ISO 14001 – Environmental Management Systems, the world’s first international environmental standard has been helping thousands of organizations to improve their environmental, sustainability and operational performance since it was first published as BS 7750 in 1992.

To ensure that ISO 14001 continue to serve organizations and maintain its relevance in today’s market place, the standard is being revised. The revision will not only address the change in environmental practices, but also ensure that the management system in future proof.

Companies, organizations and society have a global responsibility to grow without compromising resources for future generations. ISO 14001 was originally written with the environment in mind and that remains the priority for ISO 14001:2015.

Bringing the Environment and Continuous Improvement into the heart of your business

The revised standard will ensure that environmental management is now completely integrated and aligned with the business strategies of your organization. This strategic focus will result in optimizing the performance of your EMS making it more sustainable, saving money and helping preserve the world’s resources for future generations.

Leadership

Greater involvement in the management system by the leadership team will ensure the whole organization will be motivated towards the organizations goals and objectives.

Improved Environmental Performance

Organizations will need to take steps to protect the environment and improve environmental performance. Good environmental management will reduce the risk of regulatory fines and can often identify opportunities to save money.

An Integrated Approach

With the new structure applicable to all new ISO management systems standards it wll be much easier to implement multiple, integrated management systems.

The new standard expected in September 2015, will be based on Annex SL – the new high level structure (HLS) that brings a common framework to all management system standards. This helps to keep consistency, alignment different management system standards, offer matching sub-clauses against the top-level structure and apply common language across all standards.

The key changes in the proposed standard are:

• The emphasis on leadership
• The focus on risk management
• Emphasis on objectives measurement and change
• Communication and awareness
• Fewer prescriptive requirements

With the new standard in place, organizations will find it easier to incorporate their environmental  management system into the core business processes and gain greater business benefits.