Guide to the ISO 14001 Certification for Small Businesses

Every business should be proactive in today’s market in that they should concern themselves with protecting and controlling their environmental impacts, protecting resources, human beings, flora, and fauna around them. Large organizations are working towards this by implementing meaningful strategies which include achieving the ISO 14001 certification and initiating changes to processes, but small businesses could find this entire process to be cumbersome and difficult.


Smaller enterprises could struggle to implement a strategy or strategies for environmental management because of the lack of resources, time and ultimately may not have adequate staff to dedicate to an implementation of an Environmental Management System (EMS). Also, it could be cost-prohibitive and time-consuming for them to implement the EMS with limited staff because this cause major disruption in their key business operations.


While environmental management is priority for every organization regardless of its size, here in this blog, we try to make things a little easier for small businesses. We have provided a simplified guide to help implement the EMS while getting certified with the ISO 14001 standard.


If you own a small business, you can follow these essential guidelines for contributing to environmental management. 


Implementing the EMS


To begin the implementation of an EMS, you need to first determine your own environmental targets and write them down. Determine these outlining your current processes and their real impacts as well as potential consequences on the environment. To identify these the targets, conduct a thorough review of your processes.


Apart from getting the targets set, the next most important item is to learn the requirements of the ISO 14001 standard to understand how they each item applies in the context of your small business. Accordingly, plan and set timelines for implementing the EMS.


The sooner you start with the procedure of implementing the EMS, the better it is. You can demonstrate your efforts for environmental management to the stakeholders as well as the society. They can provide inputs on further improving the EMS according to their own interests. 


Getting ISO Certified


As a small business you may not have a specific team, environmental management group and or people that are experienced in the certification of the EMS. Therefore, the responsibility become yours along with the people who assist you (i.e. the few members who are in the management team of the business).  You may need to do everything by yourself and or delegate to inexperienced staff member to complete internal audit of the EMS.


Through the audit procedure, measure the environmental performance of your business i.e. how you can achieve the decided targets. Secondly, determine whether the requirements of the ISO 14001 are met and decide the necessary corrective measures for when nonconformities are discovered in the EMS.


When the EMS seems to be compliant with the requirements and looks capable of achieving all the environmental targets, it is time to submit the application for ISO certification to an accredited body. The body will then perform an on-site certification audit in two stages to find whether your business and EMS are compliant with every requirement. After they are assured of that, they would grant the certification.


Essential Considerations


If you are a small business owner, here are the few things that you need to consider making sure the certification is not delayed, or your business falls short along the review.


• Enforce new business practices that aim at reducing waste and risks


• Alert all employees about the need for environmental management and make them participate in the EMS implementation


• Conduct frequent periodic audits to ensure that the environmental performance is continually improved after the implementation


• Keep up to date with the latest environmental regulations and laws to ensure there are no risks of noncompliance that may lead to penalties, litigation cases, or damage to the business’s reputation


Bottom Line


This blog is an attempt to guide small business owners with limited resources and staff to get the ISO 14001 certification, the supreme benchmark for environmental performance. Many small businesses step back from implementing the EMS and getting the certification because they consider investing their meager resources will neither make the EMS effective nor eligible to be certified. However, that is truly not the case! Small businesses can be equally benefitted as that of the large companies if they implement the EMS rightly and meet the ISO requirements with it.


Contact Details:

Business Name: Compliancehelp Consulting, LLC

Email Id: info@quality-assurance.com

Phone No: 877 238 5855


Also Read: What is an ISO Accreditation & How is it Different from the ISO Certification?

Location: 5686 S Redwood Rd, Salt Lake City, UT 84118, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Overview of ISO 13485 Certification: Who Needs It and Why

Image
 ISO 13485 is the designated standard for quality management of medical devices. A Quality Management System (QMS) is the most indispensable management system needed in every business to help meet their customers’ needs continuously. In other words, it helps in maintaining a business’s position or competitiveness in the market. Since the medical device industry must focus specifically on maintaining the quality and reliability of products for patients’ safety, the ISO 13485 certification is instrumental for their QMS. Here is why businesses in the medical device industry should be conscious of the certification and why it is important.  What is the ISO 13485 Certification? ISO 13485 was clearly designed to assist manufacturers or businesses in the medical device industry with a powerful QMS. To achieve this certification, they need to standardize their processes and adopt effective quality management practices. It ensures that there is consistency in all the phases of producti...
Read more

Does the ISO 9001 Certification Augment Cost Effective Initiatives?

Image
The ISO 9001 certification is a widely adopted standard for quality management systems. The reason is the stringent protocols it offers and its comprehensive approach to quality assurance. A company’s long-term strategies must incorporate quality control measures as service quality is a key factor for brand establishment and brand loyalty along with other than promotional campaigns and marketing. The common question is whether accreditation helps with a company’s fundamental tactics for cost management or not. Small and medium-size companies that want to sustain their market pressure and competition based on their quality often raise this question. Their primary goals are to stabilize their profit margin, increase the number of loyal customers, and market expansion. The ISO 9001 is a single solution to a dozen such concerns. It has a robust structure that consists of a plethora of business requirements and one of them is cost management. The following blog will outline the ISO 9001’s ...
Read more

Bridging the Gaps in Your Quality Management Procedures

Image
If your business is striving to prosper and acquire more customers by providing quality products or services, then get your approach to quality management adherent with ISO 9001 standard. It is the international standard for the quality management system (QMS) achieved by millions of businesses worldwide. It specifies the regulations or guidelines for quality management that organizations need to adopt for ensuring quality and reliability of their products or services. But how to get your quality management approach compliant with ISO 9001 regulations? Well, bridging the gaps in your QMS to achieve ISO 9001 compliance is a systematic process. To figure out the steps involved in the gap analysis, you need support from a quality assurance services company . You can also do it yourself with a fully competent team having proper understanding of the regulations and practices specified by ISO 9001. While bridging the gaps in your quality management framework can h quality assurance services ...
Read more