Sustainability Reporting and ISO14001 Update
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The document summarizes the main changes between the ISO 14001:2015 standard and its previous version. Some key changes include a stronger emphasis on risk planning, removing specific requirements like targets and the management representative role, and aligning the standard's structure with other ISO management standards. Organizations will need to review their environmental management system against the new requirements and develop plans to adapt their programs and processes to meet the updated standard over a three year transition period.
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Sustainability Reporting and ISO14001 Update
- 1. Sustainability Reporting and ISO14001 Update Francisco Cordero & Laura Nelson Antea®Group Strategy and Trends
- 2. AGENDA ISO 14001 - 2015 2confidential and proprietary • Main Changes to the Standard • Operational Consequences • How to Prepare
- 3. ISO 14001 - 2015 Revision ISO 14001 -2015 3Antea USA, Inc. General • ISO standards are reviewed every 5 years. • Response to latest trends. • Compatible with other management system standards. • Impacts structure and content. • Integrated systems approach to sustainability. • Old and new standards cover same topics, with some important approach differences. • Bigger change than the revision of 2004. Review of your current system and some changes in your programs and processes.
- 4. Main Changes to the Standard ISO 14001 -2015 4Antea USA, Inc. Risk Planning • Establish a risk planning process. • Identify risks and opportunities. • the organization’s context, its interested parties, its compliance obligations, and its environmental aspects. • Define actions to address risks as an integral part of the EMS processes: • implement, control, evaluate, and review the effectiveness of these actions and processes. • Demonstrate how significant environmental risks and opportunities are managed within the supply chain. Risk planning is now an integral part of the standard.
- 5. Main Changes to the Standard ISO 14001 -2015 5Antea USA, Inc. Preventive action • No longer uses the term preventive action. • Uses risk planning concepts and entire EMS as a system of preventive actions. Environmental Targets • No longer refers to environmental targets. • Considers a target as a type of objective. Management Representative • Management representative has been dropped. • The duties and responsibilities may now be assigned either to one or more persons.
- 6. Main Changes to the Standard ISO 14001 -2015 6Antea USA, Inc. Procedures • The old standard required a wide range of procedures • Emergency preparedness and response is the only procedure required. Documented Information • Documents and records are now “documented information”. • “Documented information” must be controlled and maintained: • Documented information to be maintained = documents. • Documented information to be retained = records.
- 7. Main Changes to the Standard ISO 14001 -2015 7Antea USA, Inc. Scope of environmental management system • Old standard asked to "define and document the scope of the environmental management system" (4.1), but it didn't specified how. • The new standard clarifies how (4.3) by considering: • compliance obligations, corporate context, physical boundaries, products and services, activities and functions, and authorities and abilities when you define the EMS scope. • Include: all products, services, and activities that have significant environmental aspects.
- 8. Main Changes to the Standard ISO 14001 -2015 8Antea USA, Inc. Compliance Obligation • “Compliance obligation" replaces “legal requirements and other requirements to which the organization subscribes”. The meaning is the same. • Two kinds of compliance obligations: • Mandatory: include laws and regulations • Voluntary: include contractual commitments, community and industry standards, ethical codes of conduct, and good governance guidelines. • A voluntary obligation becomes mandatory once you decide to comply with it.
- 9. Main Changes to the Standard ISO 14001 -2015 9Antea USA, Inc. Evaluation of compliance • Clause on evaluation of compliance has been strengthened. • New standard specifies how compliance is evaluated and recorded. • Places the emphasis on being able to understand compliance status. Benefit: having an understanding provides the basis for identifying potential weaknesses and strengthening compliance processes.
- 10. Main Changes to the Standard ISO 14001 -2015 10Antea USA, Inc. Strategic Environmental Management • Environmental management in the strategic planning processes. • Understand organization's external and internal context. • Identify: • relevant interested parties (including supply chain and end users) • their needs and expectations (become compliance obligations). • Consider impact of activities on the environment and impact of the environment on our activities: • (e.g., climate change, raw material scarcities, energy management, etc.).
- 11. Main Changes to the Standard ISO 14001 -2015 11Antea USA, Inc. Protecting the Environment • Commit to proactive initiatives to protect the environment. Environmental Performance • Improve environmental performance vs management system. • Environmental aspects of design and procurement process. • Stronger emphasis for continual improvement. • New term ‘environmental condition’: • ‘long-term env. changes that can affect the activities, products and services, requiring adaptation’ (climate change adaptation, extreme weather conditions).
