ISO 14001:2015

Introduction, not a requirement. Explains why organizations take a systematic approach to managing their environmental responsibilities and how doing so supports sustainable development.

Introduction, not a requirement. Describes what an environmental management system is meant to deliver: better environmental performance, meeting compliance obligations, and reaching environmental objectives.

Introduction, not a requirement. Describes the leadership commitment, integration into business processes and life cycle perspective on which an effective system depends.

Introduction, not a requirement. Explains the PDCA cycle underlying the structure of the standard.

Introduction, not a requirement. Explains the Annex SL structure, the meaning of shall, should, may and can, and the role of Annex A.

The organization identifies the internal and external issues that matter to its purpose and that bear on whether its environmental management system can deliver what it is meant to deliver. Among these issues are environmental conditions that the organization affects or that could affect it. Under Amendment 1:2024 the organization must also decide, and be able to show, whether or not climate change counts among those issues for it.

• Context analysis covering internal and external issues, including environmental conditions affected by or affecting the organization
• Dated decision on climate change as an issue (yes or no) with the reasoning behind it, as Amendment 1:2024 requires
• Link from the identified issues to the risk and opportunity determination in 6.1.1

• Context analysis lists business issues only and omits environmental conditions such as water availability, air quality or extreme weather
• Climate change never considered since the 2024 amendment
• Issues not revisited when the site, products or regulatory setting change

The organization determines the interested parties relevant to the environmental management system, their relevant needs and expectations (their requirements), and which of those needs and expectations it adopts as compliance obligations. Amendment 1:2024 adds a note that such parties may hold climate-related expectations, for example lender or customer emissions conditions, regulator adaptation duties or community concern about flooding.

• Register of interested parties (regulators, community, customers, lenders, employees) with their environmental needs and expectations
• Record of which needs and expectations were adopted as compliance obligations and which were not
• Register entries for climate-related expectations identified (customer, lender, regulator, community), or a recorded finding that none apply

• Interested party list without the requirements each holds
• No decision recorded on which voluntary expectations become obligations
• Community and neighbour expectations ignored until a complaint arrives

To set its scope, the organization decides where the environmental management system's boundaries lie and what it applies to, taking into account the internal and external issues identified under 4.1, the compliance obligations identified under 4.2, its physical boundaries, functions and organizational units, what it does and the products and services it provides, and the extent of its power and capacity to exercise control and influence. With the scope set, every activity, product and service inside it is covered by the system. The scope is kept as documented information and made available to interested parties.

• Documented scope statement naming units, functions, sites, activities, products and services
• Rationale for the boundaries, including where control or influence ends
• Evidence the scope is available to interested parties (website, certificate, on request)

• Activities with significant impacts carved out of scope without justification
• Scope names the company but not its sites or product lines
• Scope not available to interested parties

The organization sets up, runs, maintains and continually improves an environmental management system, together with the processes it requires and the way they interact, as the standard requires, so as to deliver the system's intended outcomes, better environmental performance among them. When setting up and maintaining the system it draws on what it learned from analysing its context and identifying interested parties.

• System description or manual identifying the processes and their interactions
• Evidence that context and interested party findings shaped the system design
• Records of maintenance and improvement of the system over time

• A set of procedures with no defined process interactions
• System designed from a template with no link to the organization's context
• System documented once and never maintained

The organization identifies opportunities to improve, drawing on its monitoring and measurement, internal audits and management reviews, and takes whatever action it requires so that its environmental management system reaches the results it is designed for.

• Improvement register drawing on monitoring, audit and review outputs
• Evidence that improvement actions were implemented and closed

• Opportunities identified at review but never actioned
• Improvement limited to closing audit findings

When a nonconformity arises, the organization responds by acting to control and correct it and by dealing with its consequences, which includes mitigating any adverse environmental impact where applicable. It then decides whether action is needed to remove the causes so that the nonconformity does not happen again or elsewhere, by reviewing it, finding out why it happened and checking whether similar nonconformities exist or could arise; it takes whatever action is required; it checks whether the corrective action worked; and it changes the system where necessary. Corrective action is proportionate to how significant the effects of the nonconformities are, environmental impacts included. Documented information is kept on what the nonconformities were, the actions that followed, and the outcome of corrective action.

