Environmental Management Standard accreditation

BSI, the business standards company, has received the official global accreditation status from the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) for the new Environmental Management System Standard, ISO 14001:2015 which was published earlier this month.

To gain accredited status, BSI’s processes were independently reviewed utilizing ISO/FDIS 14001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 (published on 15 September 2015) to ensure they operate at the highest level of quality and service. This provides assurance to clients that the certificates issued to them, are both credible and impartial. BSI is now able to carry out accredited audits to the new version of the standard meaning organizations can begin their transition process.

The new version of the standard is a significant change from the previous version and raises the profile of Environmental Management in organizations. Some of the key changes to the standard include:

• A new high level structure (HLS) - featuring terms, definitions, headings and text common to all management system standards, allowing easy integration when implementing multiple management systems
• Increased emphasis on the role that top management have in ensuring the  environmental management system (EMS) is integrated into business processes and environmental performance
• Consideration of the risks the organization faces (for example, the price volatility of raw materials), as well as the opportunities these risks present (greater resource efficiency) 
• Focus placed on the context of the organization, helping businesses better understand their impact on the environment but, as importantly, the impact that environmental concerns (such as climate change) have on them

Marc Barnes, Managing Director at BSI Australia and New Zealand said “As ISO 14001 is the world’s leading Environmental Management System Standard, achieving ANAB accreditation is an important milestone for us that we are very proud of. We have invested heavily in making sure that we provide our clients with the best service possible to transition early to the new standard so that they can start to see the benefits quickly. ISO 14001:2015 raises the profile of environmental management to a new level so organizations should see numerous benefits including better efficiencies and environmental performance, as well as helping them meet environmental requirements.”