Qudos Management Pty. Ltd. Quality | Health & Safety | Environmental management

Qudos Management Pty. Ltd.
Quality | Health & Safety | Environmental
management
320 Adelaide Street, Brisbane, QLD 4000
Tel: +61 (07) 3010 9259
3 Spring Street, Sydney, NSW 2000
Tel: +61 (02) 8249 4670
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.qudos-software.com
How to develop and maintain an ISO 14001 Environmental
Management System faster, better, and smarter
With growing concerns about climate change and sustainability, more attention is now being paid to how business
activities impact on the environment. Companies and other organisations are responding in various ways. Perhaps
the most tangible evidence of an organisation's environmental focus and effort is to have a management system
based on the ISO 14001 international standard.
ISO 14001 sets out requirements for an effective Environmental Management System (EMS). It is designed to help
your organisation systematically reduce its environmental impact, while still working towards other corporate
objectives (such as service delivery and profitability).
Developing your system can be quite a major project. Like any such project, it may at first appear to be daunting
and too complex to get a firm grip on. However, it can be more easily managed by being divided into bite-sized
pieces. The following is an example of how that can be done. Initially the project is divided into 5 stages:
Organisations have traditionally developed control measures to meet applicable legal, regulatory and contractual
requirements. There is a trend towards greater 'systemisation' and basing the system on the ISO 14001 standard.
Of course, you still need to meet those legal, regulatory and contractual requirements. The intention of a
standards-based system is to provide a solid base for your organisation to consistently comply with them - now
and into the future.
There are a number of development options available to you, and each has its own particular advantages. The
development option that you choose will affect your method of system development. Consultants and other
sources of external help will have their own standard methodologies. The options include:
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Working on your own
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Using a consultant
Attending workshops / training courses
Using a software package
A combination of the above
A Gap Analysis and Project Plan may be prepared to guide and record progress.
The documentation stage may include preparing:
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Policies
Procedures
Project-specific plans
An aspects and impact register
A register of statutory and regulatory requirements
Forms
and other documents
Documenting a system from scratch can take up a great deal of time – particularly if it’s a task that you are not
used to. However, remember that the documentation should be appropriate to the nature of your organisations’
activities and the environmental impacts associated with its operations.
Of course, documents only form a part of a system. They are a means to an end - not an end in themselves.
People, their commitment, and the training / resources / methods they are provided with are vitally important.
To be of maximum true value, your system needs the broad support of people within your organisation. This is
often best achieved with a softly, softly approach - consultation, communication, then participation in introducing
changes.
Results should be monitored, and the system fine-tuned as you go.
Following the principle of the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle, having planned our system and put it into practice,
we need to check or verify that it is working effectively.
All control systems need feedback mechanisms to help their controllers keep the system on track. Management
systems are no exception, and internal audits are their key feedback mechanism. To illustrate the importance of
internal audits, they are a mandatory requirement of the ISO 14001 standard. They audits offer a very beneficial
and low-cost method to help your organisation maintain compliance, and achieve its objectives. There are also
other aspects of verification, including measurement and monitoring, surveys, and periodic review by top
management.
For a new system, or one that has had a major upgrade, it would be good practice to audit the system thoroughly
after quite a brief period of implementation. It is quite likely that a little bit of fine-tuning to your system will be
necessary. After that, your audit schedule may be on a risk basis - with those processes that are most important or
that have had problems in the past being audited more regularly than others. You may also choose to have an
external audit of your system by a Certification body or Registrar.
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Results of audits and other verification techniques should be fed back to the management Review process, for top
management to consider progress, and plan any remedial action or perhaps set new objectives.
Introducing Qudos 3
Qudos 3 software provides a task-based, modular approach - Helping you set up your system quickly and run it
cost-effectively. Its combination of web and SQL database technology offers multi-site/off-site capability to:
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Plan Objectives/targets and how they will be achieved
Document policies, procedures, forms etc. with our huge library of
samples and templates
Make documents easily accessible over your intranet or internet – with
powerful search facilities to find the right document quickly and
easily
Plan and record document reviews and revisions
Schedule and record internal audits
Schedule and record equipment checks and calibration
Plan and record minutes of management review and other
meetings, and distribute them
Maintain records of environmental training
Assess performance of your environmental management activities or those of your suppliers / contractors
Consider and evaluate aspects and impacts
Record nonconformances, issues, customer complaints and
suggestions
Plan preventive / corrective / improvement action and then
assign, record and track those actions
Remind people about tasks that are due / overdue with automated
emails
Generate pie charts, bar charts and tabular reports
Escalate overdue actions
Qudos 3 includes an integrated Enviro Manager Toolkit – packed with sample documents, training materials
and other resources. Qudos 3 offers a comprehensive suite of tools to help you develop and maintain a
management system that complies with ISO 14001 faster, better, and smarter. The following chart illustrates
how.
