ISO 14001:

Emergency
Planning &
Preparedness
Report of Seminar

Jeeson Antony, Jishnu Saji, Joseph George, Jijo George

| ST010 606 L04: DISASTER MANAGEMENT |

N6
Dept. Of Naval Architecture & Shipbuilding

ISO 14001 emergency preparedness

and response
Authors: Jeeson Antony, Jishnu Saji, Joseph George, Jijo George

INTRODUCTION

About ISO 14001

ISO 14001 sets out the criteria for an Environmental Management System (EMS) in
the ISO 14000 series. It does not state requirements for environmental
performance, but maps out a framework that a company or organization can follow
to set up an effective EMS. It can be used by any organization that wants to
improve resource efficiency, reduce waste, and drive down costs. ISO 14001 can
provide assurance to company management and employees as well as external
stakeholders that environmental impact is being measured and improved. ISO
14001 can also be integrated with other management functions and assists
companies in meeting their environmental and economic goals.
ISO 14001, as with other ISO 14000 standards, is voluntary (International Institute
Of sustainable Development) (IISD 2010), with its main aim to assist companies in
continually improving their environmental performance, while complying with any
applicable legislation. Organizations are responsible for setting their own targets
and performance measures, with the standard serving to assist them in meeting
objectives and goals and in the subsequent monitoring and measurement of these
(IISD 2010).
ISO 14001 is known as a generic management system standard, meaning that it is
relevant to any organization seeking to improve and manage resources more
effectively.
All standards are periodically reviewed by ISO to ensure they still meet market
requirements. The current version ISO 14001:2004 was last reviewed in 2012. The
ISO committee decided a revision was necessary. The new version is expected by
the end of 2015. After the revision has been published, certified organizations get a
three-year transition period to adapt their environmental management system to the
new edition of the standard. The new version of ISO 14001 is going to focus on the

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improvement of environmental performance rather than to improve the

management system itself.

Basic principles and methodology of ISO 14001

Plan: establish objectives and processes required
Do: implement the processes
Check: measure and monitor the processes and report results
Counter action: take action to improve performance of EMS based on results
Continual Improvement Process (CI)

ISO 14001: Requirements for emergency preparedness

The organization shall establish, implement and maintain a procedure(s) to identify
potential emergency situations and potential accidents that can have an impact(s) on the
environment
and
how
it
will
respond
to them.
The organization shall respond to actual emergency situations and accidents and prevent
or
mitigate associated
adverse
environmental
impacts.
The organization shall periodically review and, where necessary, revise its emergency
preparedness and response procedures, in particular, after the occurrence of accidents or
emergency
situations.
The organization shall also periodically test such procedures where practicable.

Despite an organizations best efforts, the possibility of accidents and other emergency
situations still exits. Effective planning and preparation can reduce injuries, protect
employees and neighbours, reduce asset losses and minimize production downtime. An
effective emergency preparedness and response program should include
1. provisions for assessing the potential for accidents and emergencies
2. Preventing incidents and their associated environmental
procedures for responding to incidents.

impacts, plans

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3. Periodic testing of emergency plans / procedures and, mitigating impacts

associated with these incidents.
4. Being consistent with the organizations focus on continual improvement, it also is a
good idea to review emergency response performance after an incident has
occurred. This review can help determine if more training is needed or if emergency
plans / procedures should be revised.

LOOK TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS FIRST

Basically, if there is an emergency situation where a negative environmental impact takes
place, the company needs to have plans in place to deal with this situation to avoid or
minimize environmental damage. In order to decide which situations to anticipate, it is best
to look to the environmental aspects that you identified early in the implementation of ISO
14001. There are a few things that are identified in the environmental aspects that can
help with this.
The impact Since the environmental aspects are any part of the companys activities
that could interact with the environment, either positively or negatively, it is important to
note how the aspect makes an impact. Obviously, you do not need to make plans for an
emergency response when the impact to the environment is positive only when it is
negative.
Control Part of the identification is indicating if you control the aspect or merely have
influence over it. This is important, since you need to have control over the aspect in order
to create an emergency plan and respond to it.
Significance This is probably the most helpful part of the aspect identification when it
comes to identifying the need for emergency preparedness. If the aspect has been
identified as significant, such as the potential for a large fire in a process, then this is an
indication that you might need to have an emergency response plan ready in the case of a
fuel spill occurring. If the potential fire would be small, and the burning fuel would have
only a small impact on the environment (such as burning alcohol rather than rubber tires),
then the aspect may not have been identified as significant and an emergency plan may
not be necessary (or would be much simpler than a plan for a major fire).

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WHAT IS NEEDED IN EMERGENCY PLANNING?

