The ISO 14001 Environmental Management System
Self-Assessment Checklist has been developed to improve facility managers’
understanding of the requirements and elements of the environmental management
system outlined in the ISO 14001 draft international standard. It is designed
to allow for a rapid self-assessment of an organization or facility to
determine how closely existing management practices and procedures correspond
to the elements of the standard. The criteria of the draft standard have been
rephrased in the format of a simple questionnaire, with a three-part scoring
system, as explained in this document. In addition to a brief guide to self-scoring,
a fuller description of what is required by the standard’s criteria is included
in the appendix. In this format, even with limited background knowledge of the
ISO 14001 standard, a facility or other business manager can quickly review
existing operations to determine how they measure up to the standard. This in
turn can serve as the starting point of a “gap analysis” to identify management
tools or system elements that might usefully be implemented in the organization
to help improve overall environmental performance.
The ISO 14001 Environmental Management System
Self-Assessment Checklist contains a total of 31 questions in five
different sections, corresponding to the five guiding principles listed in the
ISO 14004 standard, to identify to what extent your environmental management
system is complete in comparison to the requirements set in the ISO 14001
standard.
To
facilitate answering the questions, there is a table beneath each question with
three columns of examples. Each column corresponds to a score: “0”: a situation
which does not comply at all with the requirement; “1”: a situation where the
requirement is more or less fulfilled, but where there is still room for
improvement and a score “1” applies; and “2” a situation in which the requirement
appears to be completely fulfilled. It is possible to calculate a score by
using one of two methods. In the first method, you should begin with the first
column to determine if the situation described therein accurately reflects the
situation in your organization or facility. If not, then proceed to the second
column and make the same decision. Eventually, move on to the third column and
ask the same questions. In this way, you “build” progressively on your score.
A perfect
score of “62” (i.e., every question received a score of 2) would, if responded
to thoroughly and honestly, indicate that the organization has all of the
requisite EMS elements and procedures called for in the draft standard,
sufficiently implemented to adhere to the standard. A score of “0” would likely
seldom, if ever, occur, since even the most rudimentary elements of mere legal
compliance would normally oblige the use of a minimum of management practices.
It is important to bear in mind that how well an organization implements the
standard’s requirements is not the level of performance achieved using the
standard, but the completeness and adequacy of the procedures and systems
established to achieve that performance. For ease of interpreting scores, we
have broken down the standard into its principle elements and have established
a rating system based on three ranges of possible score for each. A high score
in any section is not necessarily a sign that the requirement is essentially
met, if the core key criteria in that section are not met. Moreover, because
all principles and elements are closely interlinked, a low score in any given
section could place in doubt the higher scores achieved elsewhere. On the other
hand, scoring at least 1 or 2 in each question should give the organization the
confidence that its management approaches are compatible with the EMS as described in ISO 14001.
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