Documented information and Environmental Management System ISO 14001 v. 2015

The standard ISO 14001 "Environmental management systems: requirements and guidelines for use" underwent a major revision, both in form and substance, in October 2015.

In terms of form, the 2015 version adopts the HLS (High Level Structure), which proposes a common organization, in 10 chapters, of the various requirements of management system standards. The adoption of this structure facilitates the integration of all these requirements within a single management system.

Five major trends emerge from this new version:

• analyzing and understanding the context in which the organization operates, in particular by listening more closely to interested parties and improving communication;

• strengthening leadership and demonstrating the coherence between management's strategic vision and the environmental approach;

• the risk/opportunity approach to management ;

• controlling or influencing environmental impacts throughout the value chain from a life-cycle perspective;

• the widely encouraged "process" approach, which replaces, among other things, the formal obligation to have certain procedures in place.

The immediate consequence of these significant changes is a major overhaul of the type of documented information required to demonstrate compliance of the environmental management system (EMS) with the various requirements of the standard. ISO 14001 v. 2015.

The 2015 version of the standard ISO 14001 introduces the single term "documented information" to replace the EMS terms "documentation" and "records".

Documented information may relate to :

• the description of the EMS, in particular the description of the processes in place ;

• information created to operate the organization (documentation), e.g. operating procedures, plans, instructions, ranges, photographs, etc. ;

• proof of results (recordings).

The main objective of this article is therefore to enable organizations to correctly understand the impact of this evolution on the description and operation of their management system. It focuses on the type of documented information required by the standard, proposing formats that meet these requirements without compromising the smooth running of the company, the...