Does your organization consider and manage its environmental impacts? Everyday businesses face a lot of pressure from customers, regulators and the government to reduce their environmental impact. Non-compliance means “non-compliance with an obligation”. Therefore, if the auditor can not identify a requirement, he can not detect non-compliance.
Requirements can be from different sources; For example: the standard requirements by which the audit is performed, such as the organization’s internal requirements, and the applicable regulations specified by the customer for the organization.
Once non-compliance with these requirements is confirmed, it must be documented and referenced to the relevant standard or paragraph. The following is a list of 10 environmental non-compliances identified by ISO 14001 – Environmental Management System .
Registration of environmental stages
An environmental guidance document or similar document is one of the requirements of ISO 14001 and states your company’s goals for environmental management and explains what steps must be taken to achieve and achieve these goals.
Review the processes and provide the desired result
You need to look at a process and see if it works. You need to assess whether the processes you are considering are compatible with the environment in terms of how they interact.
Conduct environmental management review
You should make sure that your documented environmental procedures are appropriate for the purpose through regular management reviews. These checks should be performed at regular intervals and contrary to a specific schedule.
Registration of environmental impacts
You need to record every aspect of the environment and the impact of the activities in one program. The environmental aspect is an element of the organization’s activities, products or services that can interact with the environment. This includes identifying the priority and importance of each aspect.
Define environmental goals
You need to do an environmental risk assessment and determine the impact of your organization’s activities on the environment. Then, using the results of risk assessment, a set of environmental goals can be defined that can be monitored and improved.
Formulation and communication of environmental policy
Environmental policy is a statement that is usually prepared by top management and details the environmental status and values of your organization. This should include general environmental performance goals. It is important that this policy is communicated throughout the organization.
Managing customer complaints about environmental issues
It is important to regulate the specific grievance process to address environmental issues in order to make continuous progress. This is especially valuable if your organization is in the manufacturing industry or your employees work in an environment that has environmental consequences such as chemicals, fuel, etc.
Implement compliance registration
Your organization must have a compliance register or similar document that outlines any relevant laws that must be followed and the obligations that your organization owes to them. Registration should be reviewed regularly as part of the management review process and updated if necessary.
Provide training and have a background
In addition to any training that your organization already provides to employees, there should be more training on environmental issues. Like all educational endeavors, records must be kept to provide evidence of what is being taught and what is being covered.
Correspondence
Sometimes outsiders can contact your company for more information on environmental management policies. It is important to have a clear way of receiving, documenting and responding to this type of communication. Details of any communication should be recorded and reviewed when reviewing environmental management, as this may highlight areas for improving the communication process or environmental practices.