ISO 14001 Aspects & Impacts Simplified - YouTube

with many companies now adapting to the new ISO Environmental Management System

or ISO 14001:2015 here's how AGF can help you with a basic understanding of

one of the major requirements of the standard most notably identifying your

organization's environmental aspects and impacts the definition of environmental

aspects where ISO 14001:2015 is an element of an organization's activities

or products or services to can interact with the environment while the

definition of environmental impacts for ISO 14001:2015 is any change to the

environment whether adverse or beneficial weather as a whole boring

part resulting from an organization's environmental aspects the definition of

an environmental aspect is any part of an organization's activities products or

services that can interact with the environment

positively or negatively therefore initially using that statement we should

list all parts of your business in a register that have an effect for example

waste stream gas usage electricity usage water uses

transportation oil chemicals and others these can then be split into

subcategories of electricity air conditioners lighting compressors

equipment and others when identifying environmental aspects all parts of the

company's operations in the defined scope have to be considered not just the

obvious core manufacturing or service activities for example most facilities

have a maintenance department offices are contained heating and cooling

systems vehicle parking and contractors supplier activities each of which may

have an impact on the environment once identified determine what its aspect may

cost to the environment this is the impact portion of the register examples

of impacts may be land pollution air emissions runoff the land and water or

use of limited resources

here's an example photocopying a paper in the office is an activity when

performing this activity we need to consume paper and electricity while

operating the photocopy machine consumption of paper and electricity are

the environmental aspects of this activity the environmental impact of

this environmental aspect is resource depletion where paper is made from trees

and electricity is generated from oil or gas both of these sources can actually

be depleted the next step is to decide a scoring system which could involve

severity occurrence and detection relevant to your firm's environmental

policy a cost or environmental concern make sure to award its environmental

aspect a score to reflect the relative importance of the following items these

are legislation the severity of environmental damage reaction of

interested parties such as customers and environmental groups quantity for

example the volume of the waste type

aspects with high-risk priority numbers should be assigned specific objectives

targets and programs environmental objectives are the overall goals of the

business organization in improving environmental performance through its

environmental management system environmental targets provide short-term

goals on the way to achieving these overall objectives one objective can

have several targets for example one targets will be to reduce waste going to

landfill by 10% in the first year your objectives and targets should be based

on your environmental policy information gained from your initial review your

aspect impact evaluation they should aim to address any significant environmental

aspects and should incorporate specific legal requirements ultimately your

aspects impacts register will help you establish your EMS objectives and

targets an EMS can often be more complicated than needed and the key to

any effective EMS is getting the environmental aspect right at the very

beginning identifying the environmental aspects properly will not only save you

time but also enable you to achieve great benefits with your EMS once it is implemented.

For more information visit our website at

www.agfconsultinggroup.com