by: Jayne Pilot
Pages: 19-25; December, 2001

One of the primary benefits a company realizes from an ISO certification is the ability to manage itself more cost effectively, by identifying processes and systems that can be put in place to improve the company's operation; which in turn decrease costs and improve the bottom line.

In addition, consumers today want the reassurance that the company is providing an environmentally friendly, as well as a quality product. The public wants to be assured that the manufacturing process in their community is being "managed" properly and not creating risks or pollution in their backyard. Finally, financial institutions and insurance companies want the reassurance that regulations are being met by the firms they back or insure.

The ISO 14000 series is a collection of voluntary consensus environmental standards. ISO 14001 is the International Standard intended to guide organizations in managing the impact its products, services, and operations have on the environment. The International Standard for the Environment - ISO 14001 was adopted on September 1, 1996. The standards were developed to assist organizations of all sizes and types throughout the world achieve environmental management.

The standard includes a framework for which basic environmental management systems are audited against, and also a system that will help companies manage their environmental issues for prevention of pollution and continual improvement. The ISO 14001 is the document that organizations can be audited against through self-declaration or registration.

The Standard was not intended to address, or does not include requirements for aspects of occupational health and safety management; however, it does not discourage you from integration of your management systems. The certification/registration process, however, will only be applicable to aspects of the environmental management system.

A company following the ISO 14001 environmental model, whether it self-declares or registers and certifies, is required to review its environmental aspects and set a management system in place. Its framework would include an environmental policy, objectives and targets, review of legislation, followed by planning, implementation, operation, checking and corrective action, conducting internal audits with management review, in order to ensure continual improvement.

A three step process "The Three I's for ISO: Identify, Insure, Improve" — will help companies in implementing the Management System to the International Standards.

The first step is for the company to identify the need for an Environmental Management System (EMS). The company, at its strategic planning stage, might consider whether it wishes to self-declare or register its management system.

Management time and effort is significantly reduced once identified requirements and plans are established, thus reducing corporate expenditures. It is recommended that key management personnel attend training on the standard's requirements, so to be able to benchmark to the set criteria.

To begin, the company will need to identify its present situation, through a preliminary review. This should cover the identification of the company’s significant environmental aspects/ impacts of its activities, products and services, in an Activity/Aspect Diagram (see Figure 3). This should be done before the development of the corporate policy. Illustrated in the Activity/Aspect Diagram example are some of the areas that may be associated with companies in the Air and Waste Management Association.

You can then complete a matrix covering your environmental aspects and impacts, applicable legislation, standards, permits, certificates of approvals, and other requirements.

Once you have completed a preliminary review, you can start the planning process and design your policy statement with your commitment for continuous improvement, prevention of pollution, and compliance with relevant legislation, as a minimum requirement to the Standard. Your environmental policy needs to be appropriate to your environmental aspects and impacts. A policy statement is site specific, therefore be careful and pay attention to details if you plan to adopt your corporate policy statement.

In your planning process, you need to prioritize your environmental aspects, as to their significance and how you identify priorities and set appropriate environmental objectives and targets, and programs which will support your environmental policy.

The word 'insure' means to take out or issue insurance on, to ensure. An Environmental Management System (EMS) system ensures that a company has put a management system in place to control its operations.

A well-developed action plan to insure the environmental management system is in place contains strategic planning and implementation planning components. To begin you will need consensus on the key issues, and implement your objectives to be consistent with your environmental policy, including your commitment for continual improvement. Goals represent what you wish to achieve. Objectives identify what you are going to do; strategies identify what specific actions you are going to take, time frames involved, responsibilities, and costing. The use of an "action plan matrix" can assist in this process.

The EMS belongs to the company and needs to be defined by the company with its own style of operation and management control over its activities. The documentation includes a composition of an Environmental Manual containing a description of the company’s operation, its environmental policy, identified environmental significant aspects, reference to where the company’s objectives and targets can be located, structure of the company with responsibility links, description of the core EMS system, references to operational procedures and other manuals and policy documents. A separate EMS Procedures Manual should cover the required procedures for ISO 14001 standard.

To insure implementation and operations, you will also need the following documentation: operations procedures and related work instructions that support your policy and objectives and targets, emergency response manual, and your records for "covering your assets" (CYA).

