Getting ISO 14001 Certified in San Diego, California (CA)

For a successful EMS, you need to find the parts in your company with environmental aspects and their impact on the environment.

Common examples of environmental aspects are: -

• Use of energy and water
• Use of recycled items
• Emission of smoke or fumes
• Disposal of waste
• Risk of spills or leakage

Once you find all the aspects in your organization, you'll have to find its impact. You'll need a scoring system to accurately find out where your organization stands. Although the use of a scoring system is not mandatory, it makes the process simpler. Once you have the score, you need to check and work on that score to further reduce your activities' impact on the environment.

To get ISO 14001 certified, you need to create clear environmental objectives and a plan to achieve the same. If possible, quantify the objectives. It means there should be time goals. For example, you should set a goal for reducing energy usage from 24% to 16% in the coming six months instead of just reducing the energy.

You'll also need to demonstrate how you're planning to achieve those goals and their impact on the organization. For example, if you're planning to expand your company, the energy usage is obviously subject to increase. So, you need to check what impact your goals have on the present situation of your company.

Ideally, your plans should be able to establish the following: -

• Who has the ownership of all the objectives?
• The procedure of monitoring the progress
• Any services or equipment required for aching the objective
• A well-defined timeline to achieve the objectives.

The auditors will examine how your objectives link or affect each other. It'll help them determine how consistent the objectives are in relation to the environmental policy.

ISO 14001 wants the organizations to create and execute operational controls in accordance with the sector they operate in. There's no specific way of determining how you should implement the controls. However, you should maintain documentation that all the operational control ensure that: -

• You meet the legal and compliance requirements
• You have assessed and set the environmental objectives
• You have defined the outsourced all external and internal processes
• You have assessed, implemented, and reviewed any training equipment

You can think of emergencies as the situations which affect the environment or any environmental events that somehow impact your company. You need to demonstrate to the auditors that you can deal with both of them.

And for this, you need to have a procedure in place that can check for such emergencies. The whole purpose is to minimize the impact of such emergencies on the environment. You need to make sure to test all the procedures and train all the parties involved directly or indirectly in this procedure.

Here you need to display or present the people who can somehow affect your organization's ability to achieve the environmental objectives. These parties will be needed to manage legal and business obligations in your organization.

You should record all the requirements to make sure that they are considered while you're planning the Environmental Management system. Once you have the parties, you can determine how you can meet the obligations by putting a minimum impact on the environment.

A common example of an interested party can be a customer. A customer who wants competitive pricing. Or some organization that wants to improve the carbon emission of your building. You can observe that the interested parties and requirements can both alter with time.

This is yet another essential factor you need to keep in mind. You'll have to demonstrate that your organization is finding and addressing the risks & opportunities that are presented by the EMS. You might not need a specific process or methodology, but you should be able to prove that you're following a risk-based approach.

You should also be able to show or explain your procedure to the auditors which you're using. Also, a documented proof like a strategy or a business plan would work. This documentation must directly link to the clause listed in the standard.

Whenever a new standard or EMS is integrated, new processes come into play. This can overcomplicate things, and the employees might need additional training. So, you need to record your employees' training and the competence labels to make the process easier.

This way, you can conveniently track the progress and further upgrade the skills. Also, you can demonstrate that your employees are competent enough while dealing with environment-related responsibilities.

Every employee or member of your organization should be aware of his or her obligations. It's the reason why you must show that you're sending explicit communications internally and externally. Emails, intranet announcements, meetings, bulletin boards are some examples of internal communications. Emails, meetings, contracts, letters are some examples of external communications. These communications are more detailed as you need to communicate your expectations to the supplier on meeting the environmental requirements.

We've covered most factors or requirements you need to keep in mind. However, some other factors need your focus as well. This process can be quite complicated if you try doing it on your own. But you can make the smart move by contacting IQC The ISO Pros. IQC The ISO Pros is an ISO consulting company. Our professionals have mastery in helping organizations in getting ISO 14001 certified. We know how to help you manage everything.

You can trust us and expect the best results. If you want to remove this certification burden off your shoulders, contact IQC The ISO Pros now. Find below why you should contact us.