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The ISO 14001 development committee (Technical Committee 207, Subcommittee 1, Working Group 5) has made progress in moving the new 14001 standard from a Draft International Standard (DIS) to a Final Draft International Standard (FDIS).  Publication of the FDIS is anticipated in September 2015.

Graphic from ISO.org. Click for more information.

As I explained in a previous blog post, there are a number of changes being made to the standard, for the following reasons:

  1. To generate new approaches to environmental management that can meet a variety of stakeholders’ requests
  2. To align the format to a common structure of ISO management standards like ISO 9001 for Quality Management Systems.  This common structure is also referred to as a High Level Structure (HLS)

Some of the expected key changes may include:

  • Requirements for more integration of the EMS strategy into the overall business plan
  • A new element on leadership calling for top management to visibly demonstrate their commitment to environmental performance
  • Greater emphasis in the Environmental Policy on sustainable resource use and climate change mitigation
  • Subtle wording changes, in reference to:
    • context of the organization
    • needs of interested parties
    • risk associated with threats and opportunities
  • Lifecycle thinking when considering environmental aspects

More on the potential changes may be found on the ISO website.

Your NC State University Industrial Extension Service assists companies to comply with the anticipated changes.  For information, contact Charlie Parrish, Environmental Engineering Specialist: Charles_Parrish@ncsu.edu.

Charlie Parrish

Charlie Parrish joined IES in 1998 and assists NC manufacturers in areas including safety, energy, environmental compliance auditing , air quality permitting, emissions testing, industrial waste minimization assessments, energy surveys, and health and safety assessments & training. Charlie has a B.S. in biology (1978) from San Diego State University and an M.S. in environmental engineering (1989) from Virginia Tech University. Charlie received his P.E. license in environmental engineering in 1994.