In this step you insure that the company’s identified environmental plan is supported with performance, that people responsible for environmental management have their responsibilities documented, either in job descriptions, procedures, or personal performance requirements and that they are communicated. Training needs to be conducted for personnel on the EMS system and internal auditing.

As part of the ISO 14001 element requirements, a company needs to complete an internal audit for reviewing the improvement of the company's Environmental Management System. The standard requires a company to establish and maintain program and procedures for periodic EMS internal audits to be carried out, to determine whether the company's management system conforms to its EMS, as well as the requirements of the Standard. Would a scheduled audit, once a year suffice? Not always, audits shall be based on the environmental importance of the activity concerned and the results of previous audits.

The audits are to be properly implemented and maintained with the results given to management. The element outlines the requirements of the company's audit procedures, which are to cover the scope, frequency and methodologies, as well as the responsibilities and requirements for conducting the audits and reporting the results.

After the internal audit is conducted the results will go to management for review. This meeting needs to be documented and the review will include: results of audits, continual improvement of the management system – policy review, legislative changes, new objectives and targets, did the system meet its set requirements and meet ISO requirements. After management review, the company can register or self-declare its management system.

The ISO 9000 series is founded upon the principles of process management and control; an infrastructure of quality to support processes and system improvement to achieve customer satisfaction by preventing nonconformance at all stages, from design to manufacturing, to servicing and meeting customer requirements.

A company that has a quality management system to ISO 9000 series or QS 9000 (automotive) series can be able to integrate their systems with ISO 14001; however, ISO 9000 is not a prerequisite to the ISO 14001 Standard.

Companies who were registered to the ISO 9000:1994 model were registered to ISO 9001 (Design and Development component); ISO 9002 (production); or ISO 9003 (inspection and test) (see Figure 4 above).

This standard specifies requirements for a quality management system where a Company needs to demonstrate that it has a system in place to provide products that meet customer and applicable regulatory requirements and aims to enhance customer satisfaction. This new model includes the processes for continual improvement of the system and the assurance of conformity to customer and applicable regulatory requirements.

The ISO 9000 series for year 2000 no longer has ISO 9002 or ISO 9003. All companies will be registered to the ISO 9001 and will exclude certain requirements (for example the Design and Development - element 7.3.). Where exclusions are made, only those requirements that do not affect the organization's ability or responsibility to supply products or services that meet customer and applicable regulatory requirements can be made as defined in 1.2 of the standard. If the company out-sources its design component, your quality manual and related documentation should identify how you manage and control these processes.

The Quality Management System is based on eight management principles, these are quoted from ISO 9000:2000 Quality Management Systems – Fundamentals and Vocabulary.

Principle 1- Customer Focus: Organizations depend on their customers and therefore should understand current and future customer needs, should meet customer requirements and strive to exceed customer expectations.

Principle 2 – Leadership: Leaders establish unit of purpose and direction of the organization. They should create and maintain the internal environment in which people can become fully involved in achieving the organization’s objectives.

Principle 3 – Involvement of People: People at all levels are the essence of an organization and their full involvement enables their abilities to be used by the organization’s benefit.

Principle 4 – Process Approach: A desired result is achieved more efficiently when activities and related resources are managed as a process.

Principle 5 – System Approach to Management: Identifying, understanding and managing interrelated processes as a system contributes to the organization’s effectiveness and efficiency in achieving its objectives.

Principle 6 – Continual Improvement: Continual improvement of the organization’s overall performance should be a permanent objective of the organization.

Principle 7 – Factual Approach to Decision Making: Effective decisions are based on the analysis of data and information

Principle 8 – Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationship: An organization and its suppliers are interdependent & a mutually beneficial relationship enhances the ability of both to create value.

The word integrated means cohesive, concordant, connected, harmonious, interrelated, part and parcel, unified, unsegregated, or unseparated. The systems can be harmonious, connected, by making reference to areas that are similar, therefore not duplicating documentation. However, the systems should be managed as two separate systems, each having a separate internal audit and a separate external audit of the management system. Companies have an option in ISO 14001 and ISO 9001:2000 to self-declare or register their management system.

