Understanding the Organizational Context for the ISO 14001 Certification

 As with any ISO certification journey, the ISO 14001 certification for Environmental Management System (EMS) requires an organization to have clear understanding of their context. This simply means knowing where to start from and what you want to get out of the ISO 14001 standard in your organization. This makes defining of the ‘organizational context’ very crucial if you want to achieve the ISO standard for your EMS.

Organizational context is actually defined as a thorough understanding and underlining of the external and internal issues that can directly impact your organization or its goals. Explaining it more simply, the ISO 14001 standard is meant to improve the overall environmental performance of an organization. Defining its context in your organization means finding out how ISO 14001 works to improve your environmental performance.  Although there is no prescribed method for determining the organizational context for ISO 14001 or for any other standard, here we are a few logical steps to determine it. 


Steps to Determine the Organizational Context of Your Business

Recognize Your Internal and External Issues  

You need to define the internal context of your business regarding environmental management. This is mainly the objectives that you want to achieve with it. The key internal issues to consider for determining your context are regulatory environmental requirements, environmental policies, risk appetite, resources and capital, relationship with staff, input materials, and products/services. 

The external issues that you should consider for determining your context are governmental legislations, global environmental perceptions/challenges, competitiveness in the market, and technological changes. 

Identification of Interested Parties

To set your context, you should also determine the interested parties in your business. Interested parties are the persons within as well as outside of your organization who would benefit from the ISO 14001 EMS. They generally include the customers or end-users, employees, shareholders, suppliers or distributors, partners, owners, regulators, and society members.

Document the Context

Once you have clearly defined the organizational context, it is necessary to document it. The ISO 14001 standard comprises documented information of the context as one of its requirements. Its key purpose is to provide a high level, clear and conceptual, understanding of the issues and relevant parties to the members who will be responsible for implementing the ISO 14001.

Review and Monitor

The ISO 14001 standard also mentions management reviews and evaluations as a necessity for successful implementation of the EMS. The review procedures should be conducted frequently by the management. Therefore, they should contemplate the changes that might have occurred in external and internal issues, changes in expectations or needs of the interested parties, or updates made in the ISO compliance requirements. 

Bottom Line

The journey to successful ISO 14001 certification cannot be completed unless you properly define the context of your organization to the standard. Determining the context and also documenting it is required to make it available to members of the organization. It helps in achieving the objectives more easily. The implementation of the EMS is never dictated by environmental managers or the ISO 14001 requirements. Instead, it depends on several internal and external factors, interested parties, and expected outcomes from your environmental management.

Also Read: Know Your Quality Objectives and Plan to Achieve Them with This Guide

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