What is an ISO 14001 Environmental Management System?

What is an ISO 14001 Environmental Management System?

The International Organization for Standardization, or ISO, determines internationally agreed upon standards for businesses.  ISO standards that end in “001” are management systems. ISO 14001 is for environmental management systems as ISO 9001 is the standard for quality management systems and 45001 is for safety and health management systems.

Standards in the “ISO 14000 family” relate to environmental management.  There are actually other standards in the 14000 family such as 14004, 14006 and 14064-1 that complement ISO 14001 or take it a step further.

Who Is Required to Have ISO 14001 Certifications?

ISO 14001 is voluntary; however, many national and international companies are increasingly requiring their suppliers to become certified. 

Having the certification signals that your company conforms to pre-approved standards of environmental performance and has procedures in place for compliance and improvement. It also shows your company is committed to certain environmental objectives like waste minimization, pollution prevention and climate change mitigation as well as has perspective on the effects of life cycle and the value chain of a product/service.

What’s the Process for Creating an Environmental Management System?

An ISO 14001 environmental management system (EMS) is all about developing and documenting objectives and processes, implementing them, monitoring and measuring their success, reporting results, maintaining them, then taking actions to continuously improve upon them. 

Some of the elements of the EMS include developing procedures for:

  • Scope of the EMS
  • Leadership and commitment;
  • Defining and documenting your environmental policy;
  • Organizational roles and responsibilities;
  • Identifying risks, threats and opportunities
  • Identifying environmental aspects and impacts;
  • Establishing environmental objectives and plan for achieving them;
  • Resources;
  • Competence, training records, skills, experience and qualifications;
  • Internal and external communication;
  • Document control;
  • Operational control;
  • Emergency preparedness and response;
  • Compliance obligations and evaluation;
  • Monitoring and measuring results;
  • Internal auditing the EMS and the results from this;
  • Management review results;
  • Nonconformity and corrective action; and,
  • Continual improvement.

How Do You Become Certified?

Once you have your procedures developed, you will need to conduct an internal audit of the procedures.  From here, tweaks are made and deficiencies are corrected.  An external audit is next, that is, a third-party auditor such as iSi will review your system to verify it complies with the requirements.  After the external audit, corrections are made before an ISO certification agency does the final certification audit.

ISO 14001:2015

The most current version of ISO 14001 is 14001:2015.  Any company with the original 2004 certification had until September 15, 2018 to upgrade to the newest version.  Thus, the 2004 version is now out of date.

As with newer ISO standards such as safety standard 45001, the 2015 revision increases emphasis on commitment from company leadership.  ISO is required to be more prominent in an organization’s strategic direction and stakeholder-focused communication is important.  Other revisions require proactive initiatives for protecting the environment from harm and degradation and requires companies to consider life cycle, that is, how the entire process from development to end-of-life can affect the environment.

Benefits of an EMS

Even if you are not required to have ISO 14001 certification, developing an environmental management system can be beneficial to your company.  Having procedures in place can help improve your overall environmental compliance It can help give your company personnel a roadmap of how to manage environmental issues, which can be helpful in times of employee turnover.  An EMS will help ensure systems are continuously improved and evaluated.  In addition, there may be additional cost benefits through pollution prevention, increased efficiencies, consistency, better resource management, and good public relations.

ISO Audit

iSi can help you create your EMS and has the auditors to inspect it.

How can an environmental management system help your compliance? Let iSi help you put the pieces together!

EPA to Propose Repeal of Clean Power Plan

EPA to Propose Repeal of Clean Power Plan

power plant
A number of news agencies have obtained a document outlining EPA’s plans to propose a repeal of the Clean Power Plan. The announcement from EPA may come early this week and then a formal proposal will be issued in the Federal Register.  The plans include a 60-day comment period to solicit ideas on alternatives or a replacement approach.  Plans also include a cost-benefit analysis of a repeal, estimating $33 billion in compliance cost savings.

The Clean Power Plan rule was developed by the previous administration as a way to lower carbon emissions from existing power plants by 2030.  Opponents have contended that the rule’s compliance and equipment requirements will create massive costs on the power sector and its consumers, that EPA overreached its authority to regulate emissions under the Clean Air Act, and it invaded the powers of the states, who’ve traditionally managed and regulated the energy sector. Over 27 states, 24 trade associations, 37 rural electric Co-Ops and 3 labor unions have sued EPA over the rule.  A bipartisan group of over 200 Senators and House members also filed a briefing against it.

How can iSi help your company with air compliance issues?
Check us out!

Georgia NPDES Permittees Required to File Electronically Through NetDMR

Georgia NPDES Permittees Required to File Electronically Through NetDMR

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) has been moving towards electronic filing of various reports and permits. This electronic requirement is now being required for submittal of Discharge Monitoring Reports from those companies who hold an NPDES (National Pollution Discharge Elimination System) permit for water discharges.

Starting December 21, 2016, all NPDES permittees will be required to submit their Discharge Monitoring Reports (DMRs) online using a site called NetDMR.   Those who use land application systems, pre-treatment, PID, and general permittees will also eventually be required to use NetDMR later.

NetDMR will have similar features to other online applications.

Step 1:           Create Your Own Account

Each person must create their own account. When setting up an account, facilities should be mindful of the instance and type of user chosen.  Within the state of Georgia, the instance should be “Georgia Environmental Protection Division”.  You may see other options such as EPA – GA, but DO NOT select these options.

Once the appropriate instance or agency has been selected, click on “Create a new account” and follow the prompts.  The type of user for facility personnel should be the external user type “Permittee User.”  An internal user is meant for agency use only.

Step 2:           Set User Roles

Once an account has been created, there are four roles for a permittee user: View, Edit, Signatory, and Permit Administrator.

Permit Administrator: The Permit Administrator has the ability to approve role requests within their permit for all roles except Signatory.  The first person to request and get approved for Signatory Role will be granted the Permit Administrator role automatically.

Signatory: No one will be able to access the permit within NetDMR until someone is approved by EPD as the Signatory.  EPD is the only entity that can approve access to Signatory Role requests.  Someone seeking Signatory Role must submit a signed Subscriber Agreement to EPD by mail and wait approval.  EPD estimates approximately a two week turnaround to review and approve Subscriber Agreements.  Remember, the first person to request and get approved for Signatory Role will also be granted the Permit Administrator role automatically.

View, Edit: Other personnel can request View, Edit, and/or Permit Administrator Roles from the Permit Administrator.

Step 3:           Start Using the System

Once approval has been received, you may then start entering DMR data electronically into the system. Note: there is no external notification, so if a role request has been made within NetDMR the Permit Administrator must check within NetDMR to see that request.

Learn More

If you need assistance, iSi can also help walk you through the process, contact us or give us a call at (678) 712-4705.

How can iSi help your company with NPDES compliance? Check us out!

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