ECSI Blog

Here is a chance to put yourself in the auditor’s shoes and identify potential nonconformances.  The objective of this exercise is to review the situation presented and determine if a nonconformance to the ISO 14001 standard exists.  For those of you who have not committed the standard to memory, you may want to pull out your copy to use as a reference.  If you need a copy of the standard one can be purchased from ANSI. Here is also a web address:   

http://webstore.ansi.org/FindStandards.aspx?SearchString=ISO+14001&SearchOption=0&PageNum=0&SearchTermsArray=null%7cISO+14001%7cnull

You can post your answers anonymously to the blog where we can discuss various answers with others participating.  I will post what I believe are the best answers to this questions in a week or two and notify those who have posted to the blog when I do so.  Have fun with this.  My students in the ISO 14001 EMS-LA course find this to be one of the most fun and valuable parts of the course.

Instructions:

1.  Read the situation carefully

2.  Decide which ISO 14001 clause or clauses may apply.

3.  If you think more than one clause applies choose the one that you think fits best.

4.  Identify what is wrong with the situation

5.  Identify the requirements within the applicable clause of the standard.

Here is an example:

The documented emergency response procedure indicates that a test of the organizations ability to respond to emergencies will be tested at least annually.  When interviewing the Environmental Management System Representative (EMR) you ask for evidence that the emergency response procedure had been tested for effectiveness.  The EMR states that the last test was performed three years ago.  The EMR also states that they had planned to do another test several months ago but have been unable to perform it due to layoffs at the plant and curtailed work schedules.  

Which ISO 14001 clause best applies?

4.4.7 —Emergency Preparedness and Response

What is the Problem (evidence)? 

The organization was not able to show if had performed a periodic test of the emergency response procedure as required by its own procedure.

What is the requirement? 

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 also periodically test such procedures where practicable.

You’re the Auditor — The Situation/Evidence

During an ISO 14001 at a plastic injection molding company you discover that the company has begun manufacturing their own injection molding tools (molds) to use in their injection molding machines.  In the past, these were always being manufactured by an outside source.  Review of the organizations list of environmental aspects reveals the new environmental aspects have been introduced by the new process.  These are waste coolant and solvent cleaning waste. You find that these new aspects have not been added to the list of environmental aspect for the department.  When you interview the tool room team leader they indicate that this oversight had been found in a previous internal audit performed six months ago and that they were in the process of correcting this nonconformance.  You are not able to find any other evidence that this nonconformance from the previous audit had been addressed.

Which ISO 14001 clause best applies?

What is the Problem (evidence)?

What is the requirement?

Post your answer here or check back in a week or so to review what others came up with and to see the correct answer(s).