ISO 14001 Environmental Standard: Process Approach and Identification of Environmental Aspects and Impacts

Abstract

Environmental management is the management of activities that may have an impact on the environment. It aims to limit polluting emissions and risks to the environment and to save natural resources. Often unsuspected and therefore without us always realizing it, all economic activities can have a considerable impact on the environment. Indeed, the manufacture of products requires the extraction of raw materials and the use of water and energy. Similarly, activities associated with the manufacturing process, such as maintenance, transportation; all have environmental impacts. The environmental management system is a progress tool that integrates the environmental dimension into an organization’s strategy, leading it to set objectives, achieve and maintain performance through effective management and promotes anticipation (the forecast). There is a multitude of guides allowing self-diagnosis by the organization and which make it possible to make an environmental assessment. ISO 14001 is the environmental management standard (EMS) created by the international organization for standardization. It defines the requirements of a global environmental management system for self-reporting or certification purposes. It is organized in 17 points modeled on quality management, well known for 34 years in the industry. The standard does not establish any absolute requirement for environmental performance, other than a commitment to environmental policy, to comply with legislation and the principle of continuous improvement. Pollution prevention through the identification of the various significant environmental aspects and impacts, which accounted for 70% of the requirements of ISO 14001, is the main environmental improvement point. In addition, since these environmental aspects and impacts can only be identified from the activities, products and services associated with them, this article represents a working method that allows expressing good environmental practices, present in the form of environmental performance indicators that inform in a concentrated and precise manner on the different activities with environmental relevance.

Full text

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INNOVATIVE RESEARCH IN MULTIDISCIPLINARY EDUCATION
ISSN(print): 2833-4515, ISSN(online): 2833-453 Volume 03 Issue 04 April 2024 DOI: 10.58806/ijirme.2024.v3i4n24, Impact factor- 5.138 Page No. 687 - 692
IJIRME, Volume 3 Issue 04 April 2024 www.ijirme.com Page 687
ISO 14001 Environmental Standard: Process Approach and Identification
of Environmental Aspects and Impacts
Hanane El Fadel1, Mohammed Merzouki2
1,2Laboratory of Biotechnology, Environment, Agri-food and Health; Faculty of Sciences Dhar El Mahraz, University Sidi
Mohammed Ben Abdellah, Fez, Morocco
ABSTRACT : Environmental management is the management of activities that may have an impact on the environment. It aims
to limit polluting emissions and risks to the environment and to save natural resources. Often unsuspected and therefore without us
always realizing it, all economic activities can have a considerable impact on the environment. Indeed, the manufacture of
products requires the extraction of raw materials and the use of water and energy. Similarly, activities associated with the
manufacturing process, such as maintenance, transportation; all have environmental impacts. The environmental management
system is a progress tool that integrates the environmental dimension into an organization’s strategy, leading it to set objectives,
achieve and maintain performance through effective management and promotes anticipation (the forecast).
There is a multitude of guides allowing self-diagnosis by the organization and which make it possible to make an environmental
assessment. ISO 14001 is the environmental management standard (EMS) created by the international organization for
standardization. It defines the requirements of a global environmental management system for self-reporting or certification
purposes. It is organized in 17 points modeled on quality management, well known for 34 years in the industry. The standard does
not establish any absolute requirement for environmental performance, other than a commitment to environmental policy, to
comply with legislation and the principle of continuous improvement.
Pollution prevention through the identification of the various significant environmental aspects and impacts, which accounted
for 70% of the requirements of ISO 14001, is the main environmental improvement point. In addition, since these environmental
aspects and impacts can only be identified from the activities, products and services associated with them, this article represents a
working method that allows expressing good environmental practices, present in the form of environmental performance
indicators that inform in a concentrated and precise manner on the different activities with environmental relevance.
KEYWORDS: ISO 14001, Environmental impact, Pollution, Environmental aspect, EMS.
I. INTRODUCTION
The environmental management system is a progress tool that integrates the environmental dimension into an organization’s
strategy, leading it to set objectives to achieve and maintain performance through effective management and promotes anticipation
(the forecast) [1].
There are a multitude of guides for self-diagnosis by the body that make it possible to make an environmental assessment.
The official standards for environmental management are ISO 14001 and EMAS (Environmental Management and Audit
System, known as «Eco-audit») [2].
The main objective of ISO 14001 is to help any type of organization achieve its environmental objectives by providing the
elements of an effective environmental management system [3-6]. It reconciles a voluntary approach with continuous
improvement [7]. The other standard, EMAS, was drawn up by the European Community: Regulation of 29 June 1993, and is
based on the voluntary participation of bodies. These two standards are similar in their requirements but different, however:
- One is international, the other is limited to the European community [8];
- ISO 14001 is for any “organization”, EMAS is limited to industrial enterprises [9];
- The main difference is the requirement to publish a statement of environmental performance in the European regulation [10],
not to mention differences in vocabulary; certification for one, registration for the other for example.
An environmental approach, which in addition, is sanctioned by an ISO 14001 certification, improves the company’s image and
its relations with the public [11]. This even becomes a necessary element to attack certain markets. Indeed, ethics and ecological
awareness are increasingly developing among consumers and industrial customers. This can jeopardize the future of firms or
products deemed to be environmentally unfriendly [12].

