Getting started with ISO 14001 Environmental Management

Find the best way to get started with ISO 14001 and discover how environmental management is the right choice for your business now and in the future.  

Environmental Management Systems (ISO 14001) is an internationally accepted standard that sets out how you can go about putting in place an effective EMS. The standard is designed to address the delicate balance between maintaining profitability and reducing environmental impact. With the commitment of your entire organization, it can enable you to achieve both objectives.

What’s in ISO 14001:

• General requirements 
• Environmental policy 
• Planning implementation and operation 
• Checking and corrective action 
• Management review

This means you can identify aspects of your business that impact on the environment and understand those environmental laws that are relevant to your situation. The next step is to produce objectives for improvement and a management programme to achieve them, with regular reviews for continual improvement.  We can then periodically assess the system and, if compliant, register your company or site to ISO 14001.

Certifying your company's environmental management system to ISO 14001 means that a third party, such as BSI, has assessed that it meets the requirements set out in the standard.

Certification to ISO 14001 allows you to:

• Demonstrate a commitment to achieving legal and regulatory compliance to regulators and government
• Demonstrate your environmental commitment to stakeholders 
• Demonstrate an innovative and forward thinking approach to clients and prospective employees
• Increase your access to new customers and business partners 
• Better manage your environmental risks, now and in the future 
• Potentially reduce public liability insurance costs 
• Enhance your reputation

For particular industries, pressure is now being exerted by many large organizations, such as original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) who expect their suppliers to adopt environmentally-friendly practices and may mandate ISO 14001 certification as a licence to operate.

If you want to take the implementation and certification of an EMS slowly, the BS 8555 STEMS scheme allows you to phase the management system in and assess how you’re performing at each step on the path. Once completed, it still results in achieving ISO 14001 certification.