Revision of ISO 14001 – New Standard ISO 14001:2015
To stay relevant and match the growing drive of environmental protection, ISO has released the new ISO 9001:2015 on 15th September 2015.
Important changes to ISO 14001 Standards with the new version ISO 14001:2015
Some of the key changes in the new ISO 14001 version 2015 are:
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Use of a High level Structure:
The new ISO 14001 2015 version has a common higher-level structure (Annex SL) with the intent to simplify integration with other ISO management system standards.
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More onus on leadership:
The new version puts Top management accountable for the effectiveness of the Environmental Management System. There is a necessity for the Top Management to integrate the Environmental Management System with the strategic direction of the organization apart from provisioning of resources and promoting continual improvement.
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Risk Management:
The ISO 14001 2015 version places requirement of establishing a risk management process where it is required to identify risks and opportunities related to your organization’s context, its interested parties, its compliance obligations, and its environmental aspects. After the identification of risk, the actions to address these risks & opportunities must be defined and integrated with the EMS processes.
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Life cycle Perspective:
The new ISO 14001 update 2015 requires that the consideration of environmental impacts throughout the value chain and consideration of life cycle issues in each stage.
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Environmental “Target” term included in “Environmental Objective”:
The term “target” used in the previous editions of this ISO 14001 standard is included within the term “environmental objective”.
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No Preventive action:
The new ISO 14001 standard does not contain the term preventive action. Preventive action thinking is to be used in the context of the organization and risk management. This is done with the thinking that the whole purpose of an environmental management system is to act as a preventive tool and a separate preventive action would only confuse and duplicate the efforts.
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Rethinking impact:
The revision introduces the term ‘environmental condition’, which it defines as ‘long-term environmental changes that can affect the organisation’s activities, products and services, requiring adaptation’. This aim is to getting organisations thinking about the environment’s impact on them, rather than the impact they have on the environment, which is considered a significant weakness of the current version of ISO 14001.
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Compliance obligations instead of legal and other requirements:
A new term called "compliance obligation" has been introduced and replaces with the old phrase: “legal requirements and other requirements to which the organization subscribes”. Compliance obligations can be mandatory compliance obligations (required by laws and regulations) and/or voluntary compliance obligations (like industry standard, contractual commitments, etc.)
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Continual Improvement:
An exclusive clause on Continual Improvement is included in the new ISO 14001 2015 version which serves as a catalyst to enable us to keep making continual improvements in relation to the environmental management system.
ISO 14001 Family of Standards
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ISO 14004, Environmental management systems — General guidelines on principles, systems and support techniques
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ISO 14006, Environmental management systems — Guidelines for incorporating eco-design
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ISO 14031, Environmental management — Environmental performance evaluation — Guidelines
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ISO 14044, Environmental management — Life cycle assessment — Requirements and guidelines
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ISO 14063, Environmental management — Environmental communication — Guidelines and examples
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