Benefits of ISO 14001

What it is

ISO14000 is a series of international standards that provides a framework for developing your Environment Management System (EMS), which should include Policies, Procedures, Task-lists, Guidance documents, Training and Awareness presentations, etc.

The best known standard in the series is ISO14001, which states what is actually required for an effective EMS. This is the standard against which your organisation can be certificated by an external body. ISO14001 applies to those aspects of the environment over which your organisation has control and therefore can be reasonably expected to influence by your actions.

Benefits for Your Organisation

• Demonstrates your organisation's compliance with legal requirements and accepted best practice to an internationally recognised standard.
  
  
• Minimises the likely number of visits from regulatory agencies and the potential loss of management time and disruption to production.
  
  
• Raises awareness amongst your employees (and those with whom you do business) of environmental issues that are increasingly prominent in the media.
  
  
• Improvements in your working environment that can have a positive impact on the morale of your staff and even on recruitment and retention.
  
  
• Helps your management and employees to avoid environmentally damaging decisions and actions.
  
  
• Makes you better prepared and able to respond more quickly should incidents occur that might be environmentally damaging. This can also positively benefit your organisation's safety performance.
  
  
• Potentially improve your processes and operations as you review them under the requirements of environmental responsibility.
  
  
• Demonstrates to your business partners, regulatory agencies and the community at large that your organisation takes its social responsibilities seriously, particularly in regard to the environment, thus significantly enhancing your reputation.
  
  
• Increasingly competitive as you are able to demonstrate environmental accountability when negotiating contracts etc.
  
  
• Potentially reduce your costs in areas such as conservation of resources, improved efficiencies, minimising waste disposal (particularly of a hazardous nature), reduced insurance premiums, etc.
  
  
• Reduce your risk of financial penalties.
  
  
• Benefit from highlighting your environmental performance in your marketing collateral and policies.
  
  

The extent to which most of these benefits can be realised depends on the genuine commitment of your organisation's management to their environmental responsibility.

We offer a range of environmental training courses to support our services. In particular, see the overviews for:

• Environmental Awareness
• Introduction to Environmental Management Systems
• Internal Environmental Management System Auditing