ISO 14001:2015
Environmental Management System

ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) is a systematic framework to manage the immediate and long-term environmental impacts of an organization's products, services, and processes. By completing ISO 14001 certification your organization can assure stakeholders that your environmental management system meets international industry-specific environmental standards.

ISO 14001 environmental certification provides a framework for environmental management best practice to help organizations:

1. Minimize their environmental footprint
2. Diminish the risk of pollution incidents
3. Provide operational improvements
4. Ensure compliance with relevant environmental legislation, and
5. Develop their business in a sustainable manner.

Benefits of ISO 14001:2015

1. Identify cost savings with greater emphasis on resource, waste, and energy management.
2. Develop a corporate image and credibility.
3. Quantify, monitor, and control the impact of operations on the environment, now and in the future.
4. Ensure legislative awareness and compliance.
5. Improve the environmental performance of the supply chain.
6. Protect the company, assets, shareholders, and directors.
7. Potentially decrease public liability insurance costs for your organization.
8. Grow your access to business partners and potential customers.

ISO Certification Process 

The ISO certification process is comprised of a few main steps involving the filling of the application form, review of documents, and detailed auditing procedures. Below, we will look at the general outline of how to apply for and register an ISO for a business or product:

1. Applying: After having selected an appropriate ISO certification for a product or business, the applicant needs to fill in an application form for the registrar that can be submitted in form of a letter or email. The application will need to contain essential details, such as the scope of the certification, general details of the organization including its features and general information, and sought certification standards.
2. Review of Documents: After the submission of the application form, the auditor will review the various documents regarding quality control and various policies and procedures of the organization.
3. Pre-assessment: The pre-assessment stage is where the entrepreneur needs to or have a review conducted of the pre-existing quality control standards in his/her organization to identify any omissions or faults in the policies related to quality management.
4. Action Plan: After the initial review by the auditor and identification of the faults in the existing quality control standards of the organization, he/she will need to review these comments and eliminate the existing deficiencies. This accounts for the action plan.
5. First Audit: The first or initial audit stage involves a thorough inspection by the auditor regarding existing and revised quality controls and the findings of the non-conformities are categorized either as minor non-conformances or major non-conformances. Minor non-conformances constitute minor procedural faults or gaps in the system in compliance with ISO standards. Major non-conformances include the faults in the existing quality standards system that can lead to the potential collapse of the system.
6. Final Audit: By the final audit stage, all major non-conformities will need to be removed and if all the quality gaps have been addressed and rectified, the ISO auditor will prepare the final audit report and forward the ISO certification application to the ISO registrar.
7. Get ISO Certificate: After all the non-conformities are addressed, the registrar will provide the ISO Certificate.
8. Surveillance Audit: These are the periodic audits that will be conducted to ensure that the organization is maintaining ISO quality standards or not.