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ISO 14001:2015
benefits of early transition

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Table of Contents

Executive summary........................................................................................................................................3
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................3
What are the changes in ISO 14001? ............................................................................................................4
Benefits of early transition ............................................................................................................................5
Transition timing ............................................................................................................................................6
The transition steps .......................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion .....................................................................................................................................................9

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Executive summary
With the publication of ISO 14001:2015, organizations have been given three years to complete their
transition to the new standard. However, many organizations are transitioning early to drive increased
business benefits and gain competitive advantage.

Early transition provides organizations with tangible benefits for driving business improvements and
supply chain efficiency, as well as improved internal and external interested party engagement. The
revisions affect the scope, design, and maintenance of the management system; hence, it is crucial to
start planning early and develop a clear transition plan to ensure a smooth transition process.

Introduction
In case you didn’t know already, ISO 14001 was revised last year to reflect the current market and
expectations from customers. All organizations currently certified against ISO 14001:2004 will need to
transition to the new requirements by September 2018. This means that after the end of September 2018,
a certificate based on ISO 14001:2004 will no longer be valid.

So, why change now if it can wait until 2018? Time is the most important factor. Most organizations
transition successfully; however, if you wait until near the deadline, then there will be less time to correct
problems – increasing the chances of not being certified on time. So, transition early, to reduce the risks
and costs to your business.

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What are the changes in ISO 14001?
The good news is that while there are some significant changes, many of the requirements we have
become familiar with in previous versions of the ISO 14001 standard will remain the same.

The new version has 10 clauses, instead of the four in the old version; and, instead of 12 mandatory
documents, there are now 16. This can seem, at first, like an increase in paperwork, but let’s face it –
nobody managed to establish their EMS with only 12 documents, so every company will make as many
documents as needed; it is only important not to overwhelm ourselves with documentation. For more
information, see: List of mandatory documents required by ISO 14001:2015.

There are some new requirements, but the most significant are Context of the organization (Clause 4) and
Actions to address risks and opportunities (Clause 6.1). The idea behind these new requirements is to
make the EMS a part of everyday business activities, and vice versa. Of course, some old requirements
are history now: environmental targets, management representative, and preventive actions are no
longer part of ISO 14001. Only time will tell which of these will survive now that they are no longer a
requirement. To learn more about changes in ISO 14001, attend this Free webinar – ISO 14001:2015 vs.
ISO 14001:2004 – The main changes.

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Benefits of early transition
If you disregard the natural human emotion to resist change, then there is no reason to wait before
implementing the changes. The ISO committee has taken advice from all sections of the business
community in many countries, and many experts have provided input. The changes are all designed to
improve your business, and its chances of survival, profitability, and growth. Transitioning to the new
standard early can provide a number of key benefits to an organization:

Better business performance – The new structure of the standard is to ensure the management
system is completely aligned with the business strategies of the organization. Used as a business
management tool, this will improve performance and drive real value, embedding healthy
performance processes into the organization earlier.

Your reputation – Put quite simply, implement early and be the envy of your suppliers,
customers, and competitors! Early implementation also shows diligence and can only help in
tenders, bids, and existing business relationships, too.

Adopting risk-based thinking – Introduction of risk and opportunity management into your
management system will shift your system from reactive to proactive, and will reinforce its use
as a governance tool, as well as a performance accelerator. This will ensure that your
organization will be able to identify risks and opportunities more effectively, thereby improving
operational efficiency and reducing duplication, saving both time and money.

More pragmatic approach – Early transition to the new version of the standard means you can
benefit quickly from the less prescriptive requirements of the revised standard, i.e., reduced
documentation, saving time and resources.

Improved integration – Some of the other standards, like ISO 27001 and ISO 9001, have already
adopted the new common structure, and other management system standards are sure to
follow. This will ensure that you can integrate more than one system into your organization
smoothly, without investing a lot of extra time and money.

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Transition timing
According to ISO, the transition period will last three years, meaning that you can become certified or
have surveillance audits according to the old version until September 15, 2018. Some of the biggest
certification bodies announced that they will stop issuing new certificates according to the old version by
September 2016.

If you became certified before September 15, 2015, you will have your surveillance audits according to
the 2004 revision, but your recertification audit will be conducted according to the 2015 revision.

If you get your certificate according to the 2004 revision after September 15, 2015, you will have to
transition to the new version by September 2018.

2015 2016 2017 2018

New ISO 14001 is September 15th, 2018, is the ultimate deadline

published on
for the transition; the organizations that don’t meet
September 15th,
the deadline will lose their certificates.
2015.