Merger Recommended - Not

"Don’t merge ISO 9000 (quality) and ISO 14000 (environment) into one family of standards, but make it easier for businesses to implement both by making them more compatible – and get the job finished by 2000/2001." This is the basic conclusion of a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) set up by ISO (International Organization for Standardization) to look into the question of how to achieve a better interface between its two families of management system standards for users that want to implement both.

The ISO’s Technical Management Board (TMB) is now studying the recommendations – the result of a year-long study made by ISO/TAG 12 (ISO 9000/ ISO 14000 compatibility). For TAG 12, "compatibility" of ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 "means that common elements of the standards can be implemented in a shared manner, in whole or in part, by organizations without necessary duplication or the imposition of conflicting requirements. "Compatibility", does not mean that the text of the common elements of the standards needs to be identical, although they should be whenever practically possible." (See Tables 2 and 3 for Similarities of the ISO and Differences with ISO 14001: 1996, ISO 9001:1994 and ISO 9001:2000.)

At this point registrars do not have enough environmental knowledge or experience to do combined ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 audits. Which is why I do not support the audit of the two combined systems, as the systems are managed in different ways.

Although the two standards do have some similar elements that are addressed in both systems, unless you have an environmental background, you will not understand what is needed to be included in those elements, such as documentation. An auditor with a quality background would not be looking for the types of documentation that an environmental management system auditor would know to review, such as permits, certificates of approval, manifests, and reporting documents.

I do support, however, that companies, when implementing their management systems, do not duplicate written procedures but make reference to the procedures found in the other management systems. However, referencing other systems, to eliminate duplication, does not mean combining the systems for one audit.

The ISO 9000:2000 Quality Management System and ISO 14001 Environmental Management System are different. The environmental system is new to the registrars and needs a great deal of attention to detail. The new Quality Management Standard is more aligned with the ISO 14001, and will also need attention to detail for its improvement. Having quality auditors review an environmental system’s elements can be very dangerous, without understanding what is required under certificates of approval or government requirements related to areas of operations.

The two systems require qualified personnel who understand the two systems. The area of environmental management is very specialized and requires specific skills. In the ISO 14012 Standard, under the area of skills for an environmental auditor, it provides the qualification requirements which include having appropriate work experience, which contributes to the development of skills and understanding in environmental science and technology, technical and environmental aspects of facility operations, relevant requirements of environmental laws, regulations and related documents; environmental management systems and standards against which audits may be conducted, and audit procedures, processes and techniques.

When implementing an EMS to ISO 14001 and you have an ISO 9001 system model, instead of rewriting procedures or developing a separate system for managing a particular element, you can make reference in your documentation to the appropriate element that you have integrated.

This article was written to raise awareness and bring forward areas of integrating quality and environmental management systems. It is not a simple task, and requires the right people, including top management, willing to dedicate the time and efforts toward detail, supported by sufficient documentation.

Table2: Similarities of the ISO 14001:1994, ISO 9001:1996 and ISO 9001:2000
ISO 9001:1994	ISO 14001:1996 and ISO 9001:2000
Management commitment Responsibility Documentation & control Operational control Training Monitoring & measurement Nonconformance & corrective action Records System audits Management review Policy	Includes ISO 9001: 1994 and the following: Objectives Communication Legal and Other Requirements Continual Improvement System Planning

Table 3: Differences with ISO 14001: 1996, ISO 9001:1994 and ISO 9001:2000
ISO 9001:1994	ISO 14001:1996	ISO 9001:2000
Quality planning Identification and traceability Inspection and test status Statistical techniques	Environmental aspects Legal requirements Objectives and targets Environmental management Communications Emergency preparedness	Work environment Product realization Customer communication Design and development Customer satisfaction Infrastructure Customer focus

About the Author:

Jayne Pilot, CEA, CPEA Pilot Performance Resources Management, is an auditor of EMS Systems and QMS Systems. She has assisted registrars, as well as companies in the implementation of Management Systems to International Standards - ISO 14001 and ISO 9001:2000, and presented at CleanTech Expo. She is the author of "ISO 9001 Quality Management System – A Complete Implementation Guide" and can be reached at 905-792-3130 or jpilot@pilotiso.com or via www.pilotiso.com