ISO14001 Implementation Guide
Every document starts with an “Implementation Guidance” section which describes its purpose, the specific areas of the ISO14001 standard it is relevant to, general guidance about completing and reviewing it and some legal wording about licensing etc. Once read, this section may be removed from the final version of the document. The layout and headings of each document have been designed to guide you towards meeting the requirements of the standard and example content has been provided to illustrate the type of information that should be given in the relevant place. This content is based upon an understanding of what a “typical” organization might want to say but it is very likely that your organization will vary from this profile in many ways, so you will need to think carefully about what content to keep and what to change. The key to using the Toolkit successfully is to review and update each document in the context of your specific organization. Don’t accept the contents without reading them and thinking about whether they meet your needs – does the document say what you want it to say, or do you need to change various aspects to make it match the way you do things? This is particularly relevant for policies and procedures where there is no “right” answer. The function of the document content is to help you to assess what’s right for you so use due care when considering it. Where the content is very likely to need to be amended, we have highlighted these sections in yellow but be aware that other non-highlighted sections may also need to be updated for your organization.
1.3 If yours is a small organization The CertiKit ISO14001 Toolkit has been deliberately designed to be flexible and easy to adapt to your needs. The standard itself doesn’t dictate any specific structure of documentation so you’re free to do whatever makes sense for you as long as the requirements are met. Some smaller organizations decide to merge some of the supplied documents together so that the total number of documents in the EMS is reduced. This makes sense if the number of people involved is small and approval cycles are short. To help with this process, you may like to consider incorporating one or more of the following documents into the EMS Manual: • • • • •
Roles, Responsibilities and Authorities Procedure for the Control of Documented Information Procedure for Internal Audits Procedure for Management Reviews Procedure for the Management of Nonconformity
It’s up to each small organization to decide if this approach would be right for them; inevitably there are pros and cons of having more or fewer documents and some form of compromise solution based on our suggestions might also be appropriate.
v2 Copyright CertiKit
certikit.com
Page 8 of 33