• Nonconformity register covering audit findings, incidents, complaints and compliance breaches
• Root cause analyses proportionate to environmental significance
• Corrective action records with effectiveness reviews
• Evidence of checks for similar nonconformities elsewhere

• Environmental incidents handled as operational events, never as nonconformities with cause analysis
• Effectiveness of corrective action never reviewed
• Similar processes or sites not checked after a nonconformity

The organization keeps improving how suitable, adequate and effective its environmental management system is, so that its environmental performance gets better.

• Trend of environmental performance indicators over successive periods
• Evidence that system changes were made to enhance performance, not only to maintain certification

• Improvement claimed without performance data to show it
• System unchanged for years while performance is flat

Top management shows leadership of, and commitment to, the environmental management system: it is accountable for how effective the system is; it makes sure the environmental policy and objectives are set and fit the organization's context and strategic direction; it builds the system's requirements into business processes; it makes sure the system has the resources it needs; it explains why effective environmental management matters and why the system's requirements must be met; it makes sure the system delivers its intended outcomes; it directs and supports people so they help the system work; it promotes continual improvement; and it supports other relevant managers in showing leadership in their own areas.

• Top management approval of the policy and objectives and their link to strategy
• Executive communications on environmental management
• Resource decisions traceable to the system's needs
• Evidence of top management accountability (review chairing, performance sign-off)

• Leadership delegated entirely to an environmental manager
• Environmental objectives disconnected from the business strategy
• Resources for the system approved only after an incident or audit finding

Top management sets, applies and maintains an environmental policy which, within the defined scope of the system: suits the organization's purpose and context, taking account of the nature and scale of what it does and supplies, and the environmental impacts involved; gives a basis for setting environmental objectives; commits the organization to protecting the environment, covering pollution prevention and any further commitments that fit its context (for example using resources sustainably, mitigating and adapting to climate change, and protecting ecosystems and biodiversity); commits the organization to meeting its compliance obligations; and commits it to continually improving the system so environmental performance gets better. The policy is kept as documented information, communicated internally and kept available to interested parties.

• Approved environmental policy carrying the protection, compliance and improvement commitments
• Specific commitments relevant to the organization's context (for example climate, biodiversity, resource use)
• Evidence of communication within the organization and availability to interested parties

• Generic policy with no commitment specific to the organization's actual impacts
• Policy not communicated beyond the environmental team
• Policy not available externally

Top management makes sure responsibilities and authorities for the relevant roles are allocated and made known within the organization. It also gives named roles the responsibility and authority to make sure the environmental management system meets the standard's requirements, and to report to top management on how the system is performing, environmental performance included.

• Responsibility matrix or role descriptions for environmental roles
• Named owner for conformance of the system to the standard
• Performance reports to top management with a named author and cadence

• Responsibilities assigned to a department rather than to accountable individuals
• Environmental performance reported to top management only at the annual review
• Authorities not communicated, so operational decisions wait for the environmental manager

The organization sets up, runs, controls and maintains the processes its EMS needs, and the processes that carry out the actions it identified under 6.1 and 6.2, by setting operating criteria for those processes and controlling them in line with the criteria. Controls may be engineering controls or procedures and may follow a hierarchy. It controls changes that are planned, reviews the effects of changes that were not intended and acts to reduce any adverse effects as needed, and makes sure outsourced processes are controlled or influenced, with the system defining what kind of control or influence applies and how much. Taking a life cycle perspective, it puts controls in place as appropriate so that its environmental requirements are dealt with when products or services are designed and developed, considering every stage of their life cycle; it decides as appropriate what environmental

• Operating criteria and procedures for processes linked to significant aspects, with records of control
• Management of change records with consequences reviewed
• Defined control or influence over outsourced processes
• Environmental requirements in design, procurement and contractor documents
• Product or service information on downstream impacts (use, end of life)