- 12. Main Changes to the Standard ISO 14001 -2015 12Antea USA, Inc. Lifecycle thinking • Life cycle considerations are now central. • Extends control and influence to the environmental impacts associated with product use and end-of-life treatment or disposal. • No requirement for formal Life Cycle Analysis • Demonstrate: • planned actions to address risks and opportunities • link between environmentally-driven issues and the business.
- 13. Main Changes to the Standard ISO 14001 -2015 13Antea USA, Inc. Leadership • New clause assigns specific responsibilities for leadership roles to promote environmental management within the organization. • Environmental policy: • Enhanced leadership commitment, • Expand the pollution prevention commitment to sustainable resource use, climate change mitigation and adaptation, protection of the environment, biodiversity, and restoration of natural habitat. • Top management more closely defined • Environmental / sustainability / CSR managers expected to have more interaction with top management.
- 14. Main Changes to the Standard ISO 14001 -2015 14Antea USA, Inc. Communication • Expanded expectations for transparency, in line with the GRI and ISO 26000. • Requirement to develop a communication strategy process for external reporting: • Consistent and reliable information • Mechanisms for submittal of EMS improvement recommendations • The decision to communicate externally is retained by the organization: • Consider requirements by regulatory agencies and expectations of other interested parties.
- 15. Main Changes to the Standard ISO 14001 -2015 15Antea USA, Inc. Common Structure • Perhaps the biggest difference between the old and the new standard is the structure. • New high level structure (HLS) with common framework to all management system standards (60% of requirements being common elements).
- 16. Operational Consequences ISO 14001 -2015 16Antea USA, Inc. General • Challenging for many organizations, especially those with an EMS that stands in isolation from other business activities. • Audit process to be less formulaic and will have a greater degree of subjectivity. • Need for better metrics. • External communication of performance – GRI, CDP, Stakeholders, Supply Chain Transition Period After the Revision • 3 year transition period after the revision has been published to migrate to the new edition of the standard.
- 17. Operational Consequences ISO 14001 -2015 17Antea USA, Inc. How to Prepare 1. Get a copy of the standard. 2. Ensure management team is aware that of the revision process 3. Review your EMS 4. Develop a gap assessment of your existing EMS against the requirements of the proposed new standard. 5. Start thinking how to adapt current EMS to meet the new standard. 6. Quantify the level of change required and start thinking about the action plan(s) required (training, etc.).
- 18. B E T T E R B U S I N E S S , B E T T E R W O R L D℠ Laura Nelson Consultant +1 315-552-9834 Laura.Nelson@anteagroup.com Francisco Cordero Consultant +1 404 414 4714 Francsico.Cordero@anteagroup.com
Editor's Notes
- All ISO standards are reviewed every five years to establish if a revision is required in order to keep it current and relevant for the marketplace. The new standard responds to the latest trends and ensure it is compatible with other management system standards. Revision will impact structure as well as content, both of which will elevate the EMS as a core component of an integrated systems approach to sustainability. Both old and new standards cover essentially the same topics. However, there are some important differences in approach. In general this revision is a bigger overall change than the revision of 2004 that will certainly require a review of your current system and it is likely require some changes in your programs and processes.
- Risk planning • The new ISO 14001 standard expects you to determine “risks and opportunities”. • Risk planning is now an integral part of the new ISO 14001 standard. • Establish a risk planning process, and use this process to identify risks and opportunities related to the organization’s unique context, its interested parties, its compliance obligations, and its environmental aspects. Then define actions to address all of these risks and opportunities. • The standard asks to make these actions an integral part of the EMS processes, and then to implement, control, evaluate, and review the effectiveness of these actions and processes. • There is a specific requirement to demonstrate how significant environmental risks and opportunities are managed within the supply chain.
- Preventive action • The new standard no longer uses the term preventive action. • Now is expected to use risk planning concepts and to think of the entire EMS as a system of preventive action. Environmental targets • The new standard no longer refers to environmental targets. • "The concept of “target” used in prior editions is captured within the definition of “environmental objective”. • The new standard considers a target as a type of objective. Management representative • The term “management representative” has been officially dropped. • The management duties and responsibilities that were previously assigned to the “management representative” may now be assigned either to one or more persons
- Procedures • The old ISO 14001 standard asked organizations to establish a wide range of procedures o (environmental aspects, a legal requirements management, awareness, communications, documents, operational, emergency preparedness and response, monitoring and measurement, compliance evaluation, nonconformity management, record keeping, and an audit procedure). • Now, an emergency preparedness and response procedure in section 8.2, is the only procedure required. Documented information • The new standard eliminated the distinction between documents and records. Now they're both referred to as “documented information”. • The term documented information refers to information that must be controlled and maintained. The term documented information implicitly refers to controlling and maintaining of information and its supporting medium. • Whenever the new standard refers to documented information and asks to maintain this information, it is talking about what used to be referred to as documents, and whenever it asks you to retain this information, it is talking about what used to be called records.
