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ISO 14001 Environmental management systems

ISO 14001 is the international standard for an environmental management system. It helps an organisation understand its environmental impact, comply with legal requirements and improve its environmental performance.

Explanation

The standard asks you to know what impact your activities, products and services have on the environment: energy, waste, emissions, water, raw materials and the risk of emergencies. You assess those environmental aspects, then set objectives and take measures where it matters.

An important part is knowing which environmental laws and permits apply to you and showing that you comply. The system also includes policy, responsibilities, emergency preparedness, internal audits, monitoring and regular review by top management.

You can use the standard as a framework or have it certified by a certification body. A certificate shows that you tackle the environment in a structured way, but does not say you have no impact: it is about controlling and improving. The standard does not replace the law.

Example from practice

A metalworking company records which waste streams, energy sources and hazardous substances have an environmental effect, sets a target for less residual waste and checks during environmental rounds whether agreements are followed.

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In BrydgeOne

Where you work with ISO 14001

Environmental aspects registerAssess environmental aspects and their significance. Compliance obligationsTrack legal obligations and demonstrate compliance. Environmental inspectionsEnvironmental rounds with checklists and follow-up. Environmental reportsFollow up environmental incidents and complaints. ISO 14001Environment
Knowledge base

Keep reading

ISO 14001: how to build an environmental management systemISO 14001 helps you control and gradually reduce the environmental impact of your organisation. The standard revolves around insight into your environmental aspects, compliance with obligations and demonstrable improvement. Here is how to build the system. Identifying environmental aspects: how to inventory and assess themIdentifying environmental aspects starts with a walk through what your organisation does and where it touches the environment. Here you will read how to inventory aspects, assess their significance and attach measures, with example lines for an environmental aspects register. Setting up a legal and regulatory register: know which obligations apply to youA legal and regulatory register shows which binding obligations apply to your organisation and whether you comply. Here you will read how to determine what applies to you, how to set up the register and how to keep it up to date.
Glossary

See also

Environmental aspectEnvironmental aspectPDCA cyclePlan-Do-Check-Act (Deming cycle)Internal auditInternal auditISO 9001ISO 9001 Quality management systemsCertificationCertification

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