The environmental management systems standards emergence has become a response to the society growing interest in environmental problems. This interest appearing can be traced back to 1972, when the United Nations organized an environmental conference in Stockholm, where the United Nations Environment Program was launched. These initiatives led to the World Commission on Environment, the Montreal Protocol development and establishment and the Basel Convention adoption.
After the ISO 9000 standards implementation describing the quality management system model, it became apparent that the PDCA cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act) can be applied to environmental management systems. Since the 70s of the XX century, in the world there is an increasing attention to the importance of the impact of society on the environment. In 1992, the British Standards Institute proposed the national standard for environmental management BS 7750 as the basis for the international standard development. The first version of the international standard ISO 14001 was published in 1996. In 2004, a new version of the ISO 14001 standard was released.
The ISO 14001 standard does not offer specific technological approaches and methods for managing the environmental impact, it does not offer specific environmental indicators, it gives general requirements to the environmental management system. The ISO 14001 purpose is to provide the basis for an integrated strategic approach to the organization's environmental policy, plans and the organization's actions. The environmental management system can be certified for compliance with the ISO 14001 standard requirements. Although such certification is voluntary, such an assessment of the environmental management system by an independent third party may be required by consumers.
The basic requirements of ISO 14001: 2004 can be grouped as follows:
Requirements ISO 14001 can be implemented in addition to the ISO 9001 requirements, OHSAS 18001 and the requirements of other standards. Currently, there is a tendency to integrate management systems. The Russian Register offers to pass the integrated management system certification for compliance with several standards at the same time - this will allow optimizing the certification costs and getting a more comprehensive management system assessment.
The ISO 14001 standard is applicable to almost any organization, including organizations of the public sector of the economy. Recently, the standard requirements are increasingly being introduced not only in industrial, transport, construction organizations, but also in service organizations - including organizations whose activities are based solely on office work.
In September 2015, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) adopted the ISO 9001 standard fifth edition and the ISO 14001 standard third edition. The revised documents have a number of significant differences from previous and other organizations whose management systems have already been certified or such certificates are still being planned, to analyze how the current system meets the new requirements and what needs to be done to ensure that such compliance is achieved.
In order for the transition process to be most effective for all participants, a three-year transition period is envisaged, during which a consistent and conscious transition to new versions of standards should take place. The organization has the right to determine the speed and stages of the transition.
Therefore, before implementing the changes in accordance with the requirements, to adequately identify all the necessary resources for the transition, including temporary. Taking into account the IAF international accreditation forum requirements, if during this three-year period the Certification Body will issue a certificate for compliance with the ISO 9001: 2008 and / or ISO 14001: 2004 requirements, then the expiry date of such certificate will be limited to the date of the end of the transition period (15.09 .2018). For example, if an organization receives a certificate on 14.01.2016 for compliance with the ISO 9001: 2008 and / or ISO 14001 requirements, then the deadline for this certificate will be 15/09/2018.
The organization's management systems compliance confirmation with the requirements of ISO 9001: 2015 and / or ISO 14001: 2015 is possible:
When assessing compliance of MS with new requirements during a planned inspection or recertification audit, it may be necessary to increase the time of verification compared to the standard one. During this audit, the organization should demonstrate that all areas of discrepancies between the existing MS with the requirements of the new version, as well as the necessary measures to eliminate these discrepancies are clearly identified and implemented, and the current SM is effective. This is a prerequisite for the recommendation to issue a certificate of compliance with requirements of ISO 9001: 2015 and / or ISO 14001: 2015. If, during the audit, sufficient evidence is not obtained to recommend the issuance of a QMS compliance certificate to ISO 9001: 2015 and / or ISO 14001: 2015, the period for the implementation of corrective actions cannot exceed the duration of the transition period.
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