Environmental Aspects In ISO 14001 Standards EMS

Environmental Aspects In ISO 14001 Standards EMS

First make lists of the environmental aspects (issues) that are relevant to the business. The environmental review mentioned earlier should provide most of this information and the Annex to ISO 14001 provides guidance on the format for doing this.

Consider the inputs, outputs and processes/activities of the business in relation to;

a) emissions to air

b) releases to water

c) waste management

d) contamination of land

e) use of raw materials and natural resources

f) other local environmental and community issues

Consider both site (direct) and offsite (ie. indirect) aspects that you control or have influence over (such as suppliers) and in relation to normal operations, shut-down and start-up conditions and reasonably foreseeable and emergencies situations A simple written procedure is then required to determine which of the aspects identified are really or probably significant (important) and should therefore be managed by the EMS. This process which is similar to health and safety risk assessment ranks the aspects by order of importance and the significant aspects identified are then the core of the environmental management system.

There are various methods of determining significance but most are based on the principle of attributing a relative value for the environmental hazard or potential to cause harm (eg. on a scale of 1- 5) and the risk or likelihood of occurrence (eg. on a scale of 1-5). The relative significance is then determined by multiplying the hazard by the risk. (eg. max score of 25). An arbitrary but cautious threshold value is then set above which environmental aspects are considered to be significant. This threshold can be determined by a common sense consideration of the aspects identified.