• Operating criteria undefined, so control cannot be demonstrated
• Outsourced processes with significant aspects treated as outside the system
• Procurement specifications carry no environmental requirements
• Design process has no environmental input
• Changes made without reviewing environmental consequences

The organization sets up, runs and maintains the processes it needs to be ready for, and to deal with, the potential emergencies it identified under 6.1.1. It gets ready by planning how to prevent or reduce the adverse environmental impacts an emergency could cause; it responds when an emergency actually happens; it acts to prevent or reduce the consequences in proportion to how serious the emergency is and how large its environmental impact could be; where practicable it tests its planned responses from time to time; it reviews and updates its processes and planned responses periodically, especially after an emergency or a test; and, as appropriate, it gives relevant interested parties, including people working under its control, information and training on preparing for and responding to emergencies. Documented information is kept to the extent needed to be confident the processes run

• Emergency preparedness and response procedures covering each potential emergency found under 6.1.1
• Drill and test records with lessons applied
• Post-incident and post-test reviews with revisions made
• Emergency training and information records for staff, contractors and neighbours as relevant

• Emergency plan covers fire and safety but not environmental scenarios (spills, releases, flooding)
• Plans never tested
• No review after a real incident
• Contractors and neighbouring interested parties not informed

The organization monitors, measures, analyses and evaluates its environmental performance and its fulfilment of compliance obligations. This clause groups the general requirements (9.1.1) and evaluation of compliance (9.1.2).

• Monitoring programme

• No monitoring programme

The organization monitors, measures, analyses and evaluates how it performs environmentally. It decides what is to be monitored and measured, which methods will give valid results, which criteria and suitable indicators it will judge its environmental performance against, when monitoring and measuring take place, and when the results are analysed and evaluated. Only calibrated or verified monitoring and measuring equipment is used, and it is kept in good order as appropriate. The organization evaluates both its environmental performance and how effective the system is, shares relevant environmental performance information inside and outside the organization as its communication processes specify and its compliance obligations demand, and keeps documented information to evidence the results.

• Monitoring and measurement plan naming parameters, methods, criteria, indicators and frequency
• Calibration and verification records for monitoring equipment
• Performance evaluation against criteria and indicators
• Records of results and of internal and external communication of performance

• Monitoring limited to permit parameters, with no indicators for objectives or significant aspects
• Equipment uncalibrated or calibration lapsed
• Data collected but never evaluated against criteria
• Performance information not communicated where compliance obligations require it

The organization sets up, runs and maintains processes for checking whether its compliance obligations are met. It decides how often compliance is checked, carries out the checks and acts where needed, and keeps itself informed of where it stands on compliance. Documented information is kept to evidence what each compliance evaluation found.

• Compliance evaluation procedure with frequency per obligation
• Compliance evaluation records with findings and actions
• Current statement of compliance status known to management

• Compliance evaluation conflated with the internal audit
• Evaluation frequency undefined or not kept
• Non-compliances found but no action recorded
• Management cannot state the current compliance status

The organization audits its environmental management system at planned intervals. This clause groups the purpose of internal audit (9.2.1) and the audit programme (9.2.2).

• Audit programme and reports

• No internal audit

At planned intervals the organization carries out internal audits to find out whether its environmental management system meets both the organization's own requirements for the system and the standard's requirements, and whether the system is effectively implemented and kept up.

• Internal audit reports covering conformance to own requirements and to the standard
• Evidence audits assess effective implementation, not only documents

• Audits check documents exist rather than whether processes work
• Audit scope omits operational control at the site level

The organization sets up, runs and maintains a programme of internal audits that defines how often audits happen, the methods used, who is responsible, how audits are planned and how they are reported; in doing so it considers how environmentally important the processes are, any changes affecting the organization, and what earlier audits found. It sets the criteria and scope of each audit, chooses auditors and runs audits in a way that keeps them objective and impartial, and makes sure the relevant managers receive the results. Documented information is kept to evidence that the programme was carried out and what the audits found.

