ISO 14001 Certification (EMS)
What Is ISO 14001 Certification?
ISO 14001 certification is an international level certification of environmental management systems. It sets the guidelines for organizations to create and execute an EMS, as well as enhance their environmental effectiveness consistently. Adhering to this standard enables organizations to demonstrate their commitment towards reducing their environmental impact, meeting legal obligations, and reaching their environmental goals. This framework covers a range of elements, including resource utilization, waste handling, monitoring environmental progress and involving stakeholders in environmental responsibilities.
Why Do We Need ISO 14001 Certification (EMS)?
The ISO 14001 certificate is the guiding reference to solve every issue encountered in business operations, such as procurement, storage, distribution, development, and manufacturing. It also insists on the emergencies, customer satisfaction, the people that stand by, and the work around for the local community. This Standard is affecting businesses in all industries and sizes to establish, implement, maintain, and enhance an environmental management system. Organizations can enroll in an ISO 14001 certification program which in turn could help them in “greening” and reducing waste.
Key Benefits Of Using ISO 14001 Certificate
- Help To Reduce waste
- Increase stakeholder and customer trust
- Assure that environmental impact is being measured
- Consistently manage environmental obligations
- Improve resource efficiency
- It helps to design a supply chain that gives you a competitive advantage
- Major improvement environmental impact
- Reduce Costs
- Open doors for many new business opportunities
- Develop trust in both stakeholders and customer
What Does ISO 14001 Certification Standard Structure Look Like?
The ISO 14001 Standard is divided into ten major sections. From those ten sections, the first three sections are based on the introduction. While the last seven sections contain the requirements of the environmental management system. Here are the details of all those seven parts.
Context of the organization
This section is all about the requirements to understand your organization / business to implement EMS. All requirements for defining the scope of EMS, identifying the process required for EMS, identifying the internal and external issues, as well as the identification of interested parties and their expectation also comes in this section.
Leadership
The leadership requirements include the necessity for top management to be the key factor in the EMS implementation. The executive management must show its dedication to the EMS by making sure that environmental commitment, definition and communication of the environmental policy, and defining responsibilities and roles within the organization remain the priorities.
Planning
As part of the top management task, it is essential to set out a clear plan for the ongoing function of the Environment Management Systems (EMS). The organization must evaluate the risks and opportunities presented by the EMS and achieve the improvement of environmental objectives besides identifying the environmental objectives for improvement and making up the plans to ensure that they are realized. Not to mention that it is a must for the organization to ponder on how all the organizational processes interrelate and have an influence on the environment as well as how the legal and other commitments that are required for the organization.
Support
This part of the support part involves the process of administering all the resources for the EMS, in which the necessary measures related to skills, consciousness, communication and documentation control (documents and records required for various processes) are also included.
Operation
The environmental controls are the total requirements of the processes within an organization to optimize the natural resources it uses, and it should also have an emergency plan that would include how to identify potential emergency situations and your strategy. This will enable you to efficiently handle emergency scenarios in case one occurs.
Performance Evaluation
This part contains the demands that assuage making sure the EMS is functioning well, that is, if the EMS is fresh and improved over time. The list consists of monitoring and measuring processes, assessing environmental compliance, internal audits, and ongoing management review of the.
Improvement
Of course, by automating your compliance solutions, you can encourage your company to implement significant changes and comply with the standards.
This last part shows the steps that are to be taken to better your EMS during the time. For instance, Organizations need to recognize non-conforming practices, prioritize corrective measures, and document all the findings for the record.
Who Is Eligible To Get ISO 14001 Certification?
Every company in the world, whether big or small, can aim to get ISO 14001 Standard certified. The standard is supposed to be flexible, so it can be applied to all types of companies, non-profit organizations, government bodies, and individuals who are willing to deal with the environmental impact of their activities in a more efficient way.
What IS The Process To Claim The Certification Of ISO 14001 Standard?
You can achieve the certification of ISO 14001 standards very smoothly without any hesitation, if your organization implements an EMS that follows all the requirements of ISO 4001 Standard. To curb your environmental impacts, you need to perform an environmental impact assessment, determine your improvement objectives and set new targets to meet them, implement necessary processes to obtain positive results, and record an internal audit. Once you have completed these steps, you should go to a certified body and opt for their environmental audit service. In case you pass their evaluation, you will be able to receive the ISO 14001 certification.
Is The Certification Of ISO 14001 Mandatory?
A certification to ISO 14001 is not a requirement. It is a voluntary standard that organizations can choose to meet to demonstrate their commitment to environmental management. ISO 14001 certification helps businesses to follow the regulation and environmental legislation. It can also be required by one of your clients or partners.
How Long Does It Take To Be ISO 14001 Certified?
Based on your organization’s size and complexity, your environmental management practices, and the amount of resources you are able to devote to the certification process, certification can take a long time. It generally takes from a few months to over a year.
How We Can Help You With ISO 14001 Certification?
In recent years, over two-thirds of the Fortune 250 companies have started to use environmental management system standards in their organizations. To start the process of adopting the standards, the easiest approach is to get in touch with a Nines Consultancy professional to assist you. We are able to aid you in recognizing specific standards that are appropriate for you and offer the auditing services needed to get ISO 14001 certification.
As a reputable international certification body, we can work with any client at any company size and in any sector. Reach out to us to learn more about how an EMS can help you.