ISO14001 Certification: A requirement to save environment

ISO14001 is a set of standards specially devised for the environment management in business. Since 90s the focus on environmentalism has gained momentum. With the increasing pollution, a need was felt to take steps to reduce the level of pollution. With the advent of industrial revolution, there has been a constant rise in the level of pollution. And the result was felt in the form of hole in ozone layer and rise in global warming. Therefore, it became necessry to create awareness all over the world about the depleting natural resources and rising pollution which is affecting the environment deeply.

So in 1996 ISO14000 came to existence which has series of standards with the emphasis on environment management and control. And 14001 is the first one to get recognized and implemented. It is created with the aim of establishing the quality standards for the better management of environmental issues. It basically includes the establishment of EMS i.e. Environment Management System in various industries.

The standard works on the principle of PDCA (Plan, Do, Check and Act). It requires the organization applying for ISO14001 Certification to first plan for the systematic establishment of EMS. Therefore first a gap analysis is done to trace non-compliances in the organization. Then they are required to check for the resources which will be supporting the features of EMS. In this phase all the employees are educated about the need for EMS, it's operations, etc. Here all the documents are created. In the next stage, the monitoring of performance is done. It is done on regular intervals to ensure that all the targets are being achieved or not. In the last stage, after monitoring the success of EMS becomes known and now again planning is done to accommodate further improvements.

The ISO14001 certification body always conduct a strict audit of EMS to see its functionality by conducting onsite visit. So the organization seeking this certification should be prepared for that. There are many consultants who help the organizations in getting this certification. So if you do not know anything about the certification process, taking the help of certification consultant will always be beneficial.

Adopting these standards offer certain benefits for their organization. First of all implementation EMS lead to reduction in waste created for disposal of harmful elements. And by adopting systematic processes the operating costs are reduced. And the most important benefit that the organization achieves is getting an edge over others by creating an image of eco friendly organization.

Therefore, the certification becomes important for organizations to receive and for which they may have to bring changes in their techniques and processes. But these changes will bring down the level of global warming and also enhance your image in the eyes of your customers.

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