2 Standards, definitions and books T 17
2.1 Standards
Environmental standards and references
The common points between ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 version 2015 are manifold in form and content.
Another demonstration of the close relationship between the two management systemset of processes allowing objectives to be achieved (see also ISO 9000, 3.5.3) standards is ISO 19011 (2018): "Guidelines for auditing management systems."
The ISO 14004: 2016 standard "Environmental management systems - General guidelines on principles, systems and technical implementation" contains many explanations, practical tips and examples.
ISO 14031: 2021 "Environmental Management - Environmental performance evaluation - Guidelines" shows how to set up and use the environmental performancemeasurable and expected results of the management system (see also ISO 9000, 3.7.8) evaluation (EPE) and the analysis of the life cycle to find improvement points. Its commitment to compliance with legal and regulatory requirementsexplicit or implicit need or expectation (see also ISO 9000, 3.6.4), pollution prevention and continual improvementprocess allowing the improvement of the global performance of the organization (see also ISO 9000, 3.3.2) can be evaluated with the help of indicators.
ISO 14005: 2019 "Environmental management systems - Guidelines for the phased implementation of an environmental management system, including the use of environmental performance evaluation" shows how to implement an environmental management system in 3 phases, 19 clauses and 72 steps.
ISO 14044: 2006 "Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - Requirements and Guidelines" specifies requirements and provides guidelines for conducting life cycle assessments.
ISO 14063: 2020 "Environmental Communication" provides guidance on general principles, policy, strategy and activities relating to internal and external environmental communication.
ISO 14050: 2020 "Environmental management - Vocabulary" provides definitions of basic concepts, directly related to environmental management.
ISO 31000: 2018 "Risk management - Guidelines" establishes the principles and risk management process, risk assessment and risk treatment.
All of these standards and many more can be ordered in electronic or paper format on the ISO site.
More than 28,000 standards (in English and other languages) are available for free on the Public.Resource.Org site.
2.2 Definitions
Environmental terms and definitions
The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms. Socrates
Some terms and definitions used in relation with the EMSEnvironmental Management System:
Competence: personal skills, knowledge and experience
Conformity: fulfillment of a specified requirement
Corective action: action to eliminate the causes of nonconformity or any other undesirable event to prevent their recurrence
Documented information: any support allowing the treatment of information
Effectiveness: capacity to realize planned activities with minimum effort
Efficiency: financial relationship between achieved results and used resources
Emergency situation: event that poses a serious threat to life, health, property or the environment
Environment: space in which any organization functions
Environmental aspect: every element of an arganization that interacts with the environment
Environmental impact: every change in the environment caused by an organization
Environmental objective: environment related, measurable goal that must be achieved
Environmental performance: measurable results of the environmental management system
Indicator: value of a parameter, associated with an objective, allowing the objective measure of its effectiveness
Interested party: person, group or company affected by the impacts from an organization
Management system: set of processes allowing objectives to be achieved
Nonconformity: non-fulfillment of a specified requirement
Organization (company): a structure that satisfies a need
Process: activities that transform inputs into outputs
Requirement: explicit or implicit need or expectation
Risk: likelihood of occurrence of a threat or an opportunity
Top management: group or persons in charge of the organizational control at the highest level
In the terminology of management systemsset of processes allowing objectives to be achieved (see also ISO 9000, 3.5.3), do not confuse:
- accident and incident
- an accident is an unexpected serious event
- an incident is an event that can lead to an accident
- anomaly, defect, dysfunction, failure, nonconformity, reject and waste:
- anomaly is a deviation from what is expected
- defect is the non-fulfillment of a requirement related to an intended use
- dysfunction is a degraded function that can lead to a failure
- failure is when a function has become unfit
- nonconformity is the non-fulfillment of a requirement in production
- reject is a nonconforming product that will be destroyed
- waste is when there are added costs but no value
- audit, inspection, auditee and auditor
- an audit is the process of obtaining audit evidence
- an inspection is the verification of the conformity of a process or product
- an auditee is the one who is audited
- an auditor is the one who conducts the audit
- audit program and plan
- an audit program is the annual planning of the audits
- an audit plan is the description of the audit activities
- calibration and verification
- calibration is the confirmation of a value found related to a standard (troy weight)
- verification is the positioning of reference marks
- communicate and inform
- to communicate is to pass on a message, to listen to the reaction and discuss
- to inform is to give someone meaningful data
- customer, subcontractor and supplier
- a customer receives a product
- a subcontractor provides a service or a product on which a specific work is done
- a supplier provides a product
- effectiveness and efficiency
- effectiveness is the level of achievement of planned results
- efficiency is the ratio between results and resources
- follow-up and review
- follow-up is the verification of the obtained results of an action
- review is the analysis of the effectiveness in achieving objectives
- inform and communicate
- to inform is to give someone meaningful data
- to communicate is to pass on a message, to listen to the reaction and discuss
- objective and indicator
- an objective is a sought after commitment
- an indicator is the information on the difference between the pre-set objective and the echieved result
- organization and enterprise, society, company
- organization is the term used by the ISO 9001 standard as the entity between the supplier and the customer
- an enterprise, society and company are examples of organizations
- procedure, process, product, activity and task
- a procedure is the description of how we should conform to the rules
- a process is how we satisfy the customer using people to achieve the objectives
- a product is the result of a process
- an activity is a set of tasks
- a task is a sequence of simple operations
Remark 1: the use of ISO 14 001 definitions is recommended. The most important thing is to determine a common and unequivocal vocabulary for everyone in the company.
Remark 2: the customer can also be the user, the beneficiary, the trigger, the ordering party or the consumer.
Remark 3: documented information is any information that we must maintain (procedure 
) or retain (record 
).
Remark 4: the term "compliance obligations" introduced in ISO 14001 is equivalent to the terms "statutory and regulatory requirements" and legal and other requirements".
.jpg)
- ISO Online Browsing platform (OBP)
- IEC Electropedia
- A Dictionary of Environment and Conservation, Oxford, 2007
- ISO 9000: 2015 - Quality management systems. Fundamentals and vocabulary
2.3 Books
Books related to environment
Books for further reading on performance and environment:
Joseph Cascio et al, ISO 14000 Guide: The New International Environmental Management Standards, McGraw Hill, 1996
Philip Stapleton, Margaret Glover, EMS: An Implementation Guide for Small and Medium-Sized Organizations, USEPA, 1996
Gregory Johnson, The ISO 14000 EMS Audit Handbook, St Lucie, 1997
John Kinsella, Annette McCully, Handbook for Implementing an ISO14001 Environmental Management System, Shaw Environmental, 1999
Syed Imtiaz Haider, Environmental Management System ISO 14001: 2004: Handbook of Transition with CD-ROM, CRC Press, 2010
Naeem Sadiq, Asif Khan, ISO14001 Step by Step: A Practical Guide, IT Governance Publishing, 2011.jpg)
Trevor Price, Environmental Management Systems: How to boost organizational environmental performance, CreateSpace, 2014
Terry Bush, ISO 14001 154 Success Secrets - 154 Most Asked Questions On ISO 14001 - What You Need To Know, Emereo Publishing, 2014.jpg)
Ken Whitelaw, ISO 14001 Environmental Systems Handbook, Elsevier, 2015
Milton Denth, The ISO 14001:2015 Implementation Handbook, ASQ, 2016
When I think of all the books still left for me to read, I am certain of further happiness. Jules Renard