The first thing required is to have a procedure for how you will identify the potential
emergency situations. This procedure can be documented or not, as determined by the
company, but must be adequately used so that it is understood by the applicable
employees who need to use it. You then need to decide, using the procedure, what
potential situations exist. After deciding what potential emergency situations you have,
including potential accidents that could impact the environment, you need to decide how
you will respond to them.
As stated above, the response should be comparable to how significant the situation could
be. Plans for a large spill of a potentially harmful chemical (such as dumping a barrel of
acid) may entail having supplies on hand that will allow you to contain and clean the spill
including having breathing apparatuses, protective clothing and a team of skilled and
trained individuals who can safely remove the spill with minimal environmental impact.
Conversely, plans for a small spill of a mostly harmless chemical (such as a very small
bottle of alcohol) may be addressed with less detail and fewer safety concerns.
After deciding how to respond, this response needs to be documented in such a way that it
can be used and understood. This again does not need to be a documented procedure,
but needs to be in such a format that those in the organization who need it can use it
consistently. The procedures need to be reviewed periodically, and revised when
necessary to ensure that you have a plan that will work consistently.
Lastly, the standard requires that these plans be used when an actual emergency occurs,
which is of course the point of having them. After an actual incident, it is also an important
time to review the procedure for any errors or improvements that may be needed.
Depending on the significance of the impacts, it is also required to test out the procedures
where you can (such as having a pretend spill that you respond to as if it were a real spill).
The Standard requires that three components be addressed by the organization:

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1.

Establish and maintain procedures to identify the potential for, and the response to,
accidents and emergency situations, in order to prevent and mitigate the environmental
impacts that may be associated with them.
2.
Review and revise the importance of learning from incidents. Obviously corrective
actions will be taken and results of audits will be considered after the occurrence of
accidents or emergencies or even near misses.
3.
Testing of emergency plans should be planned and the Standard indicates that
periodic testing of such procedures should be carried out where practicable.

1.

Establish and maintain procedures

An organization is well advised to draw up an Emergency Plan and to consider
different levels of disaster including the worst-case scenario. The worst-time scenario
should also be evaluated which can occur at times of shift change, weekends and
holiday periods when staff may be reduced. The emphasis of such a plan will be placed
upon ensuring that the business survives that there will be the minimum of disruption
of service, or supplies of product, to customers. Safety of individuals, staff and others
will naturally be paramount but of course the environmental impact must be considered
to address ISO 14001. The two factors safety and environmental impact can of course
be interrelated for eg. large volumes of toxic gases will cause environmental damage
whilst posing a safety hazard at the same time. A suitable plan could cover:

Identifying critical assets usually major items of plant

Defining the disaster team and describing responsibilities
Emergency services how to contact them
Enforcement agencies how to contact them
Listing communications including out-of-hours phone numbers
Holding regular exercises to test the system

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Setting up a media response team details of who is responsible

for contacting

the

media

Examining the function of the media response team further is worthwhile. It is tempting
in the event of an environmental incident to offer no comment to the press. However,
other parties, who may be hostile to the organization, will comment. This could be
disgruntled neighbours, competitors and others who will take the opportunity to repeat
rumours or provide media with exaggerated accounts of the incident. The media will
find out, despite efforts to deter them. An attempt to hide issues will usually be
uncovered later and will ultimately reduce the credibility of future communications. If, for
example, there is a large spillage to a local stream or river with a high amenity value
and the organization does not control the media input, the information any interested
party receives may be inaccurate at best and hostile at worst. This could influence
future relationships with the media. The news-gathering media work to strict deadlines
and information is required from whatever source. It is best, therefore, that this source
is the organization itself. Possible emergencies will most certainly have been identified
during the preparatory environmental review and suitable responses formulated. At the
simplest level of response, this may include a list of competent personnel who can be
contacted with alternatives in the event of an emergency situation. Provision should
also be made for off-site availability of the information needed to contain the disaster in
case access to the site is denied on the grounds of safety. The main objectives of the
fire service are to control the fire and/or chemical spillage and save lives. They may
cordon off the site and prevent access to staff who require telephone numbers to make
contact with other personnel, access to records or emergency procedures, etc. It is
worthwhile noting that even if a fire situation is handled correctly by the fire service,
environmental problems can be caused by contaminated water used by the fire
services. Such water, contaminated by combustion products, may enter canals, streams
and drains, and emergency plans should take this into consideration. It is also important
to remember that just because risks are low, it does not mean that emergency plans are
unnecessary. Without an emergency plan, minor incidents can escalate into major
ones.
2.

Review and revise the importance of learning from incidents

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In the case of near misses it is important that such potential incidents are recorded and
reviewed and not hidden away or merely forgotten. Such incidents indicate areas of risk
which
on
other
occasions
may
turn
into
environmental accidents.
3.

