What is ISO 14001 – Environmental Management Systems?

Louise Petty

November 15, 2024

4 min read

ISO 14001 is a globally-recognised standard for creating an effective environmental management system. Achieving ISO 14001 certification helps your organisation to reduce its environmental impact, improves its reputation and encourages sustainability. In this article, we’ll look at why your organisation should have an ISO 14001 environmental management system, how to achieve ISO 14001 certification and what the requirements of ISO 14001 are.

What is ISO 14001 Environmental Management System?

An ISO 14001 environmental management system (EMS) is an internationally-recognised framework that organisations can use to improve, manage and monitor their environmental performance.

Implementing an ISO 14001 EMS helps businesses to take proactive measures to reduce their environmental impact, achieve their environmental objectives and comply with relevant legislation. It encourages continual improvement in areas such as waste management, using resources more efficiently, reducing consumption and being more sustainable.

Having an ISO 14001 certification shows to customers, clients, suppliers, stakeholders and investors that your organisation takes environmental issues seriously and is doing everything possible to reduce its impact and commit to a sustainable future.

Why is Environmental Management Important?

Climate change, depletion of natural resources and loss of biodiversity are all modern-day problems that affect everyone around the world, and businesses have an important role to play in addressing these issues. Committing to environmental management and achieving ISO 14001 certification is important because it helps businesses to achieve climate neutrality and become more adaptive in responding to environmental issues.

An ISO 14001 EMS is important for your organisation because it:

Offers a structured approach for environmental management – following the ISO 14001 framework gives your business a straightforward, globally-recognised system to follow to help you achieve your environmental objectives and improve performance.
Ensures legal compliance – an ISO 14001 EMS enables your organisation to more easily comply with relevant environmental legislation by having a system in place that actively addresses regulations and industry requirements regarding areas such as waste disposal, emissions and use of resources.
Reduces waste and lowers costs – an effective EMS makes your use of resources more efficient and less wasteful. This reduces the number of resources you need in the first place, therefore resulting in significant cost reductions for your business.
Streamlines operational processes – managing your environmental impact means assessing your operations and processes to ensure they’re streamlined, efficient, more productive and less wasteful, saving you time, resources and money.
Demonstrates commitment to sustainability – an ISO 14001 certification proves that your organisation takes environmental issues seriously and has committed to continually improving the environmental impact it has.
Enhances the organisation’s reputation – a documented EMS means customers, clients, suppliers and stakeholders will recognise that your organisation is committed to environmental management and have more trust and confidence in your actions. It can also help to attract potential new investors.
Improves risk management – an ISO 14001 compliant EMS enables your organisation to better identify, assess and manage environmental risks before they cause problems.
Builds environmental resilience – an effective EMS makes your organisation more resilient to future uncertainty, as you’ll have procedures in places for identifying and managing problems and making swift changes to processes where needed.

Want to Learn More?

An important component of your environmental management system is ensuring that everyone in the organisation is committed to and understanding of environmental issues. High Speed Training’s online Environmental Awareness course is ideal for ensuring employees have the knowledge they need.

ISO 14001 Requirements

ISO 14001 applies to all types of organisations, of all sizes and in all industries. If your business is interested in implementing a recognised system to improve its environmental performance, then ISO 14001 certification is relevant for you.

To achieve ISO 14001 EMS certification, your organisation will need to consider all environmental issues related to the industry you’re in. This might include issues regarding water and sewage, air pollution, soil contamination, chemical spills, waste disposal, climate change, use of fossil fuels and its carbon footprint, to name a few.

ISO 14001 is made up of 10 clauses, seven of which will require your input. The requirements of ISO 14001 are:

Clause 1: Scope – This section gives a definition of the purpose and scope of the ISO 14001 standard.
Clause 2: Normative References – This section explains the reference standards and publications relevant to ISO 14001.
Clause 3: Terms and Definitions – This section outlines the key terms and definitions used within the ISO 14001 standard.
Clause 4: Context of the organisation – Information on what your business does, how and where it operates, its compliance obligations, what the relevant environmental issues are, who’s affected and how your business will respond.
Clause 5: Leadership – The roles and responsibilities of everyone in your organisation, ensuring that leaders recognise the organisation’s environmental objectives and what their roles are in ensuring continual improvement.
Clause 6: Planning – Identify and plan for any work activity that could impact the environment, such as energy usage, pollution, waste and emissions, and identify any related regulations you must comply with.
Clause 7: Support – This section asks for all of your EMS documentation, such as your company’s environmental policy, its environmental objectives, staff training records, copies of communications with suppliers and stakeholders and copies of any relevant EMS audits, reviews or evaluations.
Clause 8: Operation – Identify which work activities may impact the environment and what the control measures are to reduce their impact.
Clause 9: Performance evaluation – Determine how you plan to monitor, measure, analyse and evaluate your EMS through a documented system of internal audits and reviews.
Clause 10: Improvement – Determine how you’ll continually improve your environmental performance by addressing issues, implementing corrective actions and carrying out regular audits.

How to Get ISO 14001 Certification

To get ISO 14001 certification for your organisation’s EMS, you’ll need to follow a series of steps:

Step 1: Understand the ISO 14001 requirements

Firstly, it’s essential that you familiarise yourself with the content and expectations of the ISO 14001 standard. To create an ISO 14001-compliant EMS, you’ll need to identify your needs and understand how the standard applies to your organisation. You can purchase a copy of the standard here.

Step 2: Undergo a stage 1 gap analysis assessment

A stage 1 assessment acts as a gap analysis of your current EMS to see what’s missing and how you can make improvements in order to obtain ISO 14001 certification. After the assessment, you’ll receive an audit report that highlights the actions needed in order to achieve certification. You should use your stage 1 assessment findings to make changes to your existing EMS in order to make it compliant with the expectations of ISO 14001.

Step 3: Undergo a stage 2 assessment

A stage 2 assessment is an in-depth review of your EMS by an auditor. The auditor will look at all your systems and processes to see whether they meet the ISO 14001 requirements or if more is needed. The auditor will review real examples of your processes, products and/or services to see how your EMS works in action, and offer recommendations if required.

Step 4: Receive and maintain your ISO 14001 certificate

If your organisation’s environmental management system passes the stage 2 assessment, and no further actions are required, then you’ll be awarded the ISO 14001 certification. This certification is valid for 3 years and requires regular maintenance audits in order to be maintained.

An ISO 14001 environmental management system (EMS) enables your organisation to improve its sustainability, reduce its environmental impact and take action to slow climate change. Achieving ISO 14001 certification proves to your clients, customers, stakeholders and investors that you take your environmental impact seriously and always strive to reduce it where possible.