Environmental Management System Manual Procedure Requirements

The Environment Management System consists of a number of documents. Some system should be provided for safe keeping of complex records. It is important to clearly define as to where they should be kept and for how long, and who is responsible for them. Each written procedure should be checked and signed by an authorized person, with issue number and issue date. The management representative should have a list of all completed procedures, applicable to the individual departmental activities. Against each listed document the number should be shown together with the date of the latest change. It is also called a "Master Copy". It is a yardstick against which any other controlled copy can be judged.

From time to time the Committee for Management Review and Corrective Action may put forward recommendations for change in the procedure. The Management Representative should be responsible for implementing the change. For making a change, the new page should be circulated to the keeper of the controlled copy of the document with an instruction to insert the new page in order and return the replaced page to the Management Representative. Thus outdated documents will be removed from circulation. The change, which has been made, should be known to the staff and everyone should implement the new procedure. When a number of major changes have been made, a complete new manual has to be issued. The retention period for these records can be predefined either contractually or by the policy and it is to be mentioned in the Environment Manual.

What is Environment Manual: -

The Environment Manual states the Environment Policy and describes the Environment System of an organisation. It may relate to an organization's total activities or to a selected part of it, e.g. specified requirements depending upon the nature of products or services, processes, contractual requirements, governing regulations etc. It is expected to provide an adequate description of the Management intention to fulfill system requirement while serving as a permanent reference for implementation and maintenance of the system.

Environment manual should normally contain, or refer to: -

• The title, scope and the field of application,
• The table of contents of the manual,
• The introductory pages about the organisation concerned and the manual itself,
• The Environment policy of the organisation,
• The organisation,
• Elements of the Environment Management system,
• A definitions section, if appropriate,
• Guide to the Environment manual, if appropriate.
• List of procedures

What is an Environmental Procedure Manual: -

It is a manual comprising of a number of Environment Procedures, each procedure being independent in it. Procedure manual should be made department wise / element wise. It is also called a "Middle Management Book". Generally these Environment procedures are prepared by the M.R. in consultation with HOD. ISO 14001 procedures are also called operational procedure, as they are a snapshot of the actual activities taking place in a company at a particular point of time. They are considered to be the core of the system documentation for Environment attainment and assurance. An important distinction confidential document. They are intended for internal use and should be protected from misuse. These procedures are meant to instruct in broad terms, how the policies and objectives expressed in the Environment manual are to be addressed and achieved. They describe how the tasks and functions of the various departments should be performed to meet the requirements of the ISO 14001 standard and the Environment Policy of the company. In general it describes 6 major questions for the activity. (WHO, HOW, WHERE, WHEN, WHAT, SHOW ME)

ISO 14001 Procedure Requirements

• Environmental aspects and evaluations (clause 4.3.1)
• Legal and other requirements (clause 4.3.2)
• Objectives and targets (clause 4.3.3)
• Environmental Management programs ((clause 4.3.4)
• Training (clause 4.4.2)
• External and internal communication ((clause 4.4.3)
• Document control ((clause 4.4.5)
• ISO 14001 specially requires the following documented procedures:
• Operational controls (clause 4.4.6)
• Emergency preparedness and response (clause 4.4.7)
• Monitoring and measurement (clause 4.5.1)
• Non conformance, corrective action, Preventive action (clause 4.5.2)
• Control records (clause 4.5.3)
• EMS audit (clause 4.5.4)

This is a minimum requirement for documented environmental system ISO 14001 manual and procedures. Most organizations in the organized sector would need many more procedures depending upon the nature of business processes and scale of operations.

John Villiers has published many articles regarding ISO Certification. John has rich experience as a online publisher and prepared various Certification documents as per ISO guideline since large amount of years in his professional career.