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ISO 14001 Environmental

About registration

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization, Geneva Switzerland) was founded after WW II to help facilitate international trade, as a part of the reconstruction of Europe. The main focus was product specifications for materials like steel and cement. This expanded over the years to cover thousands of materials. And international trade grew.

In the '60s international trade exploded. More people than ever were moving materials and finished goods across international boarders. Free trade. Now another problem became apparent. It is one thing to be able to specify that you want to buy a commodity made to meet the ISO specification, and another for the manufacturer to have the systems in place to be able to make that material, such as quality control, calibration, etc. This brought ISO 9000 to light in 1987. If a company registered to ISO 9000 then I can "assume" that they meet the minimum requirements for shipping me goods which conform to the (ISO) specifications. And that worked well. 300,000 companies worldwide have registered to ISO since then.

Now in the '90s we are worrying (with very good reason) about the environment. We not only want goods from abroad which meet our (ISO) specifications, we want them made in a way which protects the environment. There is an economic aspect s well. If I have to toe the environmental line for fear of the EPA or European equivalent, then the company in a third world country should be made to do the same to "level the playing field." With the carrot of saving the planet and the stick of maintaining "fair" competition on an international scale, ISO 14001 was borne.

To complete the cycle, there is now an effort under way to develop an international standard on Health and Safety to further level the playing field and, incidentally, save some lives in the poorer countries where OSHA is absent.

ISO 14000 is a series of standards just as the ISO 9000 is a series of 5 standards with more supporting standards (take an excellent "Demystifying Tour" at the ISO site to learn more). But you really only need to pay attention to ISO 14001

The ISO 14000 Family of Standards and Ongoing Work

Designation	Publication	Title
ISO 14001:1996	1996	Environmental management systems – Specification with guidance for use
ISO 14004:1996	1996	Environmental management systems – General guidelines on principles, systems and supporting techniques
ISO 14010:1996	1996	Guidelines for environmental auditing – General principles
ISO 14011:1996	1996	Guidelines for environmental auditing – Audit procedures – Auditing of environmental management systems
ISO 14012:1996	1996	Guidelines for environmental auditing – Qualification criteria for environmental auditors
ISO/WD 14015 and 14 more	To be determined	Environmental assessment of sites and entities and other related topics. Some have been published.

ISO 14001:1996 details the requirements for an Environmental Management System which can be registered by an accredited registrar. in order to register you have to implement a compliant system, operate it for at least two months, and hire a registrar to come and audit you.

The audit is in two stages, a document review and overview visit, and the actual registration visit. Once you have satisfied any nonconformances from either visit you are recommended for registration, and the registrar's board confers same, which is attested to by a certificate.

They will be back each year for a surveillance audit to ensure that you are not backsliding.

ISO 14001 is divided into 6 sections with 17 sub-paragraphs. These correspond to the "elements" of ISO 9000, and you will assign a Champion to each element (though a Champion can have more than one element). The Champions write procedures, check the procedures, train people and then answer the auditor's questions about the standard and how the procedures address the requirements.

For More Information Contact: tony@midwestquality.com or 800 464-9008