ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Transparent management practices between businesses are essential to global trade. The following international organizations’ publish standards fostering recognized an environmental management system:

ISO – the International Organization for Standardization,
IEC – the International Electrotechnical Commission,
NAS – the National Aerospace Standards, or
CSA – the Canadian Standards Association.

The ISO 14001 Environmental Management System

It is the most well-known environmental management system (EMS) and can apply to many organizations. Well-aligned with ISO 9001 on quality, ISO 14001 – Environmental management systems — Requirements with guidance for use – follows the same Deming wheel approach of Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) towards continual improvement.

ISO 14001 enables the:

communication of a corporate environmental policy;
identification of the organization’s environmental aspects;
implementation of action plans with objectives and targets;
measurement of progress with performance indicators;
assessment via internal audits of the EMS and environmental compliance audits;
decisions from top management to allocate resources and improve the EMS.

Enviropass can help your organization get the ISO 14001 certification.

IECQ QC 080000

One of the IEC standards is IECQ QC 080000 – Hazardous Substance Process Management (HSPM) System Requirements. Like ISO 14001, QC 080000 mimics the ISO 9001 management system. Instead of addressing quality, however, QC 080000 focuses on Hazardous Substance Process Management (HSPM). The HSPM system described by QC 080000 enables the demonstration of due diligence when it comes to :

Showing compliance with product environmental regulations, like RoHS;
Launching Hazardous Substance Free (HSF) facilities.

Complementary environmental standards, like IEC 62476 and ISO 14065 may also help.

Enviropass has the right expertise to audit your HSPM systems.

NAS411

Similar to QC 080000, NAS411 tackles hazardous materials (HAZMAT) management. In the appendixes of NAS411-1, an hazardous materials target list (HMTL) gives prohibited, restricted, or tracked substances. Companies developing NAS411 Hazardous Materials Management Program (HMMP) strive to reduce the use and better control HAZMAT.

The standard’s chapter 4 gives the general requirements for conducting an HMMP, while chapter 5 addresses data submittals and HMPP report content. Finally, NAS411 chapter 6 describes what information to communicate for customer-furnished equipment and materials.

Environmental Compliance Audits

EMSs commonly require Environmental Compliance Audits (ECA) to assess an organization’s activities, products, and services against regulations or other obligations. The ECA can verify compliance with the following criteria:

Applicable environmental laws for every business unit under the EMS scope.
Product restrictions of chemicals, such as Persistent Organic Pollutants, RoHS, TSCA-PBT, PFAS limitations, etc;
Obligations to declare substances in products, like the California Proposition 65, REACH-SVHC, and the SCIP notification;
Ecodesign, circular economy, energy efficiency, legal or voluntary requirements.

ISO 19011 to Audit Environmental Management Systems

ISO 19011 – Guidelines for auditing management systems – applies to EMS, alongside other management systems. ISO 19011 gathers the best principles and practices for auditors like:

Integrity, including working impartially;
Independence;
Evidence-based approach;
Documentary review;
Audit activities, with sampling methods, interview activities, opening, and closing meetings;
Writing an audit report;
Audit follow-up.

CSA Z773

The Canadian Standards Association has published a standard on environmental compliance auditing: CSA Z773. This standard has adopted the guidelines of ISO 19011, which focuses on the environment and corporate legal responsibility. CSA Z773 particularly applies when it comes to auditing regulatory requirements.

Enviropass can conduct audits according to ISO 19011 and CSAZ773. Ask Enviropass for details!