Benefits of Environmental ISO 14001
ISO 14001 was established mainly to provide guidelines or framework that helps organizations to create an environmental management system that controls that impact that the organizations have on the environment. However, it goes beyond just providing that to offer many benefits to the organizations.
What is evident now is the improvement in performance that an organization readily realizes for being compliant with these standards. However, an organization can also reap many economic and other benefits just for being certified for ISO 14001 standards. That is the focus of this article. We are going to discuss all these benefits that your organization stands to gain from ISO 14001 certification.
Many people are still asking why they should implement ISO 14001 to their organization. They are not yet convinced that how important the whole thing is to their organizations and other people in general. The following are some of the key benefits of implementing these standards:
Help you in becoming compliant with the legal requirements
This is definitely the most important part of this section that we are going to discuss. Many different states have different environmental laws that you are expected to comply with. These laws are expected to protect the environment from excessive pollution that is caused by industrial processes and activities. The good thing is that most of these legal requirements are drawn from the ISO 14001 standards. What does this mean to your organization?
When you implement the ISO 14001 standards, you automatically comply with the regulations and there is no day that your organization or company will be penalized for noncompliance. An environmental management system that is set up according to these standards will definitely yield the expected results for your organization and reduce the impact that has on your organization have on the environment.
Improvement in cost control
One of the main goals of an organization in the business sector is to reduce the cost of production while at the same time improving the profit margin. We know that you may be wondering right now how an environmental management system can help you in controlling the cost. Keep reading. We are just about to take to the same page with us.
An environmental management system is key for the identification of all the risks that can befall your company or organization. These environmental risks are great liabilities as you will be expected to pay hefty fines by the local government or get sued in court by the environmentalists for the damage that you have caused to the environment. An environmental system will help you to identify all the risks before they occur and take necessary action, thereby saving on the costs of cleanup and payment of fines. You can also use the same system to regulate the amount of energy that your organization uses. This will, in turn, reduce the cost of the energy bills that you will have to pay.
Improve your organization's reputation
This is a very straightforward point that we don’t even have to say more about. We have customers or some stakeholders who will require ISO 14001 certification before they can partner and do business with you. We obviously see that this is a straightforward advantage that you and your company have over others.
What is left for you to do is to ensure that all your staff has the right knowledge of managing this EMS. You should have a valid certificate that proves that you comply with these standards and you will definitely add on to your organization’s reputation. Also, ensure that your organization can be audited at any time for ISO 14001 conformity so that anyone interested in knowing whether you are compliant or not can do so without any excuses from you.
Competitively compete for talents
Your efforts in managing the environment greatly reward you when it comes to talent sourcing. Everyone is now aware of the role that they play in making sure that they conserve the environment. The talent that you want in the market is the most enlightened and will definitely choose a company that puts much effort into environmental conservation over one that does not. How will they recognize that you are conscious about your activities and their impact on the environment? That is only possible through the ISO certification.
You are also more likely to retain top talents once you have acquired them when you actively engage them in reducing the environmental footprints of your organization. They will also be willing to be part of the environmental management system.
Quicker improvement of processes
It is definitely true that two are better than one. An environmental management system is manned with more than one staff, and these staffs are at different positions in the organization’s hierarchy. What are we driving? Two pairs of eyes are many times most likely to identify new ways of improving the processes than just one pair of eyes. As the requirement of an ISO 14001, you need to continuously improve the system based on the results that you get from it. You will find better ways much faster by implanting the standards, thereby giving you ways to better control cost and improve your organization’s reputations as already seen.
The higher success rate in implementing the corrective measures
The success of corrective measures is based on the data that you will be working with. The data in question are collected according to the ISO 14001 standards. When you are finally implementing these changes, you will definitely get success in the first round and be able to track the changes. This will, in turn, save you both time and money.
As final remarks, let us echo it again that all the benefits will only come after you are certified. At ISO-Pros, we can help you through the certification process. Getting an ISO 14001 is an easy process when you choose to work with us. It is also not as expensive as you may think and we can do it to any organization regardless of the size.