account and be linked to programmes with they have on the environment during the
the context of their business. This will at least one or more performance indicators. use and end-of-life treatment of the product,
strengthen their commitment to sustainable These objectives also need to be fully or during the delivery of their services. They
development and resource use, climate integrated with company processes. also have to show their compliance with the
change and the protection of ecosystems. When it comes to value chain planning and relevant legal requirements at all times.
The revised standard will also look at control, ISO 14001:2015 will introduce a new
environmental aspect identification and set of requirements to manage or influence
the evaluation process from a lifecycle upstream and downstream processes. These
perspective – which means companies need include all outsourced activities, such as
to think beyond the areas where they have transport, packaging and disposal, as well as
direct control. the procurement of goods and services.

Who can benefit from ISO 14001?

ISO 14001 is designed to benefit any organization – whatever company performance, a better reputation, enhanced sales and
their size or number of sites. This includes public, private and market access, effective operational controls to manage impact,
not-for-profit organizations wanting to cut waste and energy reduced risk of litigation and fines, product differentiation and a
costs or companies in supply chains challenged to become more positive influence on the bottom line.
environmentally friendly. Once ISO 14001 has successfully been
implemented, companies can look forward to an improved overall
 ISO Revisions

Why ISO 14001 is changing

Usually standards are reviewed every five years system is part of the overall strategic business to incorporate the new high level structure’
to make sure they stay relevant and in 2011, objectives, it’ll help to regulate internal, external, requirements with ISO 14001 text, plus the
the ISO Technical Committee agreed that ISO direct or indirect environmental impacts. findings of the ISO Future Challenges for
14001 should be revised. One reason is the To date, the revision has taken into account EMS report – both of which encourage the
fact that technology and business practices the final report of the ISO/TC 207 SC1 Future integration of environmental management
have changed significantly since its last major Challenges for EMS Study Group. It will into mainstream business. After refining the
revision, and with companies using multiple also look at how to maintain and improve text, they created a series of working drafts
standards at a time, there is a clear need for the basic principles of ISO 14001:2004, as and subsequently released a Committee Draft,
a common format to make implementation well as keeping and enhancing its existing asking for comments from ISO’s members,
easier. The revised standard will also be valid for requirements. including BSI.
10 to 15 years, so a large number of people felt Over 1,000 comments on the latest Committee
that ISO 14001 needed to be improved. The revision process, explained by Nigel
Leehane, ISO working group member: Draft were addressed by the Working Group at
In today’s world, environmental management its last meeting. In order to deal with them all,
systems have to be part of a sustainability and The ISO WG5 Working Group met for the first task groups were established to tackle sets of
social responsibility policy. These systems help time in 2012. Once the initial scoping stage was comments. Once the task groups have worked
organizations to understand and optimize their finalized, the terms of reference for the working on their allocated clauses, the full Working
environmental performance in line with legal group were confirmed. Group will confirm all changes,” Nigel added.
and other important external requirements. Their first task was to agree on two key
Once an effective environmental management input documents for the process. These had
ISO Revisions

The key changes

ISO 14001:2015 will be based on Annex SL – the new high level 0 Introduction 6 Planning
structure that brings a common framework to all management systems.
This helps to keep consistency, align different management system 1 Scope 7 Support
standards, offer matching sub-clauses against the top-level structure 2 Normative references 8 Operation
and apply common language across all standards. Based on the PDCA 3 Terms and definitions 9 Performance evaluation
approach, ISO 14001:2015 will follow the structure shown in the table.
4 Context of the organization 10 Improvement
With the new standard in place, organizations will find it easier
to incorporate their environmental management system into the 5 Leadership
core business processes and get more involvement from senior
management.
ISO Revisions

