What is risk and opportunities in ISO 14001?

Many organisations across the globe use Environmental Management Systems (EMS) to protect and reduce their environmental impact. It’s an international standard for organisations to keep track of their health and safety, quality, and environmental performance.

However, risk and opportunities are among the most important things to understand if you want to get ISO certified. A proper EMS program should consider existing and potential risks and opportunities related to environmental management.

In this article, we’ll give you an overview of the risks and opportunities related to ISO 14001 and how you can use these concepts to create a successful EMS program.

What are EMS risks and opportunities?

ISO 14001’s risk and opportunities refer to the risks an organisation faces while implementing an EMS and any opportunities that arise from it. The risks can include failing to meet the requirements of the ISO 14001 standard, not effectively managing health and safety-related risks, or not having an effective system in place for managing environmental impact.

On the other hand, potential opportunities include improved profitability through increased efficiency in resource management or gaining a competitive advantage by becoming certified with ISO 14001.

Implementing ISO 14001 also serves as a stepping stone towards further certification, such as ISO 9001 (quality management systems) and ISO 45001 (occupational health and safety). Together with those standards, it forms part of an Integrated Management System (IMS). Ultimately the IMS will enable your organisation to improve environmental performance while enhancing its business operations.

What does your organisation need to do about environmental risks and opportunities?

To ensure that your organisation meets the ISO 14001 standard, you’ll need to review your management systems and processes to identify current risks and opportunities. This includes quality environmental aspects, occupational health and safety issues, energy use, product design and development, waste reduction and more.

Once you have identified the risks and opportunities within your organisation, you should document the findings in documents and records for internal auditing purposes. You must also keep evidence of any corrective action as part of your continual improvement process.

Action to address risks and opportunities

Taking action to address risks and opportunities can help you reach your environmental goals while also helping you stay compliant with the standard. You should:

• Monitor environmental performance and submit reports as part of the safety management system.
• Create a risk-based approach so that you can identify potential risks that may come up during the ISO 14001 certification process, as well as any other ISO 14001 processes.
• Create a documented evaluation of the organisation’s risks and opportunities as part of the management review process.
• Establish internal processes for periodic review and continual improvement.
• Consider conducting internal auditing at regular intervals throughout the year to check how well your organisation addresses environmental aspects with its occupational health & safety systems.

Get ISO 14001 certified today

The team at Citation Certification will ensure that your organisation has met all the requirements for certification and develop a documented system that will meet or exceed the ISO 14001 standard. This includes health and safety policies, internal audit procedures, occupational health programs, documents and records relating to management reviews, corrective actions and continual improvement.