The document provides an overview of ISO 14001:2015 for environmental management systems. It describes the main clauses of the standard including leadership, planning, support, operations, performance evaluation, and improvement. Key aspects covered include establishing the context and scope of the EMS, determining significant environmental aspects and compliance obligations, setting objectives and plans to achieve them, ensuring competence and awareness, and controlling documented information. The aim is to help organizations implement an EMS to improve environmental performance and meet compliance requirements.

1. UNDERSTANDING ISO 14001:2015
ANKIT GOSWAMI
QUALITY ASSURANCE GROUP
FUJITSU CONSULTING INDIA

2. CONTENTS OF PRESENTATION
• Introduction
• What is EMS?
• Aim of EMS
• PDCA cycle
• Overview of various clauses
• Scope of ISO 14001:2015
• Few Important definitions from ISO 14001:2015
• All Clauses in Detail( Clause 4- Clause 10)

3. INTRODUCTION
• What is the need of this standard in today’s scenario of rapid development?

4. WHAT IS EMS?
EMS stands for the environmental management system that consist of the various
processes and compliance obligations that an organization needs to comply to ensure
sustainable development and Improved EnvironmentalPerformance.

5. AIM OF EMS
Protect
Mitigate
Assist
Enhance
Control
Achieve
Communicate

6. PDCA CYCLE
Leadership
Plan
Do
Check
Act
Clause 4,6
Clause 5
Clause 9
Clause 10 Clause 7,8

7. ISO14001:2015 CLAUSES
Leadership
•Scope
•Normative references
•Terms and Conditions
•Context of the organization .
•Planning
•Support
•Operation
•Performance evaluation
•Improvement

8. SCOPE OF ISO 14001:2015
• This standard helps organizations to implement EMS to improve
environmental performance.
• Intended outcome of EMS:
Improved environmental performance
Fulfillment of compliance obligation
Achieving environmental objectives
• This is applicable across all organization regardless of size and
complexity.

9. FEW IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS FROM ISO
14001:2015
• What is compliance obligation?
Legal requirements that an organization needs to comply.
e.g. Organization needs to comply with Environment protection Act 1986.
• What is Policy?
Intention or direction of an organization, formally expressed by its top management.
e.g. Bench Policy, Travel Policy etc.
• What is risk?
Effect of uncertainty.
Effect- Deviation from expected that could be positive or negative.
Uncertainty- A state that lacks information, its likelihood and occurrence.

10. CLAUSE 4:CONTEXT OF THE ORGANIZATION
• 4.1- Understanding the organization
and its context
• 4.2- Understanding the needs and
expectations of the interested parties
• 4.3- Determine the scope of the EMS

11. UNDERSTANDING THE ORGANIZATION AND ITS
CONTEXT
• Organization shall determine the External and Internal factors that can effect the
implementation of EMS.
• Creating an EMS Manual covering the various aspects of organization core
business activities and day to day activities in context of environment

12. UNDERSTANDING THE NEEDS AND EXPECTATIONS OF
INTERESTED PARTIES
• Organization shall determine those parties that are
relevant to the EMS e.g. Vendors, Top Management,
Clients , Regulatory bodies, Corp. Functions etc.
• Which of these requirements become compliance
obligation?
• Compliance obligation stands for the legal requirements
that organization has to comply and other requirements
that an organization has chosen to comply.
• E.g. Environment Protection Act, 1986 is an Act of
parliament of India, that organization has to comply with

13. DETERMINING SCOPE OF THE EMS
When determining the scope of EMS the organization shall
consider:
• Internal and External issues w.r.t. EMS( Authorized
Vendor for the e-waste disposal
• Compliance Obligation(Legal Requirement)
• Organizational units e.g. Delivery Unit, Consulting Unit
etc.
• Functions e.g. HR department, Admin Department
• Physical Boundaries
• Activities, Products and Services e.g. An Automobile
Organization manufactures Car and also provides after
sales service to its customers. In this scenario
manufacturing is the activity, Car is a product and After
Sales Service is the service provided by the
organization
• Authority and Ability to exercise control and
influence.(Till what extent organization can control its
various products and services to improve
environmental performance)

14. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
• Organization shall Establish, Implement, Maintain and Continually Improve Environment Management System
• Organization establish EMS by setting up policies and processes that will be followed across the organization. e.g.
Safety & Security Process will make sure that all the Safety & Security related activities(e.g. Security Check at the gate)
are happening in controlled and documented Manner.
• Implementation is doing all the activities as per the processes to improve environmental performance as per the
objectives formed by the top management
• Maintaining means to make sure EMS is producing the desired output( All process and Artifacts shall be reviewed at
regular intervals to make them comply with the current business applicability)
• Continual Improvement of the EMS to continually improve the environmental performance

