Environmental Management Principles are a set of fundamental beliefs, norms, rules and values that are accepted as a basis or foundation to guide an organisation’s performance.
The new ISO 14001:2015 standard is based on seven Environmental Management Principles. ISO 14001 Consultants should guide their clients about the importance and benefits of these principles and how to incorporate them into their businesses.
Customer focus as required by ISO 14001 Environmental Management system
While implementing ISO 14001, the main focus of the organisation should be to meet customer requirements and exceed customer satisfaction.
When an organisation manages to attract and retain the confidence of its customers then it attains sustained success.? Every instance of interaction with the customer provides an opportunity for the organisation to deliver more value. When an organisation evaluates current and future needs of its customer and interested parties then sustained success is ensured.
Benefits of Customer focus are and increase in customer value, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, repeat business, better reputation, expansion is customer base and increase in revenue and market share.
You can focus on the needs of the Customer by linking your objectives to the customer needs and expectations, provide goods and services that meet customer needs and expectations, measure customer satisfaction, recognise direct and indirect customers.
Leadership – ISO 14001 Environmental Management system
Unity of purpose is established at all levels by the leaders and they create conditions in which all employees work towards achieving organisational objectives.
The creation of unity of direction and purpose enables an organisation to focus all its strategies and policies on the attainment of its objectives.
These result in increased effectiveness and efficiency in attainment of quality objectives and policies. This also results in better coordination of the organisation’s business processes and in development of the capability of the organisation to deliver desired outcomes.
You can take the steps to communicating the organisation’s mission, strategy, and processes throughout the organisation, create shared values and ethical models for behaviour and create a culture of integrity and trust.
Engagement of people according to ISO 14001 Environmental Management system
Engaged, competent and empowered people throughout the organisation are mandatory to its capability to deliver value.
To manage an organisation efficiently and effectively, it is necessary to involve all the people at all the levels and to give respect as individuals.
Benefits are increased motivation to achieve the quality objectives and increased involvement of the people in improvement activities.
Steps you can take to increase engagement are to communicate to the employees that you understand their importance to the organisation and facilitate open discussion and the sharing of knowledge as well? as experience. Empower people to undertake initiatives without fear.
ISO 14001 Process approach
Predictable and consistent results are achieved more efficiently and effectively when activities are management and understood as a group of interrelated activities which function as an integrated and coherent system.
Understanding how the results are produced by a quality management system through its interrelated processes enables the organisation to optimise its performance and system.
The benefits of process approach are a focus on key processes and predictable and consistent outcomes through aligned processes and optimised performance.
Actions you can take to adopt the process approach are defining objectives and processes necessary to achieve them. Also establishing authority and responsibility as well as accountability for each process. You can also determine process interdependence and analyse the effects of change to individual processes and to the whole system.
ISO 14001 Improvement
Successful organisations everywhere have a continuous focus on improvement.
To maintain its current level of performance and to enhance it, the organisation has to engage in improvement activities. Improvement is also essential for the organisation to respond to its internal and external conditions and in the creation of new opportunities.
The benefits are an improvement in performance and focus on root cause investigation and corrective &preventive actions. The organisation develops an ability to respond to internal and external changes as well as risks and opportunities. The organisation also considers incremental and breakthrough change.
Steps one can take are establishment of improvement objectives at all levels and put in improvement considerations into development of new products, services and processes. Educate employees to apply basic improvement tools and methodologies.
Environmental Management system – Evidence-based decision making
When an organisation makes decisions which are based on analysis and evaluation of data then it is more likely to lead to desired results.
It is vital for the leadership to understand cause-and-effect relationships as well as potential unintended consequences.? Facts and data analysis leads to more objectivity and greater confidence in decision making.
The benefits of this approach are improved decision making processes and better assessment of process performance and ability to attain objectives. It also leads to better operational efficiency and effectiveness.
Steps you can take in this area are in determining, measuring and monitoring key indicators that demonstrate the organisation’s performance. Ensure that data in accurate and make it available to the relevant personnel. Finally make decisions based on evidence and balance them with intuition and experience.
Relationship management
To achieve sustained results, the organisation should manage its relationships with its interested parties like suppliers in a very good manner.
Interested parties influence the performance of the organisation. Sustained results can be achieved when the relationships with all the interested parties are managed so that a positive impact is delivered on its performance.
Benefits of Relationship management are a supply chain which provides a continuous flow of goods and services. It also results in enhanced performance of the organization and the interested parties by better responding to the opportunities and constraints for each interested party.
Steps that the organisation can take in this regard are determining the interested parties such as suppliers, customers, partners, employees, investors and their relationship to the organisation. Determine relationships that need to be managed. Measure performance and provide feedback to interested parties so as to enhance performance. Share and pool information, expertise and resources for better outcomes.
Recent Comments