Tavares Group Blog

ISO 14001:2015 Learning from Early Adopters

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’re sure to be aware of the upcoming transition deadline of September 14^th, 2018 to ISO 14001:2015.  Regardless of how well prepared your team is and how you have managed your transition to date, there are bound to be some uneasy feelings when you reach the final step in your transition; your certification audit.  Luckily, organizations are not being left to suffer in silence when it comes to navigating what can be seen by some as tricky-to-understand new requirements of ISO 14001:2015.  Various certification bodies (such as SAI Global, NSF, Bureau Veritas, BSI etc.) have published white papers, offered free information/training sessions and transition tools to give their clients a helping hand.  Recently, NSF International hosted a free webinar highlighting recent transition audit findings from early adopters. Approximately 54% of the transition audits completed by NSF from January to October 2016 resulted in the issuance of non-conformities (45% minor; 9% major). You may be wondering what there is to learn by analysing the statistics that were released when the context of the individual findings are not available for us to review. Essentially, by understanding where the most non-conformities were found, you can be sure to pay special attention to these elements to ensure all requirements are met and ensure that you don’t make the same (common) miss-steps!

NSF identified a ‘significant spike’ in non-conformities* attributed to the following Clauses that have seen significant changes stemming from the new standard:

Clause 4 – Context of the Organization

67% of the findings were attributed to Section 4.2 Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties; 33% to 4.1 Understanding the organization and its context

Sections 4.1 and 4.2 are vital to the new standard, as they are to be considered in the development of the organizations’ scope (4.3) and aid in the identification of risks and opportunities that need to be addressed. Not sure how to address these Sections within your EMS? We can help!

Clause 6 – Planning

33% of the findings were attributed to Section 6.1.2 Environmental Aspects

The requirements to identify the environmental aspects of an organization’s activities within its defined scope hasn’t changed. What has changed is the requirement to consider a ‘life cycle perspective’ when doing so. As you may recall from our blog ‘Common ISO 14001:2015 Misconceptions’, this does not mean your organization must complete a life cycle analysis. As identified in A.6.1.2, organizations should ‘think carefully about the life cycle stages that can be controlled or influenced’ and consider the intended and unintended inputs and outputs of activities, products and services for all applicable operating conditions (e.g. normal, abnormal, start-up, shut down, emergency etc.).

Clause 8 – Operation

100% of the findings were attributed to Section 8.1, Operational planning and control

The key changes to this section of the standard include 1. the requirement to ensure outsourced processes are controlled or influenced and 2. that a life cycle perspective is taken to approach various operational planning and control processes (e.g. design and development, procurement of products and services etc.).

One should also keep in mind that the new standard saw other significant changes that were not highlighted above. Since the release of ISO 14001:2015, Tavares Group Consulting has been successfully guiding our clients through gap analysis, planning and implementation processes, including training. Our variety of management systems services are scalable to our client’s business needs in order to support successful transitions to the new standard. We provide our clients with unique and cost-effective solutions. In doing so, we place great emphasis on knowledge sharing to ensure we leave client with the skills, experience and confidence to carry the results of projects forward. For more information on how we can assist your organization on the transition to ISO 14001:2015, contact us!

*It should be noted that various other non-conformities were also identified however, they were not related to significant changes to the standard (e.g. 6.2.2, 7.5.3, 9.2, and 9.3) and were not included as part of this blog.