Earth And Environmental Science Articles
Earth and Environmental Science Articles
Integration of environmental aspects in ISO 14001
Copyright (c) 2008 Ed Bones
There is an increasing emphasis on management of environmental factors affect our personal lives, our communities and worldwide. As individuals, it is hard to see how our contribution can have any influence on the big event with things, but just as any large scale change is in order as a result of many small changes. Individual efforts tend to be focused more on cash savings than in the general good – no damage to it, but overall no big advantage either.
At the administrative level, much is being done by government and local authorities to save energy and reduce waste, particularly through recycling, and because it has an economic benefit to local authorities through the charge buried waste, and citizens by reducing energy costs, this will continue for the foreseeable future.
The focus of this article is on corporate approach to environmental management.
Clearly, the benefits that accrue to individuals through waste reduction and recycling is available for trade and industry, but may Further benefits come from an independent recognition of an organization's commitment to environmental management. Wholesalers have come to point out that a corporate concern the environment is good management practice and that this good practice can be a sign of quality across the organization. Share price – a measure of management success enhanced by this recognition. Share value is equal to its value.
But what about this independent recognition? How is it achieved and at what price and cost is really offset by the benefits?
Organizations large and small have adopted ISO9001 Quality Management Standard as a mechanism to demonstrate in a somehow their concern for the customer and stakeholder interests. Few major companies now operating outside the ISO9001 registration system, and while some may argue that ISO9001 does not have significantly affected their business performance, a large proportion claims to stick to their registration, because the market believes differently.
Regardless the real truth may be that this one fact is clear; companies with an ISO9001 registration is well on its way to being qualified to ISO14001 (Environmental Management System) registration if the implementation is carried out efficiently and effectively.
ISO14001 seems to be roughly the same companion Standard (ISO9001), but a detailed requirements are structured with a second weight. While the 9001 document appears to require certain properties and operations, its companion, in essence, requires only that the organization develop a work program to move to a number of environmental improvements to a timescale agreed between the parties concerned. In this way, improve the environment is a continuous improvement process structured to fit the organization's ability to achieve its goals. This constant improvement has been in opposition to ISO9001 structure that requires compliance from the start.
ISO14001 has a range of documentation and operational requirements, "household requirement 'for management and control of environmental improvements which already exist within the Quality Management System, which requires relatively little adjustment to fit into an integrated management system. Integration of environmental aspects of ISO 14,001 in an existing ISO9001 Quality Management System should be an easy task, depends only on the way the original documentation was collected. Application of these standards can be a straightforward only when there is a clear understanding of the intent, contrary to the letter, for each claim that with the efforts used to minimize bureaucracy in the application. Unfortunately, the opposite often happened in the first days of ISO9001 implementation, the quality of the application task that measured by the volume of documents.
To maximize the benefit of a dual standard management system, a review of the original documentation, followed by a rationalization exercise is the ideal route. After reaching a stable and acceptable system, compatible with the Quality Management Standard, development of an integrated system which combines the standard quality and environment is relatively straightforward.
Organizations determined to embrace this route must take care consultants offer to do the job for traditional 'Daily Rate' compensation. This form of payment for services will inevitably lead to overpayment, either due to greed or lack of understanding with the contractor.
About the Author
Meon Consulting was formed by Ed Bones to assist clients with managing their businesses in a manner compliant with ISO9001/14001. Ed had earlier held a number of senior posts with large companies in the UK, Europe and the USA. He has written and lectured on full range of topics on quality improvement and TQM. http://www.rent-an-auditor.co.uk . To obtain your FREE Presentation please visit http://www.rent-an-auditor.co.uk/contactus.html