» Back to listing ISO 14001 Revision

19th May 2014

The draft new 14001 standard should be available around September 2014. There will be an opportunity to comment on and help shape the standard. The final revised standard should be available mid 2015.

Over 250,000 organisations are certified to ISO 14001 and while it continues to be as relevant as ever, the revision will take into consideration a number of issues to ensure organisations are able to grow in a sustainable way.

Two significant changes are proposed:

The revision has been written using the new high level structure which is common to all new management systems standards. This will allow easy integration when implementing more than one management system.
The second action comes from the ‘Future Challenges for EMS Study Group’ which evaluated the potential implications of evolving stakeholder expectations and new developments in environmental management systems. The study group analysed eleven key themes along with the obstacles and opportunities to increase uptake of ISO 14001 in small organisations to control environmental impact in the supply chain, engage stakeholders, and communicate externally.

New terms are to be introduced for interested parties, risk, indicators, value chain and lifecycle.

The new requirements that will likely have the biggest impact on certified organisations are tied to these new terms:

Determination of relevant external and internal issues that could affect achievement of the intended outcomes of the EMS
Determination of the relevant interested parties and their requirements
Integration of the EMS and objectives into business processes
Compatibility of the environmental policy and objectives with its strategic direction
Consideration of environmental performance in strategic planning
A policy that is appropriate to the organisation’s risks and opportunities
Consideration of life-cycle perspectives
Identification and access to the relevant requirements of interested parties
Identification of organisational risks and opportunities
Competency of those that affect its environmental performance
Control or influence of processes associated with the value chain, significant environmental aspects and organisational risks and opportunities, taking into account a lifecycle perspective.
Monitoring of risks and opportunities and value chain controls
Use of performance indicator criteria
A management review that incorporates the above requirements

For further information or advice on the implementation of these changes please contact dan.wellington@peakhse.co.uk