ISO 14001 Environmental Systems Hanbook

Elsevier Butterworth-HeinemannLinacre House,

Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP

30 Corporate Drive, Burlington, MA 01803

First published 1997

Reprinted 2000

Transferred to digital printing 2003

Second edition 2004

Copyright © 2004,

Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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ISBN 0 7506 4843 0

PREFACE

The first edition of ISO 14001 Implementation Handbook was published inNovember 1997. Many changes have since occurred which are nowreflected in this second edition, namely:1 ISO 14001:1996 has been through a lengthy revision process.2 Other Standards that were referenced in the first edition have themselvesbeen revised and republished i.e. (ISO 9001:2000), and various healthand safety standards have been consolidated into OHSAS 18001:1999.3 At the time of publication of the first edition there was approximately2000 ISO 14001 certificates world-wide. This has grown considerably,not only in the more well-developed countries, but also in emergingeconomies.4 The uptake of the Standard by ‘service industries’ has continuedunabated, and the book now widens its scope to address this ratherthan focusing on manufacturing industry.5 Integration of management standards is becoming the norm.Organizations have come to realize the reduction in costs to the businessand the improvements in efficiency, obtained from aligning theirvarious management systems into one blueprint for the business. Thishas been helped in many ways by the Standards, as referenced above,which are now aligned with ISO 14001 in their structure.6 The concept of added value (although its definition is imprecise) isnow firmly entrenched within the certification industry. External auditorsare expected not only to assess compliance with ISO 14001, but toalso hand on best practice in the form of observations and opportunityfor improvements to the implementing organization – the client.Clients rightly expect their systems to come under scrutiny but whateverthe outcome, compliance or non-compliance, expect the auditor togive constructive criticism and suggest positive solutions. This isamplified in later chapters.7 There is a higher awareness within industry of environmental issuesand thus much of the ‘lay history’ of environmental concerns that wasin the first edition has been condensed. More emphasis has beenplaced upon practical implementation of an environmental managementsystem, hereafter abbreviated to EMS.8 Since 1997, when the first edition was published, advances in informationgathering via the Internet has expanded exponentially and this isreflected in this second edition by including website and emailaddresses in Appendix III.Additionally, in the first edition of this book, the subject of legislation wasnot treated in depth, the author believing that there were other means bywhich organizations could address legislative issues. Due to requests frommany parties – readers, potential readers and colleagues, the treatment oflegislation has been expanded. Having expanded this issue, the reader isreminded that legislation changes relentlessly and only the foundation ofbuilding legislative compliance into an EMS is offered. Updating must bethe responsibility of the implementing organization.

Ken Whitelaw