ISO 14001:2004 Revision: General Requirements and Policy
by Capaccio Environmental Engineering, Inc.
This article will review the “General Requirements” and “Policy”
section of the ISO
14001:2004 standard revision, including the standard update and system
recommendations for ISO 14001:2004 compliance. The ISO 14001:2004
Environmental Management System (EMS) updated standard includes
clarification to the “General Requirements” and “Policy”
process, including the addition of documented scope within the general
requirements and the reorganization of policy standard requirements.
Changes
in Detail:
General Requirements
The ISO 14001:2004 standard is
enhanced by expanding on the requirements for “General Requirements”. The
expansion of the requirements includes clarification of the expectations
for an organization that is implementing an ISO 14001:2004 system.
Previously “General Requirements” was defined with a general overview that
states the Environmental Management System (EMS) is to be established and
maintained in accordance with the EMS requirements.
ISO 14001:2004 “General
Requirements” includes specific requirements to document, implement, and
continually improve the EMS. The requirements
also specify that the organization needs to determine how it will fulfill
the requirements of documenting, implementing, maintaining, and
continually improving the EMS.
In addition, ISO
14001:2004 now requires an organization to document its EMS Scope. The
defining of the scope represents the boundaries of the application of the
organization’s EMS. The standard clarifies that the activities, products,
and services that are within the definition of the scope are to be
incorporated into the EMS.
Specifically the updated
standard for the EMS “General Requirements”
includes:
-
Documenting the EMS
-
Implementing the EMS
-
Continually improving
the
EMS
-
EMS in accordance with
the requirements of ISO 14001:2004
-
Organization is to
determine how it will fulfill EMS requirements
-
Defining and
documenting the EMS scope
Policy
The EMS Policy is also enhanced by clarifying the
connection to the defined scope of its EMS and adding linkage to aspects
that relate to the organization of legal and other requirements. In
addition, communicating the policy is expanded beyond employees of the
organization to persons working for or on behalf of the organization.
Specifically the
updated standard for the EMS Policy, includes:
-
Clarification that the
Policy is to be within the "Scope" of the EMS as defined in general
requirements,
-
Paragraph C) includes a
commitment to comply with "applicable" ("applicable" replaces
"relevant") legal requirements and with other requirements,
-
Paragraph C) is also
updated to reflect, Legal requirements and other requirements that an
organization subscribes that relate to its environmental aspects (that
relate to its environmental aspects is new within the standard),
-
Paragraph E) Second
half of the sentence - communicated to all employees - from 1996 is now
placed into paragraph F) and reworded to reflect all persons working for
or on behalf of the organization,
-
Paragraph F) New
subsection within Policy, the 1996 version F is now G in the 2004
version.
In Summary
We have reviewed the
EMS “General Requirements” and “Policy” in the
ISO 14001:2004 standard revision. Our review included developing an
understanding of the requirement for a documented scope and the
re-organization of policy within the revised standard. In addition,
we wanted to make you aware of the expanded requirement of communicating the
policy beyond the organization’s employees.
Companies that are registered to the ISO 14001:1996 standard will need to
upgrade their system and be certified to the ISO 14001:2004 standard no
later than May 15, 2006. Thus the race continues, review of
"General Requirements" and "Policy" represents another lap around the track
of requirements within the
standard. We will work through closing the gaps for the remaining
elements and continue our drive towards the checkered flag of an ISO
14001:2004 compliant system in future articles. Stay tuned!
If
you are interested in learning more about the ISO 14001:2004 revision,
please contact Paula Esty at (508) 970-0033 ext. 128.
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