The potential for accident and emergency situations shall be identified in order to prevent impact on the environment that may be associated with them. A review of emergency preparedness and response procedures shall be carried out and periodically tested where practicable.
Key characteristics of the operation which have significant impact on the environment shall be monitored and measured on a regular basis. Non-conformances shall be investigated and action taken by authorised responsible persons. Corrective or preventative actions shall be taken to eliminate the causes of actual and potential non-conformances. Audits of the environmental management system shall be carried out at planned intervals to determine conformance to planned arrangements.
The environmental management system shall be reviewed at planned intervals to ensure its continuing suitability, adequacy and effectiveness. Support for SMEs. Software Products. Go to Technical knowledge Search. Login Login.
By using the EMS as a tool for assuring regulatory compliance, an organization can better plan the expenses associated with permits, reporting and monitoring legal requirements, which will reduce the frequency and severity of violations and their associated costs.
Organizations need to focus on improving the efficiency of their processes and not just on controlling environmental aspects after they have been generated. For example, a higher level of administrative efficiency may reduce legal liabilities and shorter permitting procedures due to better relations with regulators and communities. A greater operational efficiency usually involves renewal of equipment or facilities, and an improved design of production processes that will result in a reduction of inputs energy, water and other resources and also a reduction of waste.
Every organization is different and so are their environmental aspects and impacts. For this reason, it is best to start with some sort of gap analysis that compares your current environmental management practices with the requirements of ISO , which will let you know what else needs to be done to be fully compliant.
From this list of missing elements you can develop a reasonable timeframe and budget required to put the processes in place to fill the gap.
From here you are on a firm foundation to start your implementation of ISO without surprises that could have been expected and avoided. Can you achieve ISO registration without management buy-In? While it may be possible to do this with minimal management support you will need some sort of management review, for instance , maintaining the environmental management system without ongoing support from management will be difficult — if not impossible.
Without management support, your implementation of an EMS is almost certain to fail. Management needs to be on board to make sure that adequate resources e. There are four basic elements of a good environmental management system that should be put in place first, because a lot of the other parts of the EMS build on these four steps:. While these are the first documents to do, there are others. Having a member of top management who is responsible for the environmental management system is not only a requirement of ISO — it is also a good idea.
This person is the conduit for top management to find out about how the EMS is running, what resources are needed, and what improvements need to be made. By choosing the right person for this job you can build upon the management support that you have already laid as the foundation of your EMS, but having an ineffective person in this role can cause delays and trouble.
To find out more about the management representative, see this blog post on ISO What is the Role of the Management Representative? If this is the first time you have implemented ISO , which is the case with most companies, they you will have to find a way to gather the knowledge you need to successfully implement your EMS. There are basically three options:.
Having these five elements in place first will help you to identify any problems early, which will make your implementation run more smoothly with minimal delays.
0コメント