ISO 14001:2004 Certification

Purpose of ISO 14001: 2004 standard
The purpose of ISO 14001: 2004 and ISO 14000 standards is to help the enterprises establish, maintain and continually improve their environmental management systems to protect the environment, prevent pollution caused by the activities of itself.
This standards also help the organization improve itself to have achieved sound environmental performance in a tighter, more stringent environmental law trend. The tendency of governments to implement measures to promote environmental protection, in the trend of customers, partners, local people, local authorities, consumers, ... increasingly expressed Their concern about environmental issues and sustainable development.
ISO 14001 was first issued in 1996, according to ISO statistics. As of December 2008, ISO 14001 was available in more than 155 countries and had over 188,815 enterprises / organizations. Statistics show that the application and certification of ISO 14001 is a strong trend. In the future, enterprises want to promote trade, they must prove that they have environmental protection.
Overview of ISO 14001: 2004
ISO 14001 is a standard in the standards of the ISO 14000 series. ISO 14001: 2004 is the second ISO 14001 standard iss
ued in 2004.
ISO 14001: 2004 sets out the requirements that an enterprise must undertake to manage the environmental factors (aspects) of its operations. ISO 14001: 2004 enables organizations to demonstrate that they have achieved sound environmental performance by controlling the adverse environmental effects of their products, services and activities. Certification of ISO 14001: 2004 helps organizations prove that they have been and continue to implement activities in accordance with the main and environmental objectives announced by enterprises / organizations.
The ISO 14001 standard has been adopted by Vietnam as the national standard code TCVN ISO 14001: 2005 - Environmental management system - Requirements (equivalent to international standard ISO 14001: 2004)
ISO 14001 is applicable to all types of organizations regardless of size, type of activity or product.
Application and certification in accordance with ISO 14001: 2004 does not change the responsibility of the enterprise / organization for general liability and environmental liability in particular.
Similar to ISO 9001: 2008, the ISO 14001: 2004 standard is also based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act methodology. Can be described as follows:
Plan - Plan (P): Establish the objectives and processes needed to achieve results that are consistent with the organization's environmental policy.
Execute - Do (D): Execute the process.
Check (C): Monitor and measure processes based on environmental policy, objectives, targets, legal requirements and other requirements, and report the results.
Action - Act (A): Take action to continuously improve the performance of the environmental management system.
Although ISO informally sets out the principles of environmental management, International TSC boldly synthesizes and sets out the principles for environmental management as follows:
- Principle 1: Commitment of the leader
- Principle 2: Participation of all members
- Principle 3: Process management
- Principle 4: Systematic Management
- Principle 5: Ensure the law and balance the socio-economic needs
- Principle 6: Ensure a consistent documentation and documentation system.
To understand the basics of ISO 14001: 2004 requirements, International TSC will briefly describe ISO 14001: 2004 based on the following model:
 

 

The PDCA is a continuous, mutually reinforcing process that helps an organization develop and maintain its environmental policy.

Plan (Plan):

first . First, the top management of the Enterprise must evaluate and consider the environmental aspects of its products and activities so as to develop and publish the environmental policy that the business will pursue. (For details, see 4.2 of ISO 14001: 2004).

2 . The enterprise must identify environmental aspects and environmental impacts of these aspects, and then consider which environmental aspects (factors) need to be established. Control to limit environmental impact (see 4.3.1, ISO 14001: 2004)

3. The enterprise must seek, collect, identify and monitor the legal requirements related to the environment that the enterprise must apply, as well as other environmental requirements that the organization / Acceptance of compliance. If applicable, internal standards should be set in place to control operations (see 4.3.2, ISO 14001: 2004).

4. Businesses must set environmental objectives and indicators, develop implementation programs (including measures, progress, responsibilities, authority) to achieve the targets and environmental targets. (See 4.3.3.1 and 4.3.3.2, ISO 14001: 2004)

Implementation (Do): application and operation of environmental management systems (see clause 4.4, ISO 14001: 2004)

first . Top management must establish a management structure, designate roles and responsibilities with sufficient authority to implement environmental management programs (see Section 4.4.1, ISO 14001: 2004).

2 . Management must provide sufficient resources including the personnel needed to maintain the environmental activities, train the personnel necessary to achieve the required level of proficiency, specialization skills, establish construction Build the infrastructure required by law or to ensure that environmental targets are met, invest in appropriate technologies for waste treatment, allocate program implementation time, and provide financing. To create a budget for the maintenance of environmental activities (see clause 4.4.1, ISO 14001: 2004).

3. Management must organize training for people who work for organizations or people who work on behalf of the organization and ensure that those people are aware of the environmental aspects to control, the consequences of uncontrolled But also ensure they have the capacity to implement controls on these aspects (see clause 4.4.2, ISO 14001: 2004).

4. Businesses must establish processes to ensure effective exchange of information about the environment internally, as well as to respond to environmental information with external stakeholders (see Clause 4.4.3. , ISO 14001: 2004).

5. Establishment, dissemination and maintenance of environmental management system documentation (see article 4.4.4, ISO 14001: 2004).

6. Establish and implement document control activities being applied (see article 4.4.5, ISO 14001: 2004).

7. Establish and maintain operational control activities to ensure that procedures related to significant environmental aspects are implemented (see article 4.4.6, ISO 14001: 2004).

8 . Ensure emergency preparedness and response, establishment and testing of emergency preparedness and response (see article 4.4.7, ISO 14001: 2004).

Check: An assessment of the processes of the environmental management system (see clause 4.5, ISO 14001: 2004).

Monitoring and measurement of key features of their activities can have significant environmental impacts (see 4.5, ISO 14001: 2004).

2 . Assessment of compliance with legal requirements and other requirements and organization (see 4.5.2, ISO 14001: 2004)

3. Establish and maintain procedures for defining responsibilities and authority in identifying nonconformity, handling and investigating nonconformities, corrective actions and preventive action (see 4.5.3. , ISO 14001: 2004)

4. Records management, establishing and maintaining procedures for the identification, preservation and processing of environmental records (see 4.5.4, ISO 14001: 2004)

5. Conduct internal internal audits to determine compliance with ISO 14001 and environmental management systems (see 4.5.5, ISO 14001: 2004).

Action: Review and carry out activities to improve the environmental management system (see 4.6, ISO 14001: 2004).

first . Leaders must review the management of the environmental management system at appropriate stages (see 4.6.1, ISO 14001: 2004).

2 . Identify areas for improvement (see 4.6.2, ISO 14001: 2004).

3. The requirements related to "Action" if maintained continuously and frequently will help enterprises / organizations to continuously improve the environmental management system and common results in the environmental activities of the team. dozen.

The above is a summary of ISO 14001: 2004, if you would like to learn how to apply ISO 14001: 2004 into your business, please read the article "ISO 14001: 2004 - Environmental Management System ".