Environmental management

The ISO 14000

 About ISO
• ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is the world's
largest developer and publisher of International Standards.
• ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 163
countries, one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in
Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system.
• ISO is a non-governmental organization that forms a bridge
between the public and private sectors. On the one hand, many
of its member institutes are part of the governmental structure of
their countries, or are mandated by their government. On the
other hand, other members have their roots uniquely in the
private sector, having been set up by national partnerships of
industry associations
Therefore, ISO enables a consensus to be
reached on solutions that meet both the
requirements of business and the broader
needs of society.
ISO’s portfolio of more than 19 000 standards
provides practical tools for all three
dimensions of sustainable development :
economic, environmental and societal.
 Objective

• Standards make an enormous and positive contribution to most aspects of

our lives.
• Standards ensure desirable characteristics of products and services such as
quality, environmental friendliness, safety, reliability, efficiency - and at an
economical cost.
• When products and services meet our expectations, we tend to take this for
granted and be unaware of the role of standards. However, when standards
are absent, we soon notice.
• We soon care when products turn out to be of poor quality, do not fit, are
incompatible with equipment that we already have, are unreliable or
dangerous.
• When products, systems, machinery and devices work well and safely, it is
often because they meet standards. And the organization responsible for
many thousands of the standards which benefit the world is ISO.
 ISO standards:

• make the development, manufacturing and supply of

products and services more efficient, safer and cleaner
• facilitate trade between countries and make it fairer
• provide governments with a technical base for health, safety
and environmental legislation, and conformity assessment
• share technological advances and good management practice
• disseminate innovation
• safeguard consumers, and users in general, of products and
services
• make life simpler by providing solutions to common problems
 The scope of ISO‘s
• ISO has more than 19000 International Standards
and other types of normative documents in its
current portfolio.
• ISO's work programme ranges from standards for
traditional activities, such as agriculture and
construction, through mechanical engineering,
manufacturing and distribution, to transport,
medical devices, information and communication
technologies, and to standards for good
management practice and for services.
 Different between ISO 9001 and ISO 14001

• The vast majority of ISO standards are highly specific to a

particular product, material, or process. However, ISO 9001
(quality) and ISO 14001 (environment) are "generic
management system standards".
• "Generic" means that the same standard can be applied to any
organization, large or small, whatever its product or service, in
any sector of activity, and whether it is a business enterprise, a
public administration, or a government department.
• ISO 9001 contains a generic set of requirements for
implementing a quality management system and ISO 14001
for an environmental management system
• ISO is helping to meet the challenge of climate change with
standards for greenhouse gas accounting, verification and
emissions trading, and for measuring the carbon footprint of
products.
• ISO develops normative documents to facilitate the fusion of
business and environmental goals by encouraging the inclusion
of environmental aspects in product design.
• ISO offers a wide-ranging portfolio of standards for sampling
and test methods to deal with specific environmental
challenges. It has developed some 570 International Standards
for the monitoring of such aspects as the quality of air, water
and the soil, as well as noise, radiation, and for controlling the
transport of dangerous goods. They also serve in a number of
countries as the technical basis for environmental regulations.
• ISO International Standards and related normative
documents provide consumers, regulators and
organizations in both public and private sectors with
environmental tools with the following characteristics :
• Technically credible as ISO standards represent the sum of
knowledge of a broad pool of international expertise and
Stakeholders
• Fulfil stakeholder needs as the ISO standards development
process is based on international input and consensus
• Facilitate the development of uniform requirements as the
ISO standards development process is built on
participation by its national member institutes from all
regions of the world
• Environmental audits are important tools for
assessing whether an EMS is properly implemented
and maintained. The auditing standard, ISO 19011, is
equally useful for EMS and quality management
system audits. It provides guidance on principles of
auditing, managing audit programmes, the conduct
of audits and on the competence of auditors.
• ISO 14031 provides guidance on how an organization
can evaluate its environmental performance.
• The ISO 14020 series of standards addresses a range
of different approaches to environmental labels and
declarations
• ISO 14001 addresses not only the environmental
aspects of an organization’s processes, but also those
of its products and services.
• All the requirements in ISO 14001:2004 are intended
to be incorporated into any environmental
management system. The extent of the application
will depend on factors such as the environmental
policy of the organization, the nature of its activities,
products and services and the location where and
the conditions in which it functions.
• The ISO 14040 standards give guidelines on the
principles and conduct of LCA studies that provide an
organization with information on how to reduce the
overall environmental impact of its products and
services.
• ISO 14010 provides general principles of
environmental auditing that are applicable to
all types of environmental audit reviews. ISO
14011 establishes audit procedures that
provide for the planning and conduct of an
audit of an Environmental Management
System. Both are now superseded by ISO
19011.
• ISO 14064 parts 1, 2 and 3 are international
greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting and verification
standards which provide a set of clear and verifiable
requirements to support organizations and
proponents of GHG emission reduction projects.
• ISO 14063, on environmental communication
guidelines and examples, helps companies to make
the important link to external stakeholders.
• ISO 14045 will provide principles and requirements
for eco-efficiency assessment. Eco-efficiency relates
environmental performance to value created.
An EMS can be described as a program of continuous
environmental improvement that follows a defined
sequence of steps drawn from established project
management practice and routinely applied in
business management. In simple terms these steps
are as follows:
• Review the environmental consequences of the
operations.
• Define a set of policies and objectives for
environmental performance.
• Establish an action plan to achieve the objectives.
• Monitor performance against these objectives.
• Report the results appropriately.
• Review the system and the outcomes and strive for
continuous improvement
 NEPA
• The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 is
the basic national charter for protection of the
environment
• NEPA was necessary to ensure that Federal agencies
would consider environmental concerns when making
decisions, because often the statutes that created the
agencies did not include an environmental mandate.
• “The NEPA process is intended to help public officials make
decisions based on understanding of environmental
consequences, and take actions that protect, restore, and
enhance the environment”
 NEPA contains three important sections:
• The declaration of national environmental
policies and goals.
• The establishment of action-forcing provisions
for federal agencies to enforce those policies and
goals.
• The establishment of a Council on Environmental
Quality (CEQ) in the Executive Office of the
President
 objectives
– Declare a national policy that will encourage
productive and enjoyable harmony between man
and the environment
– Promote efforts that will prevent or eliminate
damage to the environment and biosphere and
stimulate the health and welfare of man
– Enrich the understanding of the ecological systems
and natural resources important to the Nation
– Establish the CEQ
• Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on
January 1, 1970, NEPA set forth a bold new vision
for America. Acknowledging the decades of
environmental neglect that had significantly
degraded the nation's landscape and damaged
the human environment, the law was established
to foster and promote the general welfare, to
create and maintain conditions under which man
and nature can exist in productive harmony, and
fulfil the social, economic, and other
requirements of present and future generations
of Americans.
• NEPA advanced an interdisciplinary approach
to Federal project planning and decision
making through environmental impact
assessment.
• This approach requires Federal officials to
consider environmental values alongside the
technical and economic considerations that are
inherent factors in Federal decision making.
 NEPA’s six Goals