• Risk-based audit programme weighted by environmental importance, change and past results
• Audit plans with criteria and scope per audit
• Auditor competence and independence records
• Audit reports to management and tracking of findings

• Same audit scope every year regardless of environmental importance or previous findings
• Auditors auditing their own area
• Findings reported but not tracked to closure

At planned intervals top management reviews the environmental management system to make sure it remains suitable, adequate and effective. The review covers: progress on actions from earlier reviews; changes in internal and external issues, in what interested parties need and expect (compliance obligations included), in significant environmental aspects, and in risks and opportunities; how far environmental objectives have been met; information on environmental performance, including trends in nonconformities and corrective actions, monitoring and measurement results, whether compliance obligations are being met, and audit results; whether resources are adequate; relevant communications from interested parties, complaints included; and chances to improve the system further. What comes out of the review includes conclusions on whether the system remains suitable, adequate and effective; de

• Management review input pack covering every required input, including compliance status, complaints and resource adequacy
• Minutes recording conclusions, decisions, actions on missed objectives and strategic implications
• Action tracking from review outputs
• Attendance evidence showing top management participation

• Review inputs limited to audit results and objectives
• Complaints and interested party communications not presented
• Minutes record discussion with no decisions
• Review held without top management

The organization sets up processes for identifying and dealing with the risks and opportunities that arise from its context, its compliance obligations and its environmental aspects. This clause groups four requirements: general planning at 6.1.1, environmental aspects at 6.1.2, compliance obligations at 6.1.3, and planning action at 6.1.4.

• Risk and opportunity determination

• Aspects, obligations and risks planned in isolation from each other

The organization sets up, runs and maintains the processes it needs to meet the four planning sub-clauses of 6.1 (this one and the three that follow it). In planning the environmental management system it considers the issues identified under 4.1, the requirements identified under 4.2 and the system's scope, and it identifies which risks and opportunities, arising from its environmental aspects, its compliance obligations and those other issues and requirements, must be dealt with so that the system can be relied on to deliver its intended outcomes, so that undesired effects are prevented or reduced (including the chance that outside environmental conditions will affect the organization), and so that continual improvement is achieved. Within the system's scope it also identifies potential emergencies, including any that could cause an environmental impact. It keeps documented information

• Documented risks and opportunities linked to aspects, compliance obligations and context
• Register of potential emergency situations within the scope
• Documented planning processes covering clauses 6.1.1 through 6.1.4

• Risks recorded only as aspects, with no view of threats from external environmental conditions
• Emergency situations identified in the emergency plan but not in planning
• No documented process behind the aspects and obligations registers

Within the system's scope, the organization identifies the environmental aspects of what it does and of the products and services it offers, both those it controls and those it can only influence, together with the environmental impacts linked to them, taking a life cycle perspective. In doing so it takes account of change, such as planned or new developments and activities, products and services that are new or altered, and of abnormal conditions and emergencies that can reasonably be foreseen. Applying criteria it has set, it decides which aspects have, or could have, a significant impact on the environment, communicates its significant aspects across its different functions and levels where appropriate, and keeps documented information on its aspects and impacts, on the criteria for judging significance, and on which aspects are significant.

• Aspects and impacts register covering normal, abnormal and emergency conditions and each life cycle stage
• Documented significance criteria and the scoring that applied them
• List of significant environmental aspects and evidence of their communication
• Review of aspects on change (new products, processes, sites)

• Aspects limited to site operations with no life cycle perspective (procurement, use, end of life)
• Significance criteria undocumented, so the significant list cannot be defended
• Register not updated when activities change
• Aspects the organization can only influence (suppliers, customers) never considered

The organization identifies the compliance obligations that relate to its environmental aspects and makes sure it can consult them, works out how each applies to it, and takes them into account throughout setting up, running, maintaining and continually improving the environmental management system. It keeps documented information on these obligations.