Testing of emergency plans

There may be situations where full-scale testing is not practical and thus consideration
should be given to desk-top exercises that can be played out. Examples of such testing
include:

Can key individuals be contacted in an out-of-hours situation?

If staff are injured can relatives be contacted?
Are keys to certain areas (for example, solvent stores) available out of
hours?

Are vacations or absence due to sickness covered by alternative personnel?

Can emergency services access the site day or night?
If there is ice on the road during winter would this prevent heavy vehicle

access fire-fighting equipment for example?

Do the organizations fire hydrants function correctly? Are they maintained

and tested? Does the fitment on the hydrant fit the fire services hoses?
Toxic gases may be released during a fire. If so, what are these gases? In
which direction is the prevailing wind? What is the likely area that will need to be
evacuated for safety as well as environmental reasons? What information will be
given to the local police in such an event?

Test emergency scenarios at the shift change from day to night shift for example.
During such shift changes there is an overlap as incoming staff come in early so that
the outgoing staff may brief them as to events that have happened etc. Thus, for a short
period of time, there could be double the number of people on site, causing extra
congestion of roads, and lines of command may become blurred during this period.
Some organizations ban the use of cellular phones during normal operations because
of safety issues. Would staff be able to use them in an emergency?
If so, this should be written into the emergency procedure. Some organizations have
wind direction indicators on site so that in the event of an emergency (fire or noxious

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fumes escaping), staff can move away in the safest direction. Test scenarios should
ascertain whether such indicators can be seen visually from all points of the site. Some
organizations have an incident centre that would reasonably be expected not to be
influenced by a disaster i.e. underground or remote from flammable areas. Test
scenarios should check whether this isolation is still valid. The time to put an
emergency plan to the acid test and seek the answers to the above is not the day of the
real event. Therefore, an organization should evaluate its risks of environmental
emergencies and evaluate the extent to which it should carry out testing of its
procedures.
Several environmental and health and safety regulatory programs require emergency
plans and/or procedures. Look at what you have in place now and assess how well it
satisfies the items discussed above. One area where additional work is often needed is
on identifying the potential for accidents and emergencies. A team of site personnel from
example from engineering, maintenance and Environmental Health and Safety) can
identify most potential emergencies by asking a series of what if questions related to
hazardous materials, activities, and processes employed at the site. In addition to
normal operations, the team should consider start-up and shutdown of process equipment,
and other abnormal operating conditions.
Whether everyone including new employees know what to do in an emergency,
How would contractors or site visitors know what to do in an emergency
situation.etc. Communicate with local officials (fire department, hospital, etc.) about
potential emergencies at the site and how they can support the response efforts. Mock
drills can be an excellent way to reinforce training and get feedback on the effectiveness of
the plans / procedures. Post copies of the plan (or at least critical contact names and
phone numbers) around the site and especially in areas where high hazards exist.
Include phone numbers for the on-site emergency coordinator, local fire department, local
police, hospital, rescue squad, and others as appropriate.
Finally, an audit checklist is made where the following are ensured.
Audit Checklist:
1.
Has the organization established, implemented and maintained a procedure(s) to
identify the potential emergency situations and potential accidents that can have an
impact on the environment?
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2.

Are significant environmental aspects considered in the emergency preparedness

and response procedure(s)?
3.
Does the procedure(s) cover how the organisation will respond to these situations?
4.
How do these procedures allow for the prevention and mitigation of the adverse
environmental impacts that may be associated with actual emergency situations and
accidents?
5.
How does the organisation periodically review and revise its emergency
preparedness and response procedures, particularly after the occurrence of accidents
or emergency situations?
6.
Was such procedures periodically tested? (where practicable)?
7.
Does the Emergency Preparedness and Response plan describe the potential
emergency situations such as fires, explosions, spills or releases of hazardous
materials, and natural disasters?
8.
Does the Emergency Preparedness and Response plan describe the hazardous
materials used on-site and their locations?
9.
Does the Emergency Preparedness and Response plan describe the key
organizational responsibilities including emergency coordinator?
10.
Does the Emergency Preparedness and Response plan describe the arrangements
with local emergency support providers?
11.
Does the Emergency Preparedness and Response plan describe the emergency
response procedures, including emergency communication procedures?
12.
Does the Emergency Preparedness and Response plan describe the locations and
types of emergency response equipment?
13.
Does the Emergency Preparedness and Response plan describe the maintenance
of emergency response equipment?
14.
Does the Emergency Preparedness and Response plan describe the training /
testing of personnel, including the on-site emergency response team (if applicable)?
15.
Does the Emergency Preparedness and Response plan describe the testing of
alarm / public address systems?
16.

Does the Emergency Preparedness and Response plan describe the evacuation
routes and exits (map), and assembly points?

SOURCES OF REFERENCE

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 http://isoconsultantpune.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/
http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards/management-standards/iso14000.htm

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