ISO 14001 Internal Audit: Five Easy Steps

Before implementing an ISO certified EMS, an organization must be aware of the vitals steps associated with the ISO 14001 internal audit. In this article, you will explore five important steps of an EMS audit. 

You may have read a lot about the ISO 9001 internal audit. This is quite natural; after all, it’s the most popular ISO standard across the globe. However, no less important is the ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standard. This is high time the businesses should consider this international ISO standard.

 

ISO 14001 Standard is based on the concept of reducing the environmental impact of the organizations. The main requirement of this standard is the implementation of an Environmental Management System or EMS. The major goals of this EMS should be:

• Reduction of environmental impact

• Encouraging environment sustainability

• Growing the Business Green

The most important part of ISO standardization is an internal audit. This process determines whether the system is working as per the expectations or it needs improvement in certain areas. An internal audit should identify the loopholes so that the organization can fulfill them before the final audit. In this article, we are going to discuss five vitals steps an organization needs to conduct the ISO 14001 internal audit.   

      

In the beginning, it is important to schedule the audit as per the convenience of both parties- the organization and the internal auditors. This schedule should clearly define the audit plan for each of the processes associated with the EMS. Each plan should be drafted with a common goal of achieving compliance with the ISO 14001 standard. Generally, the cycle for this is often a year. However, an organization is free to select the frequency of the internal audit. In this context, it is important to note that frequent internal audit can help an organization maintain the EMS in a better way. It is important to make sure that the audit schedule is practical enough to be implemented. 

Once the audit schedule is fixed, the auditors should start the preparations. Review of the existing process is vital for this. Moreover, a proper evaluation of the associated environmental aspects of the environmental management process is required. There is a subtle difference between the Quality Management internal audit and Environment Management internal audit. The former one looks at the QMS to find out how well it is doing against the plans for the products or services outlined by the organization while the latter tries to determine how well the EMS is performing against the plans drafted for the environmental aspects.

When it comes to the execution of an audit, regardless whether it is ISO 45001 internal audit or ISO 14001, an organization must understand that internal audit is meant for judging the legal compliance of the environmental process. This process, however, is stated elsewhere in section 4.5.2 of the ISO 14001 Standard. The internal audit is to inspect the process against the environmental plans that the company outlined for the process.

Like every audit, an EMS process audit would be useless when it is not reported properly. If the employees associated with the process are doing well, they need to know this. On the other hand, the employees should also understand their roles can contribute to the overall process. Auditors would point out the opportunities to improve the overall business process. This is one of the best ways through which an organization can gain the most value out of the internal audit process.

Once the audit is done, the auditors will provide the audit report along with some valuable recommendations that the organization must follow. Follow up is an integral part of the ISO 14001 internal audit. If you are looking for certification, then you must clear the audit held by a neutral certification body.

Often businesses think that they need separate audits for the Environmental Management System. This is not the right concept. An organization is able to use one process for an internal audit if the organization wants compliance with more than one management system. Integrating common processes including the internal audit and corrective and preventive actions, a company can save both time and money. For instance, it is possible to maintain QMS (Quality Management System) and EMS together by using common processes. Mainly a business needs to ensure that they are satisfying the requirements of the management systems during the internal audit. Meeting all the requirements in one single audit is beneficial for an organization’s finance.

Damon Anderson is an ISO auditor having experience in ISO 14001 internal audit and ISO 45001 internal audit. He is a regular blogger who takes a keen interest in the ISO and technological niche. His blogs help his readers develop a right insight into the ISO standards and audits. 

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