ISO 14001:2015 Revision

ISO 14001 has become the leading international standard for designing and implementing an environmental management system. The standard is published by ISO (the international organisation for standardisation), an international body that creates and distributes standards that are accepted worldwide. After 11 years, the 2004 revision is being replaced with ISO 14001:2015.

History of environmental management system standards:
  • 1973 – Europe community principles 1 for applying of protective cautions on environment.
  • 1992 – BSI group published the BS7750.
  • 1993 – ISO/TC 207 the committee was established to develop ISO 14001family standards.
  • 1994 - TS 9719 standard (environment management system – general features).
  • 1996 - ISO 14001 is published modelled on BS7750.
  • April 2005 – ISO 14001 first revision of the standard.
  • September 2015 – Current revision of the standard.

Alignment:
ISO 14001:2015 is compliant with annex SL directives (is aligned with other management system standards);
1. ISO 27001
2. ISO 9001
3. ISO 20000
4. ISO 22301

Transition period:
  • Companies can certify against the 2015 revision from September 2015
  • Leading certification bodies will stop certification against the 2004 revision in September 2016
  • Companies certified against the 2004 revision must transition by September 2018.

Comparison:
Old 2004 Revision New 2015 Revision
4 Clauses 10 Clauses
12 Mandatory documents and records 16 mandatory documents and records

Requirements:
New requirements in ISO 14001:2015 revision –
· Context of the organisation (clause 4)
· Actions to address risk and opportunities (clause 6.1)

Requirements from ISO 14001:2004 that are gone –
· Environmental targets
· Management representative
· Preventative action

Whats Different:
Major –
· Risks and opportunities
· Context of the organisation
· Interested parties
Moderate –
· Identification and evaluation of environmental aspects
· Environmental objectives and plans for achieving them
· Emergency preparedness and response
· Performance evaluation
· Document management
· Communication
· EMS Scope
Small –
· Environmental policy
· Leadership
· Competence, training and awareness
· Management review
· Internal audit
· Corrective action

What benefits does the 2015 revision bring to an EMS?
  • Better integration with other business activities
  • Enhancement of the process approach and PDCA cycle
  • Decentralisation of the system and spread of responsibilities for the EMS throughout the organisation
  • Greater involvement of the top management in the EMS
  • Consideration of the whole lifecycle of the product or service during aspects evaluation
  • Higher emphasis on environmental performance monitoring





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