ISO14001 and Benefits

The standard ISO 14001 is the internationally recognised standard for Environmental Management System. This Environmental Management System helps organizations recognize, manage, monitor & control environmental issues within their company. This standard is suitable for all sizes of organizations and can be easily integrated into other standards that have a high-level structure – the most common being ISO9001:2015.

The standard helps companies set & achieve strategic environmental objectives. It encourages top management to engage with employees & lead the initiatives to address the objectives using the plan-do-check-act cycle and continually improve on them. Typical environmental issues within a manufacturing facility for example are air pollution, waste management, resource inefficiency’s and use of non-environmentally friendly products or suppliers within production. Organizations can determine the areas they wish to make improvements on and set about a plan to create these positive changes, for example only recycling waste or installing renewable energy. By using the PDCA system, improvements can be measured and monitored. Companies with ISO14001 recognise their facility as part of the local community and are respectful of its environmental location and amenities.

Benefits from implementing this standard are the organization shows compliance of statutory and regulatory requirements. Through improved efficiencies and reduced costs due to the measures implemented the organization can expect to gain competitiveness within their market place. These organizations demonstrate a commitment to the environment which in turn promotes a good reputation and instils confidence from stakeholders and interested parties.