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An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a set of processes and practices that
enable an organization to reduce its environmental impacts and increase its operating
efficiency. It is a framework that helps an organization to achieve its environmental
goals through consistent control of its operations. The assumption is that this
increased control will improve the environmental performance of the company. The
EMS itself does not dictate a level of environmental performance that must be achieved;
each organization's EMS is tailored to the organization's business and goals An
Environmental Management System (EMS) determines and continuously improves an organization’s
environmental position and performance. It follows an outline and is managed like
any other facet of a business; quality, safety, etc, and provides a framework for
implementing improvements or to meet regulatory requirements. Ideally, it is built
on an existing quality management system. (ISO 9001).
EMS specifies requirements for an environmental management system to enable an organization
to develop and implement a policy and objectives which take into account legal requirements
and other requirements to which the organization subscribes, and information about
significant environmental aspects. It applies to those environmental aspects that
the organization identifies as those which it can control and those which it can
influence. It does not itself state specific environmental performance criteria.EMS
is applicable to any organization that wishes to establish, implement, maintain
and improve an environmental management system, to assure itself of conformity with
its stated environmental policy, and to demonstrate conformity with ISO 14001:2004
by:
- making a self-determination and self-declaration, or
- seeking confirmation of its conformance by parties having an interest in the organization,
such as customers, or
- seeking confirmation of its self-declaration by a party external to the organization,
or
- seeking certification/registration of its environmental management system by an
external organization.
All the requirements in ISO 14001:2004 are intended to be incorporated into any
environmental management system. The extent of the application will depend on factors
such as the environmental policy of the organization, the nature of its activities,
products and services and the location where and the conditions in which it functions.
- Environmental management system requirements
- Environmental policy
- Planning
- Implementation and operation
- Documentation
- Control of documents
- Emergency preparation and response
- Checking
- Internal Audit
- Management Review
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