- Scope of environmental management system • The old standard asked to "define and document the scope of its environmental management system" (4.1), but it didn't say anything about how this should be done. • The new standard clarifies how this ought to be done (4.3) by considering: compliance obligations, corporate context, physical boundaries, products and services, activities and functions, and authorities and abilities when you define the EMS scope. • It asks to include: all products, services, and activities that have significant environmental aspects.
- Compliance obligation • The term "compliance obligation" replaced the phrase: “legal requirements and other requirements to which the organization subscribes”. The meaning is the same. • There are two kinds of compliance obligations: mandatory and voluntary: o Mandatory compliance obligations include laws and regulations o Voluntary compliance obligations include contractual commitments, community and industry standards, ethical codes of conduct, and good governance guidelines. A voluntary obligation becomes mandatory once you decide to comply with it.
- Evaluation of compliance • The clause on evaluation of compliance has been strengthened – previously there was a requirement to evaluate compliance, but the new Standard specifies exactly how compliance is evaluated and recorded. • Rather than expecting organizations to comply with environmental legislation, the new version places the emphasis on being able to understand compliance status. • Benefit: having an understanding provides the basis for identifying potential weaknesses and strengthening compliance processes.
- Strategic Environmental Management - HERE WE CAN GIVE THE EXAMPLE OF WATER STEWARDSHIP PLANNING FOR EXAMPLE • Increase prominence of environmental management within the organization’s strategic planning processes. • Identify and leverage opportunities for the benefit of both the organization and the environment. • Understand your organization's external context and its internal context before you establish the EMS. • Identify and understand the external issues and the external environmental conditions that could influence your organization's EMS and the results that it intends to achieve. • Identify the interested parties that are relevant to your EMS and identify their needs and expectations. Study these needs and expectations and to figure out which ones have become compliance obligations. • Consider the needs and expectations of interested parties, including supply chain and end users (i.e., stakeholder engagement). • Organizations will not only consider the impact of their activities on the environment, but also the impact of the environment on their activities (e.g., including anticipated impacts from climate change, raw material scarcities, energy management, etc.). • Benefits: o EMS will be able to manage all of influences (internal and external). o Once company context is understood, this knowledge will help define the EMS and the challenges it must deal with.
- Protecting the environment - WE HAVE A LOT TO OFFER HERE, MAYBE FOCUS ON JUST ONE? • Addition of proactive initiatives to protect the environment from harm and degradation, such as sustainable resource use and climate change mitigation • The expectation on organizations has been expanded to commit to proactive initiatives to protect the environment from harm and degradation, consistent with the context of the organization. • The revised text does not define ‘protect the environment’ but it notes that it can include prevention of pollution, sustainable resource use, climate change mitigation and adaptation, protection of biodiversity and ecosystems, etc. Environmental performance - HERE’S WHERE THE PROOF COMES IN: GETTING THE NUMBERS TO SHOW TO THE AUDITORS. THIS IS LIKELY TO BE THE BIT THEY CARE ABOUT MOST • Shift towards improving environmental performance rather than improving the management system. • Consistent with the organization’s policy commitments the organization would, as applicable, reduce emissions, effluents and waste to levels set by the organization. • Changes address the value chain perspective more clearly through the identification and evaluation of environmental aspects related to the design and procurement process. • There is a stronger emphasis on the requirement for continual improvement, with a specific clause in place, which requires the organization to ‘continually improve the suitability, adequacy and effectiveness of the environmental management system to enhance its environmental performance as set by top management in line with the environmental policy’). • The revision introduces the term ‘environmental condition’, which it defines as ‘long-term environmental changes that can affect the organization’s activities, products and services, requiring adaptation’, which aims to start getting organizations to think about the environment’s impact on them, rather than the impact they have on the environment (a good example would be climate change adaptation, where an organization might need to review its operations in areas that are becoming or likely to become more prone to flooding or higher temperatures. Another example could be extreme weather conditions affecting crops that go into a company’s food product, so they may need to look at alternative suppliers or even alternative products). • Benefits: o Good environmental performance management will reduce the risk of regulatory fines and can often identify opportunities to save money. o The emphasis on supply chain and stakeholder engagement will provide expanded opportunities for reducing environmental impacts from the organization’s broader footprint.
