Environmental management system certification – ISO 14001 is a process to evaluate and confirm that businesses meet international standards on environmental management. This process helps businesses improve environmental management efficiency, minimize negative impacts and increase reputation. The following article by Long Phan will provide detailed information about the steps to implement ISO 14001 certification.

What is the ISO 14001 series of standards?

ISO 14001:2015 is a set of international standards for the environmental management system. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) issued this standard to guide businesses in managing environmental issues. ISO 14001 applies to all types and sizes of businesses.

ISO 14001 provides a comprehensive environmental management framework. This standard helps businesses identify, control and minimize environmental impacts from production and business activities. Applying ISO 14001 helps businesses comply with current environmental laws.

The ISO 14001 family of standards includes requirements for environmental policy, planning, implementation, inspection and continuous improvement. Businesses need to develop environmental goals, assess risks and opportunities, control operations and measure effectiveness. ISO 14001 requires commitment from top management and involvement of all employees.

This type of production is required to have environmental management system certification – ISO 14001

Pursuant to the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 and Decree 08/2022/ND-CP. The following subjects are required to have environmental management system certification – ISO 14001. Specifically, they include:

• Subjects that must periodically monitor wastewater include: Investment projects and facilities with large wastewater discharge into the environment;
• Subjects that must periodically monitor dust and industrial emissions include investment projects and facilities with large discharge volumes into the environment;
• Ship demolition facilities must have an environmental management system according to national standard TCVN ISO 14001 or certified international standard ISO 14001.

Legal basis: Point b, Clause 2, Article 111 of the Law on Environmental Protection and instructions in Article 97 of Decree 08/2022/ND-CP; Clause 2, Article 112 of the Law on Environmental Protection and instructions in Article 98 of Decree 08/2022/ND-CP; Clause 4 Article 43 Decree 08/2022/ND-CP.

Conditions for environmental management system certification – ISO 14001

ISO 14001:2015 standard sets out environmental system requirements for businesses. To achieve certification, businesses need to satisfy the following conditions:

The first condition: Enterprises develop and implement ISO 14001:2015 standards

• Businesses need to clearly understand and build their management system according to the requirements of ISO 14001.
• To achieve success, businesses can learn, build and apply ISO themselves or should find professional consulting units. Enterprises will be accompanied by consulting organizations in training, building and applying processes and forms.

Second condition: Enterprises need to have an EIA (Commitment to environmental protection; Environmental protection project).

• This is one of the basic requirements to be certified and granted an ISO 14001 certificate by an organization. This requires businesses to comply with environmental laws. Certification bodies will rely on the business to have an EIA to confirm compliance with this legal responsibility. Therefore, businesses need to prepare EIA documents before participating in the fake certification process.

Condition 3: Carry out certification assessment by a certification organization.

• After the Enterprise has built a reliable quality management system, self-assess its internal business and implement corrective and improvement measures. Next, the business will conduct an assessment by a certification organization. After the evaluation process, the business will be granted an ISO Certificate or ISO Certificate.

Steps to certify environmental management system – ISO 14001

The ISO 14001 certification process includes 7 main steps. Businesses need to fully implement these steps to achieve certification. The process includes the following steps:

Step 1: Register to implement the Environmental Management System

First, businesses need to contact a unit capable of implementing ISO 14001 certification. Accordingly, businesses need to provide basic information about the business, information about the field of operation, and form of production. , products, services being sold,… and sign a contract with the selected certification organization. There are 6 contents that businesses need to prepare when registering for ISO 14001. Specifically:

1. Scope of certification (for management system certification) or information about products registered for certification;
2. Name and address, information about important aspects of the organization’s processes and activities, as well as relevant legal obligations;
3. General information about the certification registration organization corresponding to the applied certification field including activities, human and technical resources, functional departments and relationships with relevant organizations , if any;
4. Information relating to the Organization’s outsourcing processes that impact its ability to comply with requirements;
5. Certification standards or other specific certification requirements;
6. Information related to the use of consultants related to management systems or product quality.

Step 2: Enterprises prepare documents for ISO 14001 audit

The next step in the ISO 14001 certification process, businesses need to prepare the necessary documents and procedures for the certification process. Below are 12 necessary documents to prepare before conducting ISO 14001 system audits:

1. Environmental policies and goals;
2. Assessment documents identify environmental aspects and impacts;
3. Training records, personnel capacity assessment (waste classification and collection, fire prevention and fighting training, labor safety, environmental management system awareness);
4. Environmental records required by law (Environmental protection plan/Environmental protection commitment, Waste source owner book, ….);
5. Environmental monitoring records;
6. Internal assessment records;
7. Management review records;
8. Records of maintenance, servicing, testing and calibration of environmental equipment;
9. Legal compliance assessment records;
10. Profile identifies risks and opportunities;
11. Emergency response drill records;
12. Internal documents and records belong to the Environmental Management System.

Step 3: Preliminary assessment to determine the extent to which it meets the requirements of the standard

• Based on the specific situation of applying ISO 14001 of the Enterprise, the certification organization will send a team of experts to the Enterprise to evaluate and collect preliminary information about the application of the environmental management system. Reality of Enterprise.

Step 4: Evaluate the official ISO 14001 system at the enterprise

• A team of assessment experts comes to the enterprise to conduct an official assessment of the application of ISO 14001. Specifically, experts will review the compatibility and compare reality with the contents in records and documents. materials provided by the business. From there, the expert team will represent the certification organization to make recommendations for businesses to overcome inadequacies in the current environmental management system.

Step 5: Check and remediate documents

• The evaluation team checks the documents after the evaluation and considers instructing the Enterprise to correct non-conformities (if any).
• After the nonconformities are remedied, the certification organization will review all documents and management system assessment results again to consider granting ISO 14001 certification.

Step 6: Decide to issue ISO 14001:2015 certification

After examining the dossier and finding appropriate results, the certification organization issues an ISO 14001 certificate to the business.

Step 7: Monitoring assessment and recertification

• An ISO 14001 certificate is valid for 3 years from the date of issue and requires annual monitoring. When it is time for monitoring, the certification organization will perform periodic monitoring assessments to ensure the environmental management system continues to comply with ISO standards. The results of the surveillance assessment will serve as evidence to maintain the validity of the certificate. The normal monitoring period is once a year, and the monitoring review process will be similar to the initial certification process.
• After 3 years of certification activities, the ISO 14001 certificate will expire. Enterprises need to re-certify their environmental management system from the beginning to ensure continued compliance with ISO standards. However, this recertification usually costs less than the first time, because the environmental management system has been established and operating in the past.

Consulting services and support for environmental management system certification – ISO 14001

Consulting services and support for registration of environmental management system certification – ISO 14001 are increasingly developing. To help customers save time and effort during the certification process. Long Phan’s professional consulting services can provide effective and quick support when registering for environmental management system certification – ISO 14001. Long Phan’s services include:

• Guide customers through processes and procedures.
• Assist customers in preparing all necessary documents to submit to certification agencies.
• Support customer representatives during the assessment and appraisal process of certification agencies.
• Assist customers in overcoming inappropriate standards discovered during the assessment process.

ISO 14001 certification brings many benefits to businesses. This process helps improve environmental management, legal compliance and enhance reputation. If you need professional support to achieve effective certification, please contact Long Phan via hotline 0906735386 for detailed advice. Long Phan will accompany businesses in the process of building and certifying the ISO 14001 environmental management system.