What is ISO 14001?
ISO 14001 is the internationally recognised standard for environmental management systems. Over 154,500
ISO 14001 certificates have been issued in 148 countries. It sets out requirements to control business processes that
have an environmental impact. This inludes energy consumption, use of natural resources and generation and disposal
of waste. ISO 14001 can be implemented by any organisation in the world.
Companies who already operate an ISO 9001 management system will find that ISO 14001 has a number of requirements
that are common to ISO 9001 e.g. Document Control, Control of Records, Training, Management Review, Internal Audits. This
will reduce the amount of effort required to set up and implement an ISO 14001 management system and also means the two systems
can be easily integrated.
ISO 14001 Benefits
Implementing an ISO 14001 environmental management system has many benefits including;
- understanding, controlling
and reducing the organisation's environmental effects
- cost savings generated by improving efficiency and reducing waste
- ensuring compliance
with applicable legislation
- avoiding / minimising environmental incidents and associated clean up costs and fines
- enhancing reputation and image
- new business gained from environmentally concious customers