15. CLAUSE5:LEADERSHIP
• Leadership and Commitment
• Environment Policy
• Organizational role, responsibility and authority

16. LEADERSHIP AND COMMITMENT
Top management shall demonstrate Leadership and Commitment by:
• taking accountability for effectiveness of EMS i.e. taking accountability for all aspects of EMS
• Ensuring Environmental policy and objectives are established and are inline with the strategic direction and context of the organization
 Strategic direction of an Automobile Industry is to produce its end product by using eco-friendly measures
• Integrate EMS into the business processes
 Change Management, Risk Management are few examples of business processes.
• Ensuring required resources are available for the implementation of EMS
 People, Infrastructure and Software constitutes resources

17. LEADERSHIP AND COMMITMENT
• Communicating:
 Importance of effective environmental management( Can be part of EMS Manual)
 Importance of conforming to EMS Requirements(Can be part of EMS Manual)
• Ensuring EMS is producing its intended outcome(Internal Auditing)
• Directing/Supporting persons to contribute to the effectiveness of EMS(Effective Leadership)
• Promoting Continual Improvement
• Supporting Mangers/Leads/Heads or other management roles to demonstrate Leadership w.r.t. EMS

18. ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
Organization shall establish, implement and maintain an Environmental Policy keeping in mind:
• It should be relevant to the context of the organization
• Provides a framework for setting up environmental objectives
• Includes a commitment for fulfillment of compliance obligation
• Includes a commitment for protecting the environment
• Includes a commitment for continual improvement of EMS
• Implementing above points will provide an appropriate structure to the Policy Statement
• Environmental Policy can be showcased at the suitable places in the organization to increase environmental awareness

19. ORGANIZATIONAL ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES
AND AUTHORITIES
Organization shall identify roles and responsibilities for
the Implementation of the EMS to ensure:
• Fulfillment of the requirements of this particular
standard
• Reporting of performance of EMS to the top
management
• Reporting can include areas like Escalation
Management, Risk Management, Non Compliance
etc.

20. CLAUSE 6:PLANNING
• Actions to reduce risks and opportunities
 General
 Environmental aspects
 Compliance obligations
 Planning action
• Environmental objectives and planning to achieve them
 Environmental objectives
 Planning actions to achieve environmental objectives

21. CLAUSE 6.1.1 GENERAL
• Organization shall Establish, Implement and maintain the processes for EMS.
 e.g. Admin process for all Admin related activities like day to day cleaning activities, Disposing organic waste Activity
• When planning for EMS the organization shall consider:
 Requirement from Clause 4.1 to Clause 4.3
 Determine Risk and Opportunities from Clause 4.1,Clause 4.2, Clause 6.1.2 and Clause 6.1.3
• This will ensure:
 EMS achieve its Intended Outcome
 To Mitigate the effect of external environmental conditions to affect the organization
 Continual Improvement
• Organization shall determine potential emergency situations to effect the organization
• E.g. Fire is a common potential emergency situation in Petroleum Industries

22. ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS
• Organization shall capture Environmental Aspects related to its products and service offerings.
• While determining environmental aspects the organization shall take into consideration:
 Change in existing services or any new service
 E.g. Organization has decided to add new service of providing cloud services across the globe
 Change in existing products or any new product
 Abnormal Conditions
 E.g. An organization falls into the earthquake prone area
 Emergency Situation
 E.g. Fire Emergency Situation

23. CONTD…
• Organization shall find the significant environmental aspects using the established criteria
 The established criteria should be quantitative
 What that means, the organization should be able to justify significant environmental aspects using numbers
E.g. Consider the following aspect for the Sewage Treatment Plant
In the below table Impact and Likelihood has been calculated as per the organizational standards.
Aspect Impact Likelihood Severity
Electricity
Consumption
Low High Medium

24. COMPLIANCE OBLIGATIONS
• Organization shall determine its compliance obligations
• Compliance obligations consist of the legal requirements and other
has decided to comply Internally e.g. An organization in India has to
Air Pollution Control Act of 1955(Legal Requirements), All
need to show PUC of their vehicle at the gate entrance(Other
• Determine how compliance obligations will apply to the organization
 e.g. Currently Diesel Storage for the generator is 50 Liters and the
Storage should not be more than 20 Liters. In this particular
diesel storage)
• Take compliance obligation into the account while Establishing,
continually Improving EMS
• Compliance Obligation may lead to risks and opportunities
 e.g. An organization coming into Tsunami Prone area is an risk to

