ISO 14001 – Environmental Management

The certification process for ISO 14001 has the following steps:

1. Application for certification.
2. Planning.
3. Phase 1.
4. Phase 2.
5. Issuing the certificate.

Maintenance of the certificate involves the following process:

1. Annual monitoring 1.
2. Annual monitoring 2.
3. Recertification.

Typical duration of the ISO 14001 certification process

The ISO 14001 certification process with EQA takes between 5 and 6 months, from the time the company submits the Application for Certification to the achievement of the certificate. We advise you to apply for certification 3 months before the expected start date of the process.

Implementation of the ISO 14001 Standard

The implementation of ISO 14001 is based on the 7 principles of quality:

1. Leadership, Management Commitment and Policy.
2. Environmental planning. Determination of environmental objectives and targets.
3. Implementation and Operation. Performance measurement in the control of operations.
4. Measurement and Evaluation. Verification and outcome of corrective actions.
5. Review and Continuous Improvement

• Recognise that the Environmental Management System is among the highest priorities of the organisation.
• Establish communications and relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Ensure the commitment of management and all staff.
• Conduct a diagnosis of the organisation’s baseline situation.
• Establish environmental management policy and objectives.
• Identify legal and other subscribed requirements.
• Establish demanding but achievable objectives and targets.
• Establish a management process that allows for continual improvement of the system.

Objectives of ISO 14001

• The development and implementation of an environmental policy and objectives.
• The identification of aspects of its activities, products and services that may cause significant environmental impacts.
• The establishment of systematic processes that consider your context and take into account significant environmental aspects, the risk associated with threats and opportunities and your compliance obligations.
• Increased awareness of their relationship with the environment.

ISO 14001 is the world’s most widely used environmental standard and its structure forms the basis for other reference standards in certain sectors.

You can undertake the implementation of ISO 14001 with other standards such as:

• Energy Management Systems: ISO 50001.
• Environmental Management Systems; incorporation of Ecodesign: ISO 14006.
• Verification of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading: ISO 14064.
• EMAS Regulation.
• Carbon Footprint Calculation: PAS 2050:2008.
• Voluntary Greenhouse Gas Reductions.

In the 1990s, in consideration of environmental issues, many countries started to implement their own environmental standards, which varied greatly from country to country. This made it necessary to have a universal indicator to evaluate an organisation’s efforts to achieve reliable and adequate environmental protection.

In this context, the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) was invited to participate in the Earth Summit organised by the Conference on Environment and Development in June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In response to this event, ISO undertook to create international environmental standards, later called ISO 14000.

It should be kept in mind that the standards stipulated by ISO 14000 do not set environmental goals for the prevention of pollution, nor are they involved in global environmental performance, but rather establish tools and systems focused on the production processes within a company or organisation, and the effects or externalities that derive from these on the environment.

ISO 14000 is a set of environmental management documents that, once implemented, will affect all aspects of an organisation’s management of its environmental responsibilities and help organisations to systematically address environmental issues in order to improve environmental performance and opportunities for economic benefit. The standards are voluntary, have no legal obligation and do not establish a set of quantitative targets for emission levels or specific methods of measuring those emissions.In contrast, ISO 14000 focuses on the organisation by providing a set of procedure-based standards and guidelines from which a company can build and maintain an environmental management system.

In this sense, any business activity that wishes to be sustainable in all its spheres of action must be aware that it must assume a preventive attitude towards the future, which allows it to recognise the need to integrate the environmental variable into its business decision-making mechanisms.

The ISO 14000 series shares common principles of a management system with the ISO 9000 series of quality system standards. However, it should be understood that the application of various elements of the management system may differ due to different objectives and different stakeholders. While QMSs address the needs of customers, EMSs are directed towards the needs of a broad spectrum of stakeholders and the developing needs of society for environmental protection.