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ISO 14001
Standard Requirements
Clause 4.2 Environmental Policy
Policy
Enviro Manager
Benchmark
Risk
Training
People
Meetings
Actions
Audits
Documents
Objective
Qudos 3 modules
Notes
Explanation of requirements and
sample policy statements
Policy statement maintained and
accessed via Master Document List.
Sample procedure.
Clause 4.3 Planning
Environmental aspects
Legal requirements
Objectives
Clause 4.4 Implementation and Operation
Resources, roles,
responsibility and authority
Sample documents
Competency, awareness and
training
Communication
Aspects and impacts considered in
Risk Assessment format
Register of statutory and regulatory
requirements maintained and made
available via Master Document List.
Legal and other requirements
considered in risk assessment with
actions to address them raised as
separately tracked Action forms.
Sample Objective planning
procedure.
Objectives are recorded in an
Objective Form. Objectives may be
established, described, assigned to a
responsible person, quantified for
priority (against up to 4 userdefinable drivers), assessed for
progress, and include an attached
external document.
Each Objective may generate up to
100 separately tracked Action plans.
Actions List includes a category for
"Raised by Objective" - enabling the
list to be filtered and queried for
generating custom reports.
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Defined in documents maintained
and made available via Master
Document List.
Training records are created for each
person in the organisation. These are
maintained in the Training Schedule,
and may be queried for planning /
review purposes.
Induction checklist template and
other documents promoting staff
awareness of environmental issues
maintained in Master Document List
Documents providing information on
environmental issues maintained in
Master Document List
Enviro Manager
Benchmark
Risk
Training
People
Meetings
Actions
Audits
Documents
Objective
Qudos 3 modules
ISO 14001
Standard Requirements
Notes
Documentation and control of
documents
Operational control
Emergency preparation and
response
Emergency plans maintained in
Master Document List.
Clause 4.5 Checking
Monitoring and measurement /
evaluation of compliance
Nonconformity, corrective and
preventive action
Control of records
Suggestions / complaints etc. to/from
external parties communicated using
Action Forms that may be emailed
and provided in DOC or PDF format
Community / Consultation Meetings
recorded in Meeting Minutes
Action points raised within minutes
are automated as separately tracked
Action forms
Controlled document listing, review
and revision process.
Sample Document management
procedure.
Operational procedures maintained in
Master Document List.
Guidance and Sample procedure
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Evaluation of compliance / monitoring
and measurement recorded in an
Audit Record (checklist based record
with ability to generate multiple
corrective/preventive actions)
Monitoring and measurement
recorded in a Risk Assessment
(record offering matrix assessment +
ability to generate multiple
corrective/preventive actions)
Monitoring and measurement
recorded in a Benchmark
Assessment (record with numerical
value and weighting options + ability
to generate multiple
corrective/preventive actions)
Action Forms are used to record
suggestions, actual and potential
nonconformances, and incidents.
Other sections of the same form used
to record Action Planned, Action
Taken, Follow-up/Review + up to 99
related actions. Each may be
separately assigned, emailed to a
responsible person with DOC or PDF
attachment if required. Actions List
may be queried in numerous
combinations to generate custom
reports.
Documents and records retained in
SQL server database and associated
folders on server.
ISO 14001
Standard Requirements
Internal audit
Enviro Manager
Benchmark
Risk
Training
People
Meetings
Actions
Audits
Documents
Objective
Qudos 3 modules
Notes
Sample Audit procedure.
Internal audit programme maintained
in Audit Schedule & Audit Records.
Actions raised are managed in Action
forms linked to Audit records.
Auditor training records maintained in
Training Schedule. An Audits training
presentation included. Optional
Auditor training is available in public
sessions or on-site.
Clause 4.6 Management review
Management review
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Explanation of requirements and
sample procedure. A training
presentation on effective meetings is
also included.
Management reviews scheduled and
recorded in Meeting Minutes. Default
agenda provided. This may be
customised as required.
Agenda / minutes may be emailed to
all attendees.
Each Discussion item may generate
up to 100 separately tracked Action
plans. Actions List may be queried to
provide custom reports.
Integration
With its modular design, high level of user-configuration, robust SQL database and web technology, Qudos 3 offers
the power of integration of:
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Your key activities for addressing the standard
Similar activities for other standards and compliance issues (OHSAS 18001 or AS/NZS 4801 Health &
Safety / ISO 9001 Quality etc.)
Activities relating to one or many sites
The tools are here right now to help you make an immediate start on developing faster, better, smarter
management system. Qudos 3 is available as Self-hosted server-based software, or cloud hosted with fully licenced
or leased options.
Gap analysis, coaching, training and system development / maintenance services are also available from Qudos
and its partners. Contact us to find out more.
Qudos Management Pty. Ltd.
Quality | Health & Safety | Environmental management
320 Adelaide Street, Brisbane, QLD 4000
Tel: +61 (07) 3010 9259
3 Spring Street, Sydney, NSW 2000
Tel: +61 (02) 8249 4670
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.qudos-software.com
How To Address ISO 14001– Rev 5 – August 2013
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