• Register of compliance obligations (legal requirements and other requirements the organization adopts) with how each applies
• Evidence of access to current legal texts, permits and licence conditions
• Update process and records for changes in obligations

• Register lists laws by title without stating how each applies to the organization
• Voluntary commitments (customer codes, industry charters) omitted
• Permit conditions not captured as obligations
• Register not updated after regulatory change

The organization plans actions to deal with its compliance obligations, its significant environmental aspects, and the risks and opportunities it found under 6.1.1, and plans how to build those actions into the processes of the environmental management system or other business processes, carry them out, and judge whether they worked. In planning them it takes into account the technology options open to it and its business, operational and financial requirements.

• Action plans traceable to each significant aspect, compliance obligation and risk or opportunity
• Evidence of integration into operational, procurement or design processes
• Effectiveness evaluation records for the actions

• Significant aspects identified but no action planned for some of them
• Actions live in a standalone environmental plan and never reach business processes
• Effectiveness of actions never evaluated

The organization sets environmental objectives and plans the actions to achieve them. This clause groups the objectives (6.2.1) and the planning of actions to achieve them (6.2.2).

• Environmental objectives and programmes

• Objectives without plans

The organization sets environmental objectives for the relevant functions and levels, taking account of its significant environmental aspects and the compliance obligations tied to them with its risks and opportunities also considered. The objectives are consistent with the environmental policy; they are measurable where this is practicable; and they are monitored, communicated and updated when appropriate. Documented information about the objectives is maintained.

• Documented environmental objectives set for the relevant levels and functions
• Traceability from each objective to a significant aspect, obligation or risk
• Monitoring records and communication of the objectives

• Objectives unrelated to the significant aspects
• Objectives not measurable, so achievement cannot be shown
• Objectives set at corporate level only

In planning how its environmental objectives will be met, the organization decides what is to be done, which resources are needed, who is responsible, the completion date, and how results will be judged, with indicators that track progress toward its measurable objectives. It considers how these actions can be built into its business processes.

• Environmental programmes or action plans with actions, resources, owners, dates and indicators
• Progress indicators reported through 9.1.1
• Evidence of integration into budgets, projects or operational plans

• Objectives with no dated, owned actions behind them
• No indicator to show progress before the deadline
• Programmes funded outside the business planning cycle and dropped when budgets tighten

The organization identifies and supplies what is required, in resources, to set up the environmental management system, run it, keep it going and improve it continually.

• Resource plan for the system (people, competence, infrastructure, technology, funding)
• Budget and staffing allocations traceable to the system's needs
• Records of resource shortfalls raised and decided

• Environmental function under-resourced relative to the significant aspects
• Monitoring equipment or specialist competence not funded
• Shortfalls known but never escalated

The organization works out what competence is needed by those working under its control whose work bears on its environmental performance or on whether it meets its compliance obligations; makes sure these people are competent through suitable education, training or experience; identifies the training needed in relation to its environmental aspects and to the environmental management system; and, where relevant, acts to obtain the competence required and checks whether those actions worked. Suitable documented information is kept to evidence competence.

• Competence requirements for roles affecting environmental performance and compliance
• Training needs analysis linked to significant aspects
• Training and competence records, including contractors
• Effectiveness evaluation of competence actions

• Competence defined for the environmental team but not for operators of significant-aspect processes
• Training needs never linked to the aspects register
• Contractor competence not verified
• Training delivered but effectiveness never evaluated

Everyone working under the organization's control is made aware of four things: the environmental policy; the significant environmental aspects linked to their own work and the actual or potential impacts those aspects carry; how they help the environmental management system work, including what better environmental performance brings; and what follows if they depart from the system's requirements, including the organization failing to meet its compliance obligations.

• Awareness programme (induction, toolbox talks, briefings) covering policy, aspects, contribution and consequences
• Job-specific awareness of the significant aspects and impacts of each role
• Interview or observation evidence that front-line staff know the aspects of their work

• Awareness assumed from a policy on the noticeboard
• Staff cannot name the significant aspects of their own work
• Contractors and temporary workers left out

The organization establishes communication processes for the environmental management system. This clause groups the general requirements (7.4.1), internal communication (7.4.2) and external communication (7.4.3).

