Program Intent

The intent of an ISO 14001 environmental management system (EMS) is to develop asystematic management approach to the environmental concerns of the organization. Theexpected outcome of this approach is continual improvement in environmental management.By setting an environmental policy, then making the environmental concerns of the firm clear(Aspects) and defining what will be done to control them (Objectives and Targets), planning isaccomplished. Then, by establishing organizational structure, personnel responsibilities,competency and training, implementation begins. Communication practices, documentationcontrol and procedural documents, operational control and emergency preparedness definethe operation portion of the program. These items are usually included in an EMS Manual,which documents a program to accomplish the Objectives and Targets set above. Theorganization’s methods for measuring and monitoring its environmental impacts is alsoincluded in the Manual, along with practices for identifying nonconformance and forimplementing corrective and preventive actions. These, along with routine systems audits andrecord keeping constitute the EMS checking and corrective action program. And finally, theprogram has a routine management review of its activities. The words in bold above describethe general sections of an ISO 14001 EMS.