ISO 14001 Certification & Environmental Management Systems (EMS) Consulting

ISO 14001 is the international Standard for Environmental Management. Achieving ISO 14001 Certification is an important milestone in an organization's history. Maintaining ISO 14001 Certification is an equally important goal for that organization.

ISO 14001 Certification is becoming more important for companies. Here's why.

• Customers are looking for suppliers who not only provide products or services at a competitive price but who also demonstrate their environmental stewardship.
• Financial institutions and shareholders place higher importance on companies achieving ISO 14001 Certification because they want their investment in those companies to be secure in terms of sustainability.

An Environmental Management System (EMS) is intended to enhance a company's environmental performance. The EMS documents the policies, objectives, and associated processes for the company.

The ISO 14001 auditor will use the company's EMS document as the guiding document for the scope of the audit as well as to assess the performance and effectiveness of the objectives and planned activities of the company.

One of the new requirements of the ISO 14001:2015 standard is the requirement for Life Cycle Thinking. Considering a company's environmental impact from the cradle to the grave can seem like a daunting task.

For each item or service that a company purchases, there could be many other companies that were involved upstream to the point where we acquired raw materials from nature.

And for each item or service that a company sells, there could be many other companies or consumers that will be involved downstream to where the product meets its end of life and is recycled, refurbished, reused, incinerated, or landfilled.

Understanding and considering these upstream and downstream processes are the Life Cycle Thinking that the ISO 14001:2015 standard involves. Depending on the company's level of desire for continuous improvement, this life cycle thinking could involve the formal method of Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) to drive a more quantitative estimate of potential environmental and economic savings.