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The transition steps
Looking at all the benefits and the timing for the transition, you are probably asking yourself whether you
need to implement the whole standard all over again. That is far from the truth; the current EMS
(Environmental Management System) simply needs to be updated to meet the new requirements of the
standard.

1) Define context of the organization. This is a new requirement, and it should be thoroughly considered
because it represents the foundation of your new EMS (Environmental Management System). For more
information, see: Determining the context of the organization in ISO 14001.

2) List all interested parties. You should list all your stakeholders (the persons and companies that can
influence your EMS or can be influenced by it), and their requirements. If you already listed all the
statutory, regulatory, and contractual requirements according to the old clause 4.3.2, then you have
already done half of your job. For more information, see: How to determine interested parties according
to ISO 14001:2015.

3) Review the scope of the EMS. The credibility of your EMS depends on the choice of organizational
boundaries. The transition is a great opportunity to reconsider the scope of your system and to define its
boundaries more precisely. For more information, see: How to determine the scope of the EMS according
to ISO 14001:2015.

4) Review the Environmental Policy. The requirements regarding the policy are pretty much the same,
although there is now a greater emphasis on incorporation of the EMS into the strategic direction of the
company, so that should be noticeable in the policy also. For more information, see: How to write an ISO
14001 Environmental Policy.

5) Align EMS objectives with the company’s strategy. 2015 requires you to determine whether the
environmental objectives are compatible with the strategic direction of the company. For more
information, see: How to Use Good Environmental Objectives.

6) Assess risks and opportunities. This is a completely new requirement, and it refers to the risks and
opportunities related to the EMS. It concerns not only environmental aspects, but also other parts of the
system such as context of the organization and compliance obligations. After the assessment of risks and
opportunities, there should also be some plans for addressing them. For more information, see: Risk
Management in ISO 14001:2015 – What, why and how?.

7) Identify and evaluate environmental aspects. The transition is a great chance to reevaluate your
environmental aspects. The new version also requires you to consider foreseeable emergency situations
and a lifecycle perspective of your products and services during the identification and evaluation of

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environmental aspects. For more information, see: 4 steps in identification and evaluation of
environmental aspects.

8) Determine the compliance obligations. A requirement for complying with statutory and regulatory
requirements existed in the previous version, but now there are also interested parties and their needs
and expectations to be observed as compliance obligations. For more information, see: Compliance
requirements according to ISO 14001:2015 – What has changed?.

9) Control documented information. “Documented information” is the new term, and it refers to both
procedures and records. Besides aligning your old procedures with the new clause numbers, you should
also consider improving your existing documentation. The requirements for preventive actions do not
exist anymore (preventive actions basically became a part of the risk assessment process), so you can
decide whether to delete that procedure or not. For more information, see: A new approach to
documented information in ISO 14001:2015.

10) Operational control. The new version requires better control of the processes, including operating
criteria and implementing controls of processes according to the criteria. For more information, see:
Defining and implementing operational control in ISO 14001:2015.

11) Environmental performance. There is now a lot of emphasis on establishing environmental

performance measuring and monitoring. If done properly, this will give you an overall picture of your
system and tell you what needs to be improved. For more information, see: Environmental performance
evaluation.

12) Measurement and reporting. Requirements became much stricter in the 2015 revision, especially
regarding the above-mentioned environmental performance, but also the internal audit and the
management review need to be aligned with the new version of the standard. The changes are not related
to the techniques for conducting them, but rather to changes in the input elements of the management
review and requirements to be audited during the internal audit. For more information, see: How to
measure the effectiveness of your EMS according to ISO 14001:2015.

And, this is it – it might seem like a lot, but my guess is that within the one-year period this won’t take
more than a couple of hours per month to achieve. This is especially true because I think these changes
really do make sense – they will not only bring your EMS closer to the needs of your business, but you will
also have a system in place to show the usefulness of your environmental management.

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Conclusion
The new ISO 14001 is here to stay, and other management system standards will follow the same path –
if they haven’t already gone through the revision. Adopting the new standards early also sends a clear
message to existing and prospective customers – it shows you are taking a leading, innovative, and
proactive approach to environmental management through new management systems. By embedding
healthy performance processes into the organization earlier, you will enhance your reputation overall.

It is better to start working on the transition sooner rather than later to gain early benefits of the new
standards and improve business performance.

Sample documentation templates

Here you can download a free preview of the ISO 14001 Transition Toolkit – in this free preview, you

will be able to see the Table of Contents of each template, as well as a few sections from each document.

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