• Communication process

• No defined process

The organization sets up, runs and keeps up the processes it needs to communicate about the environmental management system inside and outside the organization, deciding what it will say, to whom, when and by what means. When setting up those processes it takes its compliance obligations into account and makes sure that any environmental information it puts out is reliable and matches the information the system itself produces. It answers relevant communications it receives about the system and keeps documented information evidencing its communications where appropriate.

• Communication procedure or plan (what, when, to whom, how) covering internal and external audiences
• Controls ensuring published environmental information is consistent with monitoring data
• Log of communications received and responses given
• Records of communications made

• Public environmental claims not reconciled with internal monitoring results
• Complaints received but no record of the response
• Communication limited to what regulators require

Information about the environmental management system, changes to it included where appropriate, is passed internally between the organization's functions and levels, and the organization makes sure its communication processes let the people working under its control help drive continual improvement.

• Evidence of internal communication of system information and changes (briefings, intranet, meetings)
• Mechanism for staff and contractors to raise improvement suggestions and evidence it is used

• System changes communicated only to managers
• No channel for workers to contribute improvements, or a channel nobody uses

The organization communicates information about its environmental management system to outside parties in the way its own communication processes set out and as its compliance obligations demand.

• External communications (regulatory reports, public disclosures, customer responses) as the communication process defines
• Evidence that mandatory external reporting under compliance obligations was made on time

• Regulatory reporting obligations missed or late
• External communication undertaken ad hoc with no defined process

The environmental management system contains the documented information that the standard and the organization itself require. This clause groups three requirements: the general requirement at 7.5.1, how documented information is created and updated at 7.5.2, and how it is controlled at 7.5.3.

• Document control system

• Documents uncontrolled

The organization's environmental management system contains the documented information the standard calls for, plus whatever documented information the organization decides it needs for the system to be effective. How much documented information is appropriate varies with the organization's size and the kind of activities it carries out, with how far it must show that its compliance obligations are met, with how complex its processes are and how they interact, and with how competent the people working under its control are.

• Master list of the documented information the system requires (the standard's mandatory items plus the organization's own)
• Rationale for the extent of documentation relative to compliance obligations and process complexity

• Mandatory documented information (scope, policy, aspects, obligations, objectives, monitoring, audits, reviews, nonconformities) missing or incomplete
• Documentation so extensive nobody maintains it

Whenever it writes or revises documented information, the organization gives each item a suitable identity and description (for example its title, issue date, author, or a reference code), chooses a fitting format and medium (language, software version, graphics; paper or electronic), and has the item checked and approved so that it is fit for purpose and complete enough before use.

• Document identification convention applied to system documents
• Review and approval records for procedures, plans and registers
• Format and media standards

• Unapproved working versions in use
• Registers (aspects, obligations) updated without review or approval

Documented information that the standard and the environmental management system call for is controlled so that it can be found and used, in a fit state, wherever and whenever it is needed, and is properly protected against improper use, loss of integrity or loss of confidentiality. Where relevant, the organization deals with distribution, access, retrieval and use; storage and preservation, legibility included; control of changes, version control included; and retention and disposition. Documented information originating outside the organization that it judges necessary for planning and running the system is identified as appropriate and brought under control.

• Document control procedure and register with versions, access and retention rules
• Controlled external documents (permits, regulations, safety data sheets) identified and current
• Retention schedule for environmental records meeting legal minimums

• Superseded procedures still in use on the floor
• Permits and regulations held at obsolete versions
• Monitoring records discarded before legal retention periods end

Terms and definitions, not a requirement. Defines management system, environmental management system, environmental policy, organization, top management and interested party.

Terms and definitions, not a requirement. Defines environment, environmental aspect, environmental condition, environmental impact, objective, environmental objective, prevention of pollution, requirement, compliance obligations, risk, and risks and opportunities.

Terms and definitions, not a requirement. Defines competence, documented information, life cycle, outsource and process.

Terms and definitions, not a requirement. Defines audit, conformity, nonconformity, corrective action, continual improvement, effectiveness, indicator, monitoring, measurement, performance and environmental performance.