Outlining the proposed changes

The first significant change is Clause 4: Context The concept of planning preventative action control changes and outsource specific
of the organization. This is an entirely new will now be covered in Clause 6, Planning. The processes.
clause that brings a better and more strategic committee felt that this section was a better
Clause 9, Performance evaluation, is a new
understanding of all the factors affecting the fit than the ‘acting part’ in the current standard.
clause that has pulled together a number
way organizations manage their environmental This clause will specifically focus on heightened
of existing clauses from the current version
responsibilities. Some examples are the climate, awareness and competence.
including monitoring and measurement and
resource availability and social, regulatory,
Although the requirements of Clause 7, management review. This will help companies
financial and technology changes.
Support, have not changed, they will be to gather the right records and prove that their
Clause 5, Leadership, has been enhanced to more prescriptive to encourage consistency environmental management system meets
ensure more commitment, responsiveness, across the organization. One example is their business objectives.
active support and feedback from the communication requirements. These, previously
A more structured approach has been
organization’s top management. Their buy-in part of ‘future challenges’, have now been
suggested for Clause 10, Improvement.
is critical for the success of the environmental revised to make all communication more
Although it retains the principle of the current
management system, so they’ll be directly or transparent, appropriate, credible and reliable.
non-conformity and corrective action clause,
indirectly tasked with specific responsibilities. The clause separates internal and external
the new standard is more detailed in its
These changes will help to raise the profile communication and requires more detail when
consideration of nonconformity and resulting
of an environmental management system, reporting externally.
action needed.
making sure top management looks at it from
Clause 8, Operations, now places greater
a strategic, tactical or operational level. “The
emphasis on the concept of the ‘value chain’
amendments to this clause will require a real
that impacts the environmental management
change in the way Certification Bodies will
system. It also looks at how organizations
audit against the standard”, according to Nigel.
 ISO Revisions

Where to go from here?

What does the future hold for organizations? What are the ISO Committee’s next steps?
Although the revised standard changes the way organizations Nigel explains: “Following the next ISO meeting in Panama, the
interpret and meet the requirements of ISO 14001, a large part Committee will agree on the text that will go into the Draft
remains the same. At the moment companies don’t have to take International Standard (DIS). From there ISO will take about three
any action but once the new version is published and the changes months to adjust and format all the work and comments from their
are known, they’ll have to transition to ISO 14001:2015. This meeting to finalise the DIS – without making any changes to the
means revising their processes and documentation in line with the technical content.”
standard’s new requirements.
In the past organizations had two years to transition, but the exact
period will only be confirmed once the new standard is published.
ISO Revisions

The revision and transition timeline

Here is the expected timeline for the publication of ISO 14001:2015:

2014 2015 2016-18

July – The Draft International February – The Final Draft The expected transition
Standard (DIS) will be made International Standard (FDIS). period is 2-3 years
available for public comment
Q3 – The International
Standard is due to be
published
ISO Revisions

Stop press
Here is the very latest news from Panama where the committee 2015. Finally, it was confirmed that at a recent meeting, the IAF, the
met to further review the comments against the second draft in accreditation body for certification organizations, has accepted the
preparation for the DIS. Nigel Leehane, member of the ISO 14001 working group’s recommendation for a 3-year transition to the new
Committee working group, reports: standard. This will harmonise with the timescale for transition to the
revised ISO 9001
‘At its meeting at the end of May, the working group completed its
review of the comments received on the CD2 version and made Bio:
BSI/UK/443/SC/0614/en/BLD
further modifications to the document. At the end of the meeting it
was resolved to recommend that the document should be issued by Nigel Leehane is Managing Director of environmental management
ISO as a “Draft International Standard” (DIS), for public consultation. consultancy CRA Europe Ltd. Nigel has over 20 years consultancy
A small number of the working group will continue to edit the experience, working with a wide range of organizations in the UK
document and aim to send it to the ISO secretariat in early July, for and globally, in implementing and improving management systems
formatting and translation. ISO will then issue the DIS for a three- and processes. He chairs the BSI sub-committees on environmental
month consultation. The working group will meet again in February management systems and environmental auditing, and is one of the
© BSI Group

to review the responses to that consultation and produce a final UK’s technical experts working on the revision of ISO 14001. He also
version (FDIS), for vote by the ISO member bodies. Assuming that the participates in the working group which is developing ISO 45001, the
vote is positive, ISO 14001:2015 will be published in the summer of new health and safety management systems standard.

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