What an environmental management system is
ISO 14001 is the international standard for environmental management systems. It gives an organisation a structured way to understand how its activities, products and services interact with the environment, meet its compliance obligations, set objectives, control its significant environmental aspects and improve its performance over time.
ISO 14001 shares the same high-level structure as ISO 45001, which makes the two straightforward to run together. See integrated management systems.
What the system covers
- Environmental aspects and impacts
Identifying how your activities interact with the environment, such as energy use, waste, emissions, discharges and resource use, and which of those are significant.
- Compliance obligations
The legal requirements that apply, such as the waste duty of care, plus any permits, consents or producer responsibility obligations relevant to you, and commitments to clients.
- Environmental objectives
Measurable objectives linked to your significant aspects and obligations, with plans to achieve them.
- Operational controls
Proportionate controls for significant aspects, including those affected by contractors, suppliers and the wider life cycle of what you provide.
- Emergency preparedness
Planning and testing your response to environmental emergencies such as spills and fires.
- Monitoring and measurement
Tracking environmental performance and periodically evaluating compliance with your obligations.
- Internal audit and management review
Checking that the system works as intended and giving top management the information it needs to direct it.
- Certification preparation and improvement
Preparing for an accredited certification body’s audits, then maintaining and improving the system over time.
How implementation works
- Initial assessment. Understand your activities, sites and existing environmental arrangements, and why you want ISO 14001.
- Environmental aspects and impacts. Build an aspects register and agree how significance is decided.
- Compliance obligations. Identify what applies to you and set up a method for evaluating compliance.
- Environmental management planning. Set objectives and plan actions, resources and responsibilities.
- Documentation. Produce and control the documented information the system needs, and no more.
- Operational controls. Put controls in place for significant aspects, including contractor and supplier controls.
- Emergency preparedness. Plan and test the response to foreseeable environmental emergencies.
- Monitoring and measurement. Decide what to monitor and how results will be used.
- Internal audit. Audit the system with competent, impartial auditors.
- Management review. Top management reviews performance and decides on actions.
- Certification readiness. Prepare for the stage 1 and stage 2 audits by your chosen certification body.
Practical rather than template-based
The significant aspects of an office-based professional services firm, a facilities management contractor and a construction business are very different, so their systems should be too. Typical starting points include:
- Office-based organisations: energy use, waste and recycling, procurement and business travel
- Construction and property: site waste, dust and noise, drainage, fuel and chemical storage, and contractor control
- Facilities management: chemicals, waste streams and contractor activity across multiple client sites
- Logistics and industrial operations: fuel, vehicle use, storage, spill prevention and waste
We build the system around the aspects that are significant for you, not a generic list.
Where specialist input is needed
Our consultancy covers the management system. Where a project needs specialist environmental technical work, such as emissions monitoring, contaminated land assessment or permit applications, we will say so and recommend appropriately qualified specialists rather than stretching beyond our competence.
Optional software support
Some clients use Featherstone Safety Hub, our separate health and safety software, to keep parts of their management system running between audits. Its features include a document register with version control, corrective action tracking, inspection and incident records and training records, and the Professional plan adds an environmental aspect register and legal compliance log.
It is entirely optional. Using it does not make a management system conform to ISO 45001 or ISO 14001 on its own, and the software itself is not ISO certified.
We are based in Oxfordshire and support London organisations remotely and on site by arrangement. We do not have a London office.
Why Featherstone Safety
Featherstone Safety Ltd is an independent UK occupational health and safety consultancy providing ISO management system consultancy and implementation support. Thomas Featherstone holds the NEBOSH International General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety and IOSH Managing Safely, is a Technical Member of IOSH (TechIOSH), and has eight years in safety-critical work.
- Systems that match the work. We build processes around how your organisation actually operates, so they survive contact with an auditor and with day-to-day pressure.
- Independent of certification. We are not a certification body, we do not issue certificates and we have no commercial tie to any certification body.
- Practical site experience. Recent work includes on-site health and safety advisory and observation support during the delivery and installation of a 300 tonne super grid transformer. That was health and safety advisory work, not ISO consultancy, and it is not an endorsement of our ISO services.
Read more about Thomas Featherstone or see our case studies.
Frequently asked questions
What is ISO 14001?
ISO 14001 is the international standard for environmental management systems. It sets out how an organisation can manage its environmental aspects, meet its compliance obligations and improve its environmental performance in a structured way.
Is ISO 14001 a legal requirement?
No. It is a voluntary standard. Environmental law applies to your organisation whether or not you are certified, although an effective system helps you identify and meet those obligations.
Who needs ISO 14001?
Organisations that are asked for it by clients or in tenders, that want a structured way to manage environmental compliance, or that want to demonstrate environmental performance to stakeholders.
How long does ISO 14001 implementation take?
It depends on your activities, the number of sites, your existing arrangements and the time your team can commit. A certification body needs evidence that the system has operated, including internal audit and management review, so we agree a realistic timetable after scoping.
Can ISO 14001 be integrated with ISO 45001?
Yes. Both standards share the same high-level structure, so policy, document control, competence, internal audit, management review and corrective action can be run as shared processes, while environmental aspects and health and safety risks are still assessed in their own right.