25. PLANNING ACTION
• Organization shall plan actions to address its:
 Significant Aspects
 e.g. lets say general cleanliness is poor in a manufacturing unit of the organization that is
causing various diseases in the campus which makes it a significant aspect( Note: Use
Quantitative Measures to find out significant environmental aspects)
 Now planning actions in this case means to figure out start date and end date of all actions
items that will generate from this significant environmental Aspects e.g. Giving cleanliness
awareness session to the employees
 Compliance Obligation
 Action plan to address compliance obligation will include action items like sending across
compliance awareness mailer to all the stakeholders, documentation of compliance
obligation, resolving conflicts with the local bodies w.r.t. environment as per legal
requirements
 Risk & Opportunities
 Risk & Opportunities come from the compliance obligations or environmental aspects
 E.g. Organization disposing CFL Tubes in an uncontrolled manner is an risk
 Organization can turn this risk into opportunity by disposing CFL Tubes by the Authorized
vendor and have some financial benefits

26. ENVIRONMENTAL OBJECTIVES
• Organization shall form its Environmental objectives taking Compliance Obligation, Environmental
Aspects, Risk and Opportunities into account.
• Organization shall ensure its Environmental objectives are measureable, monitored, communicated,
Updated and inline with the Environmental Objectives.
• E.g. An organization has an average total electricity bill of $10000 and it forms an objective of
reducing it to $8000 for financial and environmental benefits. Environmental objectives should be
Quantitative in nature to make sure it is measurable and be monitored.

27. PLANNING ACTIONS TO ACHIEVE
ENVIRONMENTAL OBJECTIVES
• When planning to achieve environmental objectives the organization shall determine:
 What will be done?
 e.g. Organization decided to reduce its water consumption per employee by 10% by the end of fiscal year.
 Now action items related to this can be:
 Awareness session among the employees to save the water
 Inhouse recycling of water using treatment plant
 What resources are required?
 E.g. Administration Team will be responsible for all the action items
 Who will be responsible?
 E.g. Administration Team’s Manager will be responsible for the completion of all the actions items on time as per the applicability.
 When it will be completed?
 How the results will be evaluated?
 E.g. Reduction in water consumption of the organization can be measured as per water bills charged by local municipal corporation

28. CLAUSE 7: SUPPORT
• Resources
• Competence
• Awareness
• Communication
 General
 Internal Communication
 External Communication
• Documented Information
 General
 Creating and Updating
 Control of Documented Information

29. RESOURCES
• The organization shall determine the resources required for the establishment,
implementation, maintenance and continual Improvement of the EMS.
 e.g. In IT organizations Quality Team, Admin Team, Procurement Team, Finance
Team and the HR Team are the main stakeholders for the implementation of the EMS
though many other stakeholders Interact with them.

30. COMPETENCE
• Competence should be based upon education, training and experience.
E.g. For checking effectiveness of its EMS, An organization may hire lead Auditor in ISO 14001:2015 to lead the team of
EMS Auditors
• Determine training needs w.r.t. its Environmental Aspects and EMS
 e.g. Group Heads of all the corporate departments needs to do Lead Auditor course in ISO 14001:2015
Evaluate the effectiveness of actions taken and take appropriate actions to have required competency for the
Implementation of the EMS

31. AWARENESS
• Organization shall ensure that its employees are aware of:
 Organizational Policy
 Environmental Aspects and their Impacts
 Their contribution towards EMS
 This can be achieved through workshops or mandatory online trainings on EMS

32. COMMUNICATION: GENERAL
• Organization shall Establish, Implement and Maintain the communication processes taking into the account its
compliance obligation including:
 What to communicate
 When to communicate
 Whom to communicate
 How to communicate
 Communication is a medium through which organization provide or obtain information
 This Information can be related to:
 Significant environmental Aspects
 Environmental Performance
 Compliance Obligation
 Recommendations for the continual improvement

33. INTERNAL COMMUNICATION
Organization shall communicate any
change in the EMS internally at all
levels and functions across the
organization.
1
The Internal communication process shall
enable people doing work under the
organization control to contribute to the
continual Improvement e.g. All employees of
the organization can raise Change Request
at any point of time to trigger process
changes in the EMS as per the applicability.
2

34. EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION
• Organization shall externally communicate information related to the EMS as per
the established communication processes and as required by its compliance
obligation
External communication includes external parties like customers, potential
customers, suppliers, investors and relevant shareholders
E.g. External Communication may include New Environmental Policy or Change
in compliance obligation of the organization

