QMS & EMS London

From early in their careers auditors are taught that it is not the person but the process they are interested in. However, this approach does little to allay auditees’ concerns and audits continue to be perceived, at best, as a mild imposition and, at worst, a tortuous interrogation.  The technical aspects of conducting an environment audit are well defined, most notably by ISO 19011. It is often, however, the more intangible elements of human and social interaction that influence the quality and outcomes of an audit. Consequently, building rapport is a key skill for an auditor and an open dialogue needs to be established early in the process. 

A leading environmental services company provides collection, processing, recycling and disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous materials for industrial and automotive customers. The company has branches all over the United States. The service representatives in these branches carry out services for geographically dispersed customers in their respective territories.

Standards tend to improve organisational performance. The results of an ISO survey published earlier this year reveal the benefits of the 14001 standard for environment management systems (EMS). It found that organisations implementing 14001 realised significant value for their businesses. It also helped them to meet their legal obligations, improve environmental performance, and enhance management commitment and employee engagement on the environment. There were almost 286,000 14001 certifications in 2012, and the popularity of the global EMS standard has soared since it was introduced in 1996.

The first part of this series looked at what organisational culture is, how to spot it and why it is significant to successfully meeting organisational sustainability goals. So how can the existing culture be harnessed to help achieve such targets? Textbook definitions of organisational culture tend to be generic, and it can be hard to properly understand it without examples.

The views in this article were presented at a debate on geoengineering hosted by the Institute for Science and Ethics at Oxford Martin School.

The public consultation on the revised version of the international standard for environmental management systems (EMS) is now open. First published in 1996, ISO 14001 was revised in 2004. The current revision is part of the ISO review cycle for standards and will lead to the publication of the third edition in 2015.

Long-term thinking and integration is key when it come sustainability and making business strategies more resilient, a report from consultants Corporate Citizenship argues. The report – Creating Resilient Strategies – addresses the current strategy debate and considers if strategies are sufficiently far-sighted and robust enough to cope with a fast changing operating context. There are three versions of the report, each focussing on a different region – Asia-Pacific, North America and Europe.