Qudos Management Pty. Ltd. Quality | Health & Safety | Environmental management 320 Adelaide Street, Brisbane, QLD 4000 Tel: +61 (07) 3010 9259 3 Spring Street, Sydney, NSW 2000 Tel: +61 (02) 8249 4670 Email: info@qudos-software.com Web: www.qudos-software.com How to develop and maintain an ISO 14001 Environmental Management System faster, better, and smarter With growing concerns about climate change and sustainability, more attention is now being paid to how business activities impact on the environment. Companies and other organisations are responding in various ways. Perhaps the most tangible evidence of an organisation's environmental focus and effort is to have a management system based on the ISO 14001 international standard. ISO 14001 sets out requirements for an effective Environmental Management System (EMS). It is designed to help your organisation systematically reduce its environmental impact, while still working towards other corporate objectives (such as service delivery and profitability). Developing your system can be quite a major project. Like any such project, it may at first appear to be daunting and too complex to get a firm grip on. However, it can be more easily managed by being divided into bite-sized pieces. The following is an example of how that can be done. Initially the project is divided into 5 stages: Organisations have traditionally developed control measures to meet applicable legal, regulatory and contractual requirements. There is a trend towards greater 'systemisation' and basing the system on the ISO 14001 standard. Of course, you still need to meet those legal, regulatory and contractual requirements. The intention of a standards-based system is to provide a solid base for your organisation to consistently comply with them - now and into the future. There are a number of development options available to you, and each has its own particular advantages. The development option that you choose will affect your method of system development. Consultants and other sources of external help will have their own standard methodologies. The options include: • Working on your own How To Address ISO 14001– Rev 5 – August 2013 Page 1 of 7 – Copyright © 2009-2013 Qudos Management Pty. Ltd. • • • • Using a consultant Attending workshops / training courses Using a software package A combination of the above A Gap Analysis and Project Plan may be prepared to guide and record progress. The documentation stage may include preparing: • • • • • • • Policies Procedures Project-specific plans An aspects and impact register A register of statutory and regulatory requirements Forms and other documents Documenting a system from scratch can take up a great deal of time – particularly if it’s a task that you are not used to. However, remember that the documentation should be appropriate to the nature of your organisations’ activities and the environmental impacts associated with its operations. Of course, documents only form a part of a system. They are a means to an end - not an end in themselves. People, their commitment, and the training / resources / methods they are provided with are vitally important. To be of maximum true value, your system needs the broad support of people within your organisation. This is often best achieved with a softly, softly approach - consultation, communication, then participation in introducing changes. Results should be monitored, and the system fine-tuned as you go. Following the principle of the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle, having planned our system and put it into practice, we need to check or verify that it is working effectively. All control systems need feedback mechanisms to help their controllers keep the system on track. Management systems are no exception, and internal audits are their key feedback mechanism. To illustrate the importance of internal audits, they are a mandatory requirement of the ISO 14001 standard. They audits offer a very beneficial and low-cost method to help your organisation maintain compliance, and achieve its objectives. There are also other aspects of verification, including measurement and monitoring, surveys, and periodic review by top management. For a new system, or one that has had a major upgrade, it would be good practice to audit the system thoroughly after quite a brief period of implementation. It is quite likely that a little bit of fine-tuning to your system will be necessary. After that, your audit schedule may be on a risk basis - with those processes that are most important or that have had problems in the past being audited more regularly than others. You may also choose to have an external audit of your system by a Certification body or Registrar. How To Address ISO 14001– Rev 5 – August 2013 Page 2 of 7 – Copyright © 2009-2013 Qudos Management Pty. Ltd. Results of audits and other verification techniques should be fed back to the management Review process, for top management to consider progress, and plan any remedial action or perhaps set new objectives. Introducing Qudos 3 Qudos 3 software provides a task-based, modular approach - Helping you set up your system quickly and run it cost-effectively. Its combination of web and SQL database technology offers multi-site/off-site capability to: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Plan Objectives/targets and how they will be achieved Document policies, procedures, forms etc. with our huge library of samples and templates Make documents easily accessible over your intranet or internet – with powerful search facilities to find the right document quickly and easily Plan and record document reviews and revisions Schedule and record internal audits Schedule and record equipment checks and calibration Plan and record minutes of management review and other meetings, and distribute them Maintain records of environmental training Assess performance of your environmental management activities or those of your suppliers / contractors Consider and evaluate aspects and impacts Record nonconformances, issues, customer complaints and suggestions Plan preventive / corrective / improvement action and then assign, record and track those actions Remind people about tasks that are due / overdue with automated emails Generate pie charts, bar charts and tabular reports Escalate overdue actions Qudos 3 includes an integrated Enviro Manager Toolkit – packed with sample documents, training