Clearview National February 2015 - Issue 159 | Page 73

businessnews

Cautious
welcome for ISO
14001 revised
standard draft
agreement
News that the revision to the ISO 14001
international standard has been approved
for final draft status has been given a
cautious welcome by Cedrec Information
Systems. However, the online legislation
specialist is also voicing concerns over its
implementation and is urging businesses
to start preparing now for its likely impact.
»»Strong support from
ISO member bodies for the
draft standard has seen the
revision move towards the
final approval stage. But this
agreement is in contrast to
the views of environmental
professionals who will be charged
with implementing the revised
standard.
Research conducted by Cedrec
back in August revealed that
there is significant uncertainty
about the impact of the new
standard on management
system operations. It showed
that nearly two-thirds (62%) of
environmental professionals don’t
know how the changes will affect
their management systems.
Commenting on the draft
standard, Richard Clarke, senior
consultant at Cedrec, said: “While
the new version of ISO 14001
represents a significant change in
the requirements of the standard,
it’s clear that many environmental
managers remain unsure what this
will mean.

“So, the sooner ISO can
adopt the standard as a final
version; the sooner work can
begin in assessing the changes
that will need to be made to
conform to the range of revised
requirements.”
Richard Clarke is also
concerned that changes to legal
compliance requirements may
contribute to fundamental
modifications to regulation in the
future, adding:
“The revision includes
changes to the legal compliance
requirements which are set against
a background of discussions
between the regulator and
accreditation bodies around
changes in the extent of
regulatory control.
“While a revised 14001
supporting an enhanced legal
compliance process is welcome,
businesses need to know precisely
what this will mean.”
He points to the SNIFFER
project report (April 2011)
on “Improving environmental

compliance outcomes” which
illustrated that there is a
significant variation in outcomes
between third party audit and
regulatory inspections with
respect to legal compliance.
Although the final version of
the ISO standard is expected in
Q3/2015 and businesses will have
up to three years to migrate to
the new requirements, Richard
Clarke believes that businesses
need to consider impacts as soon
as possible and is urging them to
act today.
“If the regulatory model
is to change and businesses’
environmental management
systems form the basis of
assurance of compliance, then
big changes will be needed in
many organisations” says Richard
Clarke.
“That process needs to start
as soon as possible as part of
ongoing evaluation of compliance

within existing systems in
readiness for the change to
come.”
Expert advice on the impact of
recent and upcoming changes to
environmental legislation will be
available from Cedrec at its new
2015 UK-wide roadshow. These
will help organisations understand
better the impact they have on
businesses as well as offering oneon-one support on a range of legal
compliance and management
system issues, including the
revision to ISO 14001.
Cedrec special