Environmental Management System: Organization structure, responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes and resources for implementing and maintaining environmental management.(ISO 14000 Draft International Standard, Sec. 3.6)

Environmental management in Canada is quietly undergoing a revolution. Has anybody noticed? Later this year the work of ISO Technical Committee 207 will be published and adopted internationally under the modest title ISO Standard 14000: Environmental Management Systems.

Canada has played a significant role in developing this standard, which will provide a practical set of guidelines that organizations can use to develop and implement Environmental Management Systems (EMS). In so doing, the standard steps away from the prescriptive efforts of the past, shifting the emphasis to pollution prevention and replacing such time-honoured phrases as "best available technology economically achievable" with "core system elements" and "continuous improvement". So, what is the standard about and how will it affect environmental management practices in Canada?

Prototype PMS standards have been around for several years, both as industry standards (e.g., Responsible Care in the Chemical Industry) and as National Standards. The latter includes EMS standards published in Great Britain, Japan, Canada and several European countries. Of these, British Standards BS 7750 became the starting point used by the ISO technical committee to develop the international standard.

ISO 14000 is, in many ways, a logical extension of the ISO 9000 Quality Management standards that have been in use globally since 1987. A foundation principle stated in ISO 9000 is that in order to be successful, an organization needs - among other things - to comply with the statutory and other requirements of society.

These requirements include "obligations resulting from law as regulations, rules, codes and other considerations, notably protection of the environment, health, safety, security, conservation of energy and natural resources." (ISO 90004-1: Sec. 3.3) ISO 9000 also promotes a management structure that shifts responsibility for quality from a small group to the whole organization. In the same manner, ISO 14000 seeks to establish broad ownership of responsibility within an organization for environmental management.

ISO 14000 is, in fact, a series of inter-related standards that provide a systematic framework for dealing with an organization's environmental management needs. The document organization of ISO 9000 has been used extensively in developing the ISO 14000 system. The primary document, ISO 14000, presents a roadmap to development and implementation of an EMS. ISO 14001 contains the core system elements and will be the standard used for system audit and registration purposes. Other technical standards provide additional, detailed requirements concerning specific aspects of the system. The overall relationship among the various documents is presented in Figure 1.

There is inherent recognition in ISO 14000 that each organization is unique and as a result, the approach to environmental management is pragmatic, emphasizing that environmental management is an on-going activity that affects the whole organization. To be effective, policies and procedures need to be understood by everybody in the organization and the system has to function as part of its daily work. Strong emphasis is placed on using the "Plan-Do-Check-Act" cycle to achieve environmental management objectives through continuous improvement.

The standard builds the system elements around five principles:

1. An organization should focus on what needs to be done - it should ensure commitment to the EMS and define its policy.
2. An organization should formulate a plan to fulfill its environmental policy.
3. For effective implementation, an organization should develop the capabilities and support mechanisms necessary to achieve its environmental policy, objectives and targets.
4. An organization should measure, monitor and evaluate its environmental performance.
5. An organization should review and continually improve its environmental management system, with the objective of improving its overall environmental performance.

Each of these principles is developed into a set of detailed requirements. For example, Section 4.1, entitled Commitment and Policy, talks about commitment to the system by the senior management of the organization and requires an initial review to document the organization's present state. The intent of this review is to assess the environmental impact of all aspects of the organization's activities, to establish policies, set priorities and identify where sources need to be focused in order to make improvements. Subsequent sections address Planning, Implementation, Measurement and Evaluation, Review and Improvement.

Some 80 organizations are accredited in North America to act as Quality System Registrars under ISO 9000. Registrars provide manufacturers and service organizations with independent, third-party assessments of their Quality Systems in order to determine whether or not they conform to the standard and have been implemented effectively. The main thrust of registration is directed at raising customer confidence but an organization's internal operations also benefit, both from the activities that lead up to registration and those required for on-going maintenance of the system. Extension of the registration process to include Environmental Management Systems based on ISO 14000 is expected soon after the standard is published.

The registrars are accredited in Canada by the Standards Council of Canada and in the United States by the Registrar Accreditation Board, whose mandates are to ensure that each registrar operates its program according to defined standards. These organizations also oversee the qualifications and competence of the individuals who do the auditing. Accreditation of auditors already exists in the U.S. and is likely to follow soon in Canada.

Applied to Environmental Management Systems, registration provides an organization with important feedback concerning the effectiveness of its systems; it also provides an opportunity for governments to change their regulatory strategy. To date, the European Union has already established a system of voluntary registration under its Eco-Management and Audit Scheme. In North America, Article 9 of NAFTA encourages the use of international standards as a basis for environmental management.

This emphasis is reinforced in the side agreements regarding environmental cooperation and is also the subject of on-going meetings involving Canada, the United States, Mexico and Chile.

Proposed changes to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act include the use of international standards and encourage the voluntary registration process. These changes are expected to be included in the Act when it is re-legislated within the next 18 months. In Ontario, the MOEE is currently working with the Canadian Manufacturers' Association and CSA to provide training and to promote use of ISO 14000.

An important trend in environmental legislation is an increased emphasis on pollution prevention; Environmental Management Systems based on ISO 14000 provide a delivery mechanism. Organizations who already have ISO 9000-based Quality Management Systems in place will find the transition to ISO 14000 implementation to be a relatively small step that makes greater use of the management apparatus they already have. Having an EMS in place increases the confidence of customers, suppliers, shareholders, regulators and the general public in an organization by demonstrating that it is committed to specific environmental policies and objectives and is actively working toward achieving them.

Based on experience with ISO 9000, organizations will find that the implementation process uncovers opportunities for waste reduction and cost savings. They can also expect to benefit economically from linking environmental objectives with overall organizational goals, which, in turn, provides opportunities to focus resources where they will do the most good. Although not a panacea, ISO 14000 will provide an important set of tools for organizations to develop sound environmental management and to contribute to society's broader need for sustainable development.