materials and other resources. Qudos 3 offers a comprehensive suite of tools to help you develop and maintain a management system that complies with ISO 14001 faster, better, and smarter. The following chart illustrates how. How To Address ISO 14001– Rev 5 – August 2013 Page 3 of 7 – Copyright © 2009-2013 Qudos Management Pty. Ltd. ISO 14001 Standard Requirements Clause 4.2 Environmental Policy Policy Enviro Manager Benchmark Risk Training People Meetings Actions Audits Documents Objective Qudos 3 modules Notes Explanation of requirements and sample policy statements Policy statement maintained and accessed via Master Document List. Sample procedure. Clause 4.3 Planning Environmental aspects Legal requirements Objectives Clause 4.4 Implementation and Operation Resources, roles, responsibility and authority Sample documents Competency, awareness and training Communication Aspects and impacts considered in Risk Assessment format Register of statutory and regulatory requirements maintained and made available via Master Document List. Legal and other requirements considered in risk assessment with actions to address them raised as separately tracked Action forms. Sample Objective planning procedure. Objectives are recorded in an Objective Form. Objectives may be established, described, assigned to a responsible person, quantified for priority (against up to 4 userdefinable drivers), assessed for progress, and include an attached external document. Each Objective may generate up to 100 separately tracked Action plans. Actions List includes a category for "Raised by Objective" - enabling the list to be filtered and queried for generating custom reports. How To Address ISO 14001– Rev 5 – August 2013 Page 4 of 7 – Copyright © 2009-2013 Qudos Management Pty. Ltd. Defined in documents maintained and made available via Master Document List. Training records are created for each person in the organisation. These are maintained in the Training Schedule, and may be queried for planning / review purposes. Induction checklist template and other documents promoting staff awareness of environmental issues maintained in Master Document List Documents providing information on environmental issues maintained in Master Document List Enviro Manager Benchmark Risk Training People Meetings Actions Audits Documents Objective Qudos 3 modules ISO 14001 Standard Requirements Notes Documentation and control of documents Operational control Emergency preparation and response Emergency plans maintained in Master Document List. Clause 4.5 Checking Monitoring and measurement / evaluation of compliance Nonconformity, corrective and preventive action Control of records Suggestions / complaints etc. to/from external parties communicated using Action Forms that may be emailed and provided in DOC or PDF format Community / Consultation Meetings recorded in Meeting Minutes Action points raised within minutes are automated as separately tracked Action forms Controlled document listing, review and revision process. Sample Document management procedure. Operational procedures maintained in Master Document List. Guidance and Sample procedure How To Address ISO 14001– Rev 5 – August 2013 Page 5 of 7 – Copyright © 2009-2013 Qudos Management Pty. Ltd. Evaluation of compliance / monitoring and measurement recorded in an Audit Record (checklist based record with ability to generate multiple corrective/preventive actions) Monitoring and measurement recorded in a Risk Assessment (record offering matrix assessment + ability to generate multiple corrective/preventive actions) Monitoring and measurement recorded in a Benchmark Assessment (record with numerical value and weighting options + ability to generate multiple corrective/preventive actions) Action Forms are used to record suggestions, actual and potential nonconformances, and incidents. Other sections of the same form used to record Action Planned, Action Taken, Follow-up/Review + up to 99 related actions. Each may be separately assigned, emailed to a responsible person with DOC or PDF attachment if required. Actions List may be queried in numerous combinations to generate custom reports. Documents and records retained in SQL server database and associated folders on server. ISO 14001 Standard Requirements Internal audit Enviro Manager Benchmark Risk Training People Meetings Actions Audits Documents Objective Qudos 3 modules Notes Sample Audit procedure. Internal audit programme maintained in Audit Schedule & Audit Records. Actions raised are managed in Action forms linked to Audit records. Auditor training records maintained in Training Schedule. An Audits training presentation included. Optional Auditor training is available in public sessions or on-site. Clause 4.6 Management review Management review How To Address ISO 14001– Rev 5 – August 2013 Page 6 of 7 – Copyright © 2009-2013 Qudos Management Pty. Ltd. Explanation of requirements and sample procedure. A training presentation on effective meetings is also included. Management reviews scheduled and recorded in Meeting Minutes. Default agenda provided. This may be customised as required. Agenda / minutes may be emailed to all attendees. Each Discussion item may generate up to 100 separately tracked Action plans. Actions List may be queried to provide custom reports. Integration With its modular design, high level of user-configuration, robust SQL database and web technology, Qudos 3 offers the power of integration of: • • • Your key activities for addressing the standard Similar activities for other standards and compliance issues (OHSAS 18001 or AS/NZS 4801 Health & Safety / ISO 9001 Quality etc.) Activities relating to one or many sites The tools are here right now to help you make an immediate start on developing faster, better, smarter management system. Qudos 3 is available as Self-hosted server-based software, or cloud hosted with fully licenced or leased options. Gap analysis, coaching, training and system development / maintenance services are also available from Qudos and its partners. Contact us to find out more. Qudos Management Pty. Ltd. Quality | Health & Safety | Environmental management 320 Adelaide Street, Brisbane, QLD 4000 Tel: +61 (07) 3010 9259 3 Spring Street, Sydney, NSW 2000 Tel: +61 (02) 8249 4670 Email: info@qudos-software.com Web: www.qudos-software.com How To Address ISO 14001– Rev 5 – August 2013 Page 7 of 7 – Copyright © 2009-2013 Qudos Management Pty. Ltd.