ISO 14001 – why the new changes matter

Many ports that have implemented an ISO 14001-certified EMS will already be taking advantage of a formal framework to manage compliance, reduce costs and improve reputations with customers, employees and funders. However, the new, revised standard can deliver additional business benefits such as increasing corporate resilience and gaining competitive advantage.

Early transition is therefore an advantage, not only to guarantee that these benefits are realised as quickly as possible, but also to ensure that ports maintain their ISO 14001 certification longer term. These changes may also have implications for those organisations using the Port Environmental Review System (PERS) instead of or in addition to ISO 14001.

Key requirements

ISO 14001:2015 will look and feel quite different to its predecessor. It will follow a defined ISO high level structure meaning easier integration between ISO 14001, ISO 9001 and the new OHSAS 18001 replacement, ISO 45001, published next year. Its changes can be summarised in five main areas:

1. Leadership: Cross-functional senior managers will need to promote and be accountable for the EMS, ensuring it achieves its intended outcomes. Your EMS should be integrated with other organisational processes and be compatible with your strategy so that decisions are made with consideration for the environment at all levels.
2. Strategic context: You will be expected to demonstrate a broader understanding of the context in which you operate and ensure your EMS responds in order to meet its intended outcome. This requires understanding your organisation’s direction, culture and resources and external influences. The new standard flips the question “what’s your impact on the environment” to also consider the impact of the environment on you, for example climate change and resource scarcity.
3. Interested party analysis and communication: Your EMS will need to become more outward looking by understanding the needs and expectations of your interested parties or stakeholders. Robust monitoring, measurement and internal auditing processes will be needed.
4. Risks and opportunities: There are three principal sources of risks and opportunities: environmental aspects, compliance obligations and other issues. You will need to assess and address these sources, as well as making your institution more robust to future challenges.
5. Lifecycle perspective: You should determine environmental aspects at each stage of your product or service’s lifecycle. For ports it may require greater collaboration with suppliers, contractors or users and a key issue is the way in which major projects are managed and delivered. SustainabilityFor those with sophisticated strategies in place for sustainability and carbon management, these revisions to ISO 14001 will also play an important role in helping overall sustainability. Above all, they will introduce mainstream processes for recognising and responding to mid and long-term environmental challenges and provide an additional framework for ports to become even more receptive to stakeholder needs.

Leading ports and logistics business PD Ports has started its transition to ISO 14001:2015 already, working with Emma Goodchild, senior manager at Ramboll Environ and holding a workshop on the changes for its well-established network of environmental champions.

David Jones, group HSE manager, from PD Ports, said: “We see the new standard as an opportunity to think more broadly about environmental protection. Our workshop was extremely beneficial in identifying both external and internal issues that may affect our ability to achieve environmental improvement such as climate change, terrorism, infrastructure, changing client requirements, internal resources, and energy availability, and we now have a very clear route ahead.”