- Lifecycle thinking • Life cycle considerations were largely ignored by the old standard. Now they're central. • Organizations will need to extend its control and influence to the environmental impacts associated with product use and end-of-life treatment or disposal. This does not imply a requirement to do a life cycle assessment. • No requirement for formal Life Cycle Analysis • Organization will need to show that it has planned actions to address environmental risks and opportunities and made the link between environmentally-driven issues and how they relate to the business, and how the interfaces with the business are managed. • ISO 14001 now expects you to use a life cycle perspective to “identify the environmental aspects and associated environmental impacts of its activities, products and services that it can control and those that it can influence” (section 6.1.2).
- Leadership • Greater focus on leadership by new clause that assigns specific responsibilities for those in leadership roles to promote environmental management within the organization. • Changes associated with the environmental policy requiring enhanced leadership commitment, including expanding the pollution prevention commitment to also include sustainable resource use, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and protection of the environment, biodiversity and restoration of natural habitat. • Top management has been more closely defined. Environmental / sustainability / CSR managers will be expected to have more interaction with top management. • Benefits: o Greater involvement in the management system by the leadership team will ensure the whole organization will be motivated towards the organizations goals and objectives. o Ensure that environmental management is now completely integrated and aligned with the business strategies of the organization. o Optimizing the performance of the EMS making it more sustainable. o Ensure that objectives and targets are consistent with the organization’s strategic direction and that the EMS requirements are incorporated into business processes. o Make the EMS more strategic and integrated into the organization’s decision-making
- Communication • Expanded expectations for transparency, in line with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and ISO 26000, include the requirement to develop a communication strategy procedure for external reporting of environmental performance. • This includes a requirement on communicating consistent and reliable information, and establishing mechanisms for persons working under the organization's control to make suggestions on improving the environmental management system. • The decision to communicate externally is retained by the organization but the decision needs to take into account information reporting required by regulatory agencies and the expectations of other interested parties.
- Common structure • Perhaps the biggest difference between the old and the new standard is the structure. The revised standard will follow a common structure based on Annex SL – the new high level structure (HLS) that brings a common framework to all management system standards with 60% of requirements being common elements - with other management system standards such as ISO 9001. • Benefits: A common structure should make it easier for organizations to implement multiple standards because they will all share the same basic language and the same basic requirements. This makes it easier, cheaper and quicker for those companies who use more than one standard, not to mention helping out the auditors.
- Operational consequences (15 min) • There are substantial changes from the current version of ISO 14001 that will be challenging for many organizations, especially those which currently operate Environmental Management Systems (EMS) that stand in isolation from other business activities. • Many companies use ISO 14001 because it is a compliance issue and, while the EMS might work, it may be slightly side-lined, e.g. not really integrated with the budget cycle or environmental considerations not part of the core company strategy. • A big challenge will be how internal auditors cope with the new requirements - they will need a much greater understanding of the organization and business processes • Some certification auditors will have to be more imaginative about how they assess organizations, considering the effectiveness of the approach of the EMS for the company. • This means that the audit process is likely to be less formulaic and will have a greater degree of subjectivity. Transition period after the revision • Organizations are granted a three-year transition period after the revision has been published to migrate their environmental management system to the new edition of the standard. • After this transition period, companies that opt for third party certification will have to seek certification to the new version of the standard.
- SPEAKER NOTES: Benefits a) It will require the organization to more pro-actively consider the need for external reporting on environmental issues and to demonstrate much greater control on how it uses and manages environmental data. b) Bringing the Environment and Continuous Improvement into the heart of your business c) With the new standard in place, organizations will find it easier to incorporate their environmental management system into the core business processes and gain greater business benefits. d) The changes will make ISO 14001 more outward-looking, more strategic and more important for businesses by aligning environmental management with an organization’s priorities, strategy and decision-making by integrating them with other business requirements and embedding environmental governance into its overall management system, thereby achieving both environmental and economic goals. e) There has been a push in the last decade by consumers, for companies to adopt better internal controls, making the incorporation of ISO 14001 a smart approach for the long term viability of businesses. This can provide them with a competitive advantage against companies that do not adopt the standard. This in turn can have a positive impact on a company’s asset value. It can lead to improved public perceptions of the business, placing them in a better position to operate in the international marketplace. f) The use of ISO 14001 can demonstrate an innovative and forward thinking approach to customers and prospective employees. It can increase a business’ access to new customers and business partners. In some markets it can potentially reduce public liability insurance costs. Practitioners will be able to use it to really add value to their organization and demonstrate the business case behind ISO 14001. The new standard pushes the links into organizational strategy and top management much more through the new clause on Leadership & Commitment, requiring environment management to be integrated into the core organizational process.