ISO 14001 EMS

ISO14001 requires an Environmental Policy to be in existence within the organisation, fully supported by senior management, and outlining the policies of the company, not only to the staff but to the public. The policy needs to clarify compliance with Environmental Legislation that may effect the organization and stress a commitment to continuous improvement. Emphasis has been placed on policy as this provides the direction for the remainder of the Management System.

The preparatory review and definition of the organization's environmental effects is not part of a ISO14001 Assessment, however examination of this data will provide an external audit with a wealth of information on the methods adopted by the company. The preparatory review itself should be comprehensive in consideration of input processes and output at the site. This review should be designed to identify all relevant environmental aspects that may arise from existence on the site. These may relate to current operations, they may relate to future, perhaps even unplanned future activities, and they will certainly relate to the activities performed on site in the past (i.e. contamination of land).

The company will declare its primary environmental objectives, those that can have most environmental impact. In order to gain most benefit these will become the primary areas of consideration within the improvement process, and the company’s environmental program. The program will be the plan to achieve specific goals or targets along the route to a specific goal and describe the means to reach those objectives such that they are real and achievable. The Environmental Management System provides further detail on the environmental program. The EMS establishes procedures, work instructions and controls to ensure that implementation of the policy and achievement of the targets can become a reality. Communication is a vital factor, enabling people in the organisation to be aware of their responsibilities, aware of the objectives of the scheme, and able to contribute to its success.

As with ISO9000 the Environmental Management System requires a planned comprehensive periodic audit of the Environmental Management System to ensure that it is effective in operation, is meeting specified goals, and the system continues to perform in accordance with relevant regulations and standards. The audits are designed to provide additional information in order to exercise effective management of the system, providing information on practices which differ to the current procedures or offer an opportunity for improvement.

In addition to audit, there is a requirement for Management Review of the system to ensure that it is suitable (for the organization and the objectives) and effective in operation. The management review is the ideal forum to make decisions on howe to improve for the future.

ISO 9000 Blogs - http://www.iso9001-standard.us

The ISO is a federation of non-governmental organizations established in 1947 to develop international standards, improve international communication and collaboration, and facilitate the exchange of goods and services. The federation is currently comprised of close to 100 national standards bodies (member bodies) from countries representing approximately 95 percent of the world’s industrial production.

The headquarters of the ISO secretariat is in Geneva, Switzerland.2 The ISO's involvement in establishing environmental standardsbegan in 1991 after organizers for the UN Conference on Environment and Development (held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992) asked whether or not ISO would be attending the conference and whether it was involved in any environmental activities. As a result, the ISO established a Strategic Advisory Group on the Environment (SAGE) in 1991 to assess the need for international environmental management standards.3 SAGE recommended that ISO proceed with an environmental standard by 1992 and that a technical committee be established to carry it through. On June 1, 1993, ISO's Technical Committee 207 (TC 207) held its first plenary meeting.

TC 207 was directed to establish environmental standards in five areas of environmental management:
- environmental management systems; environmental auditing and related
- environmental investigation; environmental labeling; environmental performance evaluation; and life-cycle assessment.

Consequently, TC 207 was divided into five subcommittees (SCs) for each category of standard and one SC to cover the terms and definitions of the standards. In addition, a working group, which reports directly to TC 207, was formed to deal with the environmental aspects in product standards. The five SCs have two or more working groups (WGs) that report to them (unlike the WG on product standards previously mentioned which reports directly to TC 207).

The key factor that has propelled the ISO 14000 series of standards forward throughout the early 1990s is the increase in national environmental standards. Examples of these standards include some two dozen eco-labeling schemes worldwide (see Annex 1), the British Standards Institute’s BS 7750 (Specification for Environmental Management Systems), the Canadian Standards Association’s Z750 (A Guide for a Voluntary Environmental Management System), and the EU EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme). Other similar environmental management standards have been developed by the French Standards Association, the South African Bureau of Standards and the Spanish Standards Association.

With the proliferation of environmental standards, concerns have been expressed that these standards would fragment international markets and unduly favor the companies of the countries or of the regions where these standards were developed, unless they were developed by authoritative and broadly based international bodies. The ISO was to serve this role.

ISO 9000 Video Clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8WI2MgyS7w

ISO 14001 Section 4.3.4, Environmental Management Program(s), requires that organizations establish and maintain one or more environmental management programs for achieving their objectives. The environmental management program is a key element to the success of an EMS. Properly designed and implemented, environmental management programs should achieve the objectives and, consequently, improve your organization’s environmental performance.

According to ISO 14001 Section 4.3.4 the environmental management program must:

1. address each environmental objective and target

2. designate the personnel responsible for achieving targets at each relevant function and level of the organization

3. provide an “action plan” describing how each environmental target will be achieved

4. establish a time-frame or a schedule for achieving each target.

An environmental management program is an action plan or a series of action plans to achieve an environmental objective.
Environment Management Program

Some of the new blogs on ISO 9001 Standards & ISO 14001 standards was found as below:
http://www.iso14000store.com/blog
http://www.iso9001-standard.us
http://iso14000standards.blogspot.com/
http://iso-9001-standards.blogspot.com/
http://iso14001environmentmanagementsystemblogspot.com/
http://iso9001qualitymanagementsystem.blogspot.com/
http://iso9001qualitymanual.blogspot.com/
http://iso9000standards.blogspot.com/
http://iso9001-standards.blogspot.com/
http://iso14001standards.blogspot.com