35. DOCUMENTATION: GENERAL
• OrganizationEMS shall include:
 Documented Informationas required by this standard
 As per the standardfollowing documentedinformation is required:
1. Scope of EMS(Clause 4.3)
2. Environmentalpolicy(Clause 5.2)
3. Environmentalaspects(Clause6.1.2)
4. Compliance obligations(Clause 6.1.3)
5. Environmentalobjectives(Clause 6.2.1)
6. Competence(Clause7.2)
7. CommunicationEvidence(Clause7.5.1)

36. CONTD..
 Extent of the documentation required depends upon factors like:
Products and Services of the organization
 e.g. Big IT Giants like IBM providing services in many domain require more documentation to document the evidence of
appropriate working of its processes whereas A small product based company making an Anti-Virus Software require less
documentation to document the evidence of appropriate working of its processes
Size and Complexity of organization
The need to demonstrate fulfillment of its compliance obligation
Competence of people doing work under the organization

37. CREATING AND UPDATING
• While documenting organization shall ensure:
 Identification and Description(e.g. Title, Release Date, Author)
 This is to signify that for all processes and template that will be used for the implementation of EMS, organization need to maintain the log of the revision
history to track the changes made in processes and templates
 Format and Media
 Many IT organizations have standard word or excel templates and in many cases all processes and templates are placed on a common server so that it is
available to use anytime for all the stakeholders.
 Renewal and Approval for the suitability and adequacy
 This is to ensure that all changes in processes and templates occur in controlled manner

38. CONTROL OF DOCUMENTED INFORMATION
• Organizationshall Implement control of documented information:
 To ensure it is available and suitable to use whenever required
 E.g. If a template used for the implementation of the EMS has been updated, the concerned stakeholders should be able to find the latest template
 To ensure it is adequately protected
 E.g. Cover page of the excel template should be password protected so that no one except the admin can change the revision history of the template
 To ensure control of documented Informationorganization shall address following activities:
 Distribution of the document
 E.g. Copyright protection for the templates
 Access
 E.g. Management Audit Report can only be accessed by top management and the Auditors
 Retrieval(Backup)
 Use
 This signifies that organization should have controls in place to avoid wrong use of the template e.g. Cover page should be password protected.

39. CLAUSE 8: OPERATION
• Operational planning and control
• Emergency preparedness and response

40. OPERATIONAL PLANNING AND CONTROL
• Organizationshall Establish, Implement, Control and Maintain the processes requiredfor the EMS by:
 Establishing the operatingcriteria e.g. If an organization decided to procureIT assets, this can be the operating criteria for the procurement process
 Implementingcontrol of the processes, in accordance with the operating criteria
 E.g. Disposal of waste generated through Sewage Treatment Plant(STP).In this example STP is an engineeringcontrol in waste disposal process.
 The organization shall control planned changes and review the consequences of unintended changes
 E.g. Lets say organization establishes a waste disposal process, Now any change in this process shall go through proper change request cycle
 The organization shall Control or Influence the outsourced process
 Example of outsourced process is purchase process which involves third party stakeholders or vendors

41. CONTD…
• While procuring products or services, the organization shall:
 establish controls as per the requirement of the EMS
 There are basically three types of controls:
 Visual Controls(Dashboard, Checklist, Scorecards etc.)
 Operating Controls( Involves various conditions e.g. If a vendor does not come after 3 months for e-waste disposal, write
mail to the vendor for date settlement)
 Embedded Controls( Engineering Controls as explained earlier)
 Find out the environmental requirements for the purchase of products and services
 Environmental Requirements involves the following:
 Transportation
 End of life Treatment
 Final Disposal

42. CONTD…
• Communicate these requirements to the external stakeholders or vendors
• Communication can be done via email and shall be documented as per the
Clause 7.5.1
• Considering the need of giving awareness about the environmental impacts of the
Transportation or End of Delivery, End of Cycle Treatment and Disposal of
products and services provided by the vendor
• This cam be done through free online training or Face to Face Meetings

43. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
• Monitoring, measurement, analysis and evaluation
General
Evaluation of compliance
• Internal audit
 General
 Internal audit programme
Management review

44. MONITORING, MEASUREMENT, ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION:
GENERAL
• Organization shall determine what needs to be measured, monitored, analyze and evaluate the environmental
performance
 This starts with identifying the important KPIs related to the environmental performance
• The organization shall determine:
 What needs to be monitored and measured
 e.g. Admin and Procurement processes are most important processes to control the environmental performance
 The methods for monitoring, measurement, analysis and evaluations
 e.g. Integrated sound level meter(ISLM) is used to measure noise level at the workplace
 ISLM becomes the method of measurement
 criteria against which the organization will evaluate its environmental performance and appropriate indicators
 Criteria stands for the baseline and appropriate indicators stands for the KPIs
 E.g. Receiving at least 3 appreciation from Top management w.r.t environmental performance, Over here 3 is the
baseline and appreciation is the KPI
 When monitoring and measurement shall be performed
 When results from monitoring and monitoring shall be performed

