The ISO 14001 standard is currently under review, with changes expecting to be delivered before the end of 2015.
Organisations will then have a transition period of three years once the 2015 standard is published. In this time, they must adapt their environmental management system to meet the requirements of the new standard. The former version, ISO 14001:2004, and any associated certification, will be out of date.
The standard has been revised in parallel to ISO 9001:2015, and many of the changes reflect this, with key terms and definitions consistent across both standards.
The anticipated timeline for the execution of the revision is shown below:
With the standard due to be published before the end of 2015, organisations must soon start to adapt to accomodate the fundamental changes. These will be:
- Greater prominence of environmental management within the strategic planning processes
- Increased focus on leadership’s role within the EMS
- Addition of proactive initiatives to protect the environment from harm and degradation, with a requirement to improve environmental performance
- Lifecycle thinking, including sourcing and disposal, when considering environmental aspects
- Introduction of a communications strategy
Want to know what this revision will mean for your organisation?
Check out the Qualsys ISO 14001:2015 Revision articles on our blog or download our ISO 14001 Toolkit.
Image Credit: www.iso.org
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