Environmental Aspects In ISO 14001 Standards EMS
First make lists of the environmental aspects (issues) that are relevant
to the business. The environmental review mentioned earlier should
provide most of this information and the Annex to ISO 14001 provides
guidance on the format for doing this.
Consider the inputs, outputs and processes/activities of the business in
relation to;
a) emissions to air
b) releases to water
c) waste management
d) contamination of land
e) use of raw materials and natural resources
f) other local environmental and community issues
Consider both site (direct) and offsite (ie. indirect) aspects that you
control or have influence over (such as suppliers) and in relation to
normal operations, shut-down and start-up conditions and reasonably
foreseeable and emergencies situations
A simple written procedure is then required to determine which of the
aspects identified are really or probably significant (important) and should
therefore be managed by the EMS. This process which is
similar to health and safety risk assessment ranks the aspects by order
of importance and the significant aspects identified are then the core
of the environmental management system.
There are various methods of determining significance but most are
based on the principle of attributing a relative value for the
environmental hazard or potential to cause harm (eg. on a scale of 1-
5) and the risk or likelihood of occurrence (eg. on a scale of 1-5). The
relative significance is then determined by multiplying the hazard by
the risk. (eg. max score of 25). An arbitrary but cautious threshold
value is then set above which environmental aspects are considered to
be significant. This threshold can be determined by a common sense
consideration of the aspects identified.