45. CONTD….
 The organization shall use verified or calibrated instrument for measurement and monitoring
 E.g. Bourdon pressure gauge is used to measure air pressure
 The organization shall communicatethe relevant information related to environmental performance internallyand externally
 This can be done through mailers sent to the entire organization

46. 9.1.2 EVALUATION OF COMPLIANCE
• Organization shall establish, implement, maintain their processes to evaluate their compliance obligation
 Evaluation of obligation can be made evident through management review and legal Audit
• Organization shall determine the frequency for the evaluation of compliance
• Evaluate compliance and take action if needed
• Maintain knowledge and understanding of its compliance obligation
• There are many services available like Legatrix to maintain the right understanding of organization’s compliance obligation

47. 9.2.1 INTERNAL AUDIT: GENERAL
• The organization shall conduct Internal audits at planned intervals to ensure:
• Organization conforms to:
Its own requirement for the EMS
The requirement of this standard
EMS is effectively implemented and maintain
• Frequency of Internal Audit shall be determined by the organization as per the
complexity of the processes and activities performed by the organization that can
effect environment

48. 9.2.2 INTERNAL AUDIT PROGRAMME
• Organization shall establish, implement and maintain the Internal Audit programme
 Internal Audit programme ensure all the processes of the organization are audited to ensure
appropriate environment performance
• While establishing IAP the organization shall consider:
 processes affecting the environment
 e.g. Procurement process, Admin process
 changes affecting the environment
 e.g. addition of new products and services
 previous audit findings

49. CONTD…
• The organization shall:
 define the audit criteria and scope
 this can be explained to the auditee of the process before the audit and written down in
the audit report for the evidence from the documentation point of view
 select auditors and conduct audits to ensure impartial audits
 Auditor should not be interacting with the process in day to day activities to ensure
impartiality e.g. As Admin and Procurements interacts with each other processes in lot
many way, Auditor for Admin and Procurement process should be from a different
department in the organization
 ensure that the result of the audits are reported to the relevant management
 This may include entire top management or senior members of the department as per the
applicability

50. MANAGEMENT REVIEW
• While conducting the management review the organization shall consider:
 the previous audit findings
 Changes in:
 the internal and external issues affecting the environment
 needs and expectations of the interested parties, including compliance obligation
 Significant environmental aspects
 Risk and Opportunities

51. CONTD..
• The extent to which environmental objectives have been achieved
• Information on:
 Non conformities and corrective action
 All non conformities found in the audit should be treated by the respective
stakeholders by giving all findings appropriate corrective and preventive action as per
the applicability
 Monitoring and Measurement results
 Fulfillment of Compliance Obligation
 Audit Result

52. CONTD…
• Adequacy of resources
• Communication with the external stakeholders including complaints
• Opportunities for continual improvement

53. CLAUSE 10:CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT
• General
• Non conformity and corrective action
• Continual Improvement

54. CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT: GENERAL
• Organization shall determine the opportunities for improvement and Implement
necessary action to achieve the intended outcomes of the EMS
• Auditors highlight the opportunities for improvement as per the Audit
• It is process owner’s responsibility to close all the action items related to the
continuous improvement

55. NON CONFORMITY AND CORRECTIVE ACTION
• The organization shall react to the non conformity by:
 Take actions to control and correct it
 e.g. procurement process not updated as per the new guidelines of the organization is an non
conformity
 All action items related to the non conformity should have a start date and end date for the
effective monitoring
 deal with the consequences, including mitigating adverse environmental impacts
 All non conformities may not have adverse environmental impact e.g. SOP for use of generator
not available in the generator room can be a non conformity but may not have adverse
environmental effect

56. CONTD...
 evaluate the need to take actions to eliminate the causes of the nonconformity by:
 Reviewing the non conformity
 In depth analysis of non conformity can be performed using root cause analysis(Fish
Bone)
 Determine the causes of non conformity
 There can be multiple causes of the non conformity
 Determine if similar non conformities exist, or could potentially occur
 It is always good to revisit the entire process once non conformity occur because of
interrelated sub processes and tasks

57. CONTD...
Implement any action required
Check the effectiveness of the corrective actions taken
If required, make changes to the EMS

58. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
• Organization shall continuously improve the suitability, adequacy and
effectiveness of the EMS to enhance environmental performance