– Fulfill the responsibilities of each generation as trustee of the

environment for succeeding generations
– Assure for all Americans safe, healthful, productive, and
aesthetically and culturally
pleasing surroundings
– Attain a wide range of beneficial environmental uses without
degradation, risk to health or safety, or other undesirable and
unintended consequences
– Preserve important historic, cultural, and
natural aspects of our national heritage . . . and maintain . . . an
environment that supports diversity, and variety of individual
choices
– Achieve a balance between population and resource use that will
permit high standards of living and a wide sharing of life’s amenities
– Enhance the quality of renewable resources and approach the
maximum attainable recycling of depletable resources
 NEPA Process
• The NEPA process begins when an agency develops a
proposal to address a need to take an action.
• Once a determination of whether or not the proposed
action is covered under NEPA there are three levels of
analysis that a federal agency may undertake to comply
with the law.
• These three levels include:
– preparation of a Categorical Exclusion (CE),
– preparation of an Environmental Assessment (EA)
– Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI); or preparation and
drafting of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
 Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)
• CEQ was established within the Executive Office of the
President by Congress as part of the NEPA, 1969and
additional responsibilities were provided by the
Environmental Quality Improvement Act of 1970.
• The CEQ has some fundamental roles which include
assisting and advising the President in the preparation of
the annual environmental quality report on the present
progress of federal agencies in implementing the act, on
national policies to nurture and promote the
improvement of environmental quality and on the current
state of the environment.
• Under NEPA, CEQ works to balance environmental,
economic, and social objectives in pursuit of NEPA’s
goal of "productive harmony" between humans and
the human environment
• NEPA assigns CEQ the task of ensuring that Federal
agencies meet their obligations under the Act. The
challenge of harmonizing our economic,
environmental and social aspirations has put NEPA
and CEQ at the forefront of nation's efforts to protect
the environment.
 The duties and functions of the CEQ are:

– Assist and advise the President on environmental matters

– Gather, analyze, and interpret information concerning the
quality of the environment
– Review and appraise Federal Government programs and
activities
– Develop and recommend to the President national
policies to improve environmental quality
– Conduct investigations, studies, surveys, research, and
analyses relating to ecological systems and
environmental quality
– Document and define changes in the natural
environment
– Report to the President on the state and condition
of the environment
– Make and furnish to the President studies,
reports, and recommendations regarding policy
and legislation
 Life Cycle Assessment
• Evolution- in 1960s
• It is a tool to evaluate the environmental effects of a
product or process throughout its entire life cycle
• Examining the product from extraction of raw materials for
the manufacturing process, through the production and
use of the item to its final disposal and thus encompassing
the entire product system
• The assessment process includes identifying and
quantifying energy and materials used and wastes released
to the environment, assessing their environmental impact
and evaluating opportunities for improvement
• The principle underlying LCA were developed for evaluation
of environmental impacts of products and were popularly
known as resource and environmental profile analysis (REPA).
• In late 1980s and early 1990s international attempts to
standardize the principles underlying life cycle assessments
and to develop codes of good conduct in this field were
made.
• The list of products that have been subjected to LCA has
grown quickly and now include more complex products such
as paints, insulation materials, window frames, refrigerators,
hotplates, TV etc.
 ISO 14000 includes:
– ISO 14040: Environment Management- LCA- Principles and Framework
– ISO 14041: Environment Management- LCA- Inventory Analysis
– ISO 14042: Environment Management- LCA- Impact Assessment
– ISO 14043: Environment Management- LCA- Interpretation

• LCA is gaining importance as an e Environment Management

tool
• It has now emerged as a decision support tool in areas such as
Business, Regulation and Policy and to structure Technology
development in a coherent way.
 Stages in Product LCA
Extraction of Raw Material: e.g. forest logging,
crop harvesting, fishing, mining of ores and
minerals.
• Raw Material used in the production of energy
or electricity in different stages of the product
should be considered.
• The most serious environmental problems of
the product life cycle are associated with the
first stage.
Manufacture of a Product: It encompass all the
processes involved in the conversion of raw
material into the product.
• Apart from the manufacturing process at the
plant where the product is made, this stage
takes into account production of ancillary
materials, chemicals and specific or general
components at other plants.
• Transportation: This stage is an integral part
of all the stages of life cycle. Transportation
can be characterized as conveyance of
materials or energy between different
operations at various locations.
• It also includes production of packaging
material for the transportation of the product.
• Use of Product: The use stage of the product
occurs when it is put in service and operated
over its useful life.
• It begins after the distribution of the product
and ends when the product is used up or
discarded to the waste management system.
Waste Management: It involves
• Reuse
• Recycling
• Incineration
• Composting
• Waste Water Treatment
• Land Filling
 Procedure for LCA
• Definition of scope, goals
• Preparation of an inventory
• Assessment of impact of environmental
loadings in terms of environmental profiles
• Evaluation of environmental profiles according
to the defined goals
 Definition of scope, goals
• It include the intended application, including the reasons for
carrying out the study and the intended audience.
• The statement of goal must also indicate the intended use of
the results and users of the results.
• Example:
• To compare two or more different products fulfilling the same
function with the purpose of using the information in
marketing of the products or regulating the use of the
products
• To identify improvement possibilities in further development
of existing products or in innovation and design of new
products.
• To identify areas, steps, etc. in the life cycle of a product to
meet ecolabelling criteria
Defining the scope of LCA includes the following:

• The functions of the system

• The functional Unit
• The system to be studied
• The system Boundaries
• The allocation procedures
• The type of impact and the methodology of impact assessment and
subsequent interpretation to be used
• Data requirements
• Assumptions
• Limitations
• The initial data quality requirements
• The type of critical review
• The type and format of the report required for the study
 Functional Unit
• Functional unit sets the scale for comparison
of two or more products including
improvement to one product (system).
It includes:
• efficiency of the product
• Durability of the product
• Performance Quality Standard
 System Boundaries
• It defines the operation/ process (manufacturing,
transport and management processes) and the
inputs and outputs
It includes:
• Geographical boundaries
• Boundaries between the technosphere and the
Biosphere
 Data Quality
• The quality of data used reflects the quality of
final LCA.
The following data quality indicators are used:
• Precision
• Completeness
• Representativeness
• Reproducibility
• Consistency
 Critical Review Process
• Is important to ensure the Quality of LCA
• It can be internal or external
It ensures:
• The methods used to carry out the LCA are
consistent with the international standard and
are scientifically and technically valid
• The data used are appropriate and reasonable
in relation to the goal of the study
 Applications of LCA
• Potential Applications are envisaged including
product improvement and design,
environment management, ecolabelling,
green accounting, environmental auditing and
reporting, resource management, definition of
Best available technology (BAT), product
policy, strategic industrial planning, strategic
environmental policy development, etc.