ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management Systems
ISO 14001 is the worlds most popular ISO standard for Environmental Management Systems. It is currently under review, with an updated version due by the end of 2015
The last major update to the standard was in 2004, and obviously the focus on environmental management has changed dramatically since then. To ensure that ISO 14001 remains a useful and relevant tool for businesses, it is currently being revised.
ISO 14001 and it’s new structure
The new standard is based on a new high-level structure known as Annex SL, and is due to be published in August/September 2015. The key changes so far are:
- an enhanced focus on environmental performance improvement
- a greater emphasis on leadership
- a bigger focus on risk management
- fewer documentation requirements
- more transparency and accountability on environmental issues
- simplified language to ease understanding
- improved communication and awareness
- less prescriptive clause requirements
- easier to integrate other management systems
ISO 14001 development timeline
What is Annex SL?
ISO 14001:2015 - the next revision
ISO 14001 drafting process explained
The committee draft (CD) is the 1st general consultation for the next revision to the ISO 14001 standard. ISO members (usually individual countries) that have decided to help out in the development of this update will be asked to comment on the changes and how it will affect them. Although you can buy a copy of this draft document on the iso.org website, the general public cannot officially comment on it at this stage.
This document is known as ISO/CD 14001.
Each ISO members comments will be discussed by experts from the ISO/TC 207 technical committee. Once agreement has been reached a Draft International Standard (DIS) is then released for public comment.
This document is known as ISO/DIS 14001.
As with the previous DIS stage, all comments are discussed by the technical committee to ensure that all parties comments and interests have been addressed. Minor changes may be made at this stage, but based on previous revisions to the ISO 14001 standard, the FDIS document remains largely unchanged.
Once all of the drafting stages have been accepted, it then becomes a published document with a new date at the end (hopefully ISO 14001:2015)
If all goes according to plan and the revised standard is published in 2015, a transition period is given before ISO 14001 : 2004 becomes out-of-date.
This usually happens approx. 3 years after the standard is revised.
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