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The environmental analysis highlights the risks of environmental accidents. Better identified, they will be better controlled,
especially since the ISO 14001 standard requires the study of responses associated with emergency situations [13-15]. Even
improved field practices or investments aimed at preventing the risk of accidents or reducing the consequences encourage
insurance companies to reduce the cost of policies with equal coverage [16-19]. On the other hand, controlling risk leads to
reducing the number of accidents and their severity: the economic consequences for the company can be considerable [20].
II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
This part consists of making an « inventory» at the level of all the activities within an organization present (whether they work
or not) within the scope of application. For each activity, it is necessary to analyze or research the steps that can act on such or
such field of the environment (water, air, waste, noise, energies, soil and basement, visual aspect, fauna and flora, smells, special
radiation).
The identification of environmental aspects and the assessment of associated impacts constituted 70% of the requirements of
the ISO 1400 standard, it is a dynamic process that determines the past, present and potential environmental impacts (whether
beneficial or negative) the activities of an organization. This process also involves taking into account the potential regulatory,
legal and economic constraints affecting the organization. It may also include the identification of impacts on the health and safety
of persons, as well as the assessment of risks to the environment.
This identification should be completed in a comprehensive manner and in varying degrees of detail in the following four steps:
Step 1: Choosing an activity, product or service
The chosen activity, product or service should cover a field sufficiently large for its examination to be eloquent, but not too
complex to be easily understood;
Step 2: Identification of environmental aspects of the activity, product or service
This involves identifying the greatest number of environmental aspects associated with the chosen activity, product or service;
Step 3: Identification of environmental impacts
Identify as many of the environmental impacts, real and potential, beneficial and negative, associated with each identified aspect;
Step 4: Assessment of the importance of impacts
The significance of each of the identified environmental impacts may vary from one organization to another. Quantification can
facilitate assessment.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
III.1. Identification of the most significant environmental aspects and impacts of the various activities: From the
identified activities, products and services, it is still necessary to identify environmental aspects and the impacts associated with
them: It is a question of breaking down the activity to identify any operation that may generate nuisances (processes, equipment
that has been part of, raw materials, outgoing products, waste or waste generated, resources, fluids and energy used, maintenance
and cleaning work of equipment applied to process equipment, etc.).
The decomposition can be done on different levels, from the most general to the most detailed (workshop, manufacturing
process, particular equipment) depending on the need to access or not very precise information. For to be more exhaustive, we
can, for each activity, study each environment/ area or each nuisance.
The identification of environmental aspects and impacts is made taking into account the situation of the mode of operation
(Table 1): Normal (N) as the situation of transitional operation (T) or the Incident operation (I)
Table 1. Situations of operating modes
Note
Normal Operation
(N)
Transitional March
(T)
Incident Operation
(I)
1
The event takes place continuously
The event takes place
several times a day
The event takes place
several times on the site
2
The event takes place at least 50% of the time
The event takes place at
least once a week
The event has already
happened once on the site
3
The event takes place between 25 and 50% of
the time
The event takes place at
least once a month
The event has already
occurred on similar sites
4
Event takes place at least 25% of the time
The event takes place at
least once a month
The event has no known
history

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The identification of environmental aspects and impacts allows us to see environmental indicators and propose approaches for
each indicator that will help us better understand environmental problems, material flows, personal perception and other
environmental data.
III.2. Assessment of environmental aspects and impacts
The process approach and the identification of Environmental Aspects and Impacts allows us to identify:
- Any operation which may generate nuisances (processes, equipment forming part of them, liquid, solid or gaseous
discharges, etc.);
- Sensitive points;
- Type of action to be implemented;
- Skills and information required to master processes.
III.2.1. Assessment of Significant Environmental Impacts
The assessment of environmental impacts is carried out by taking into account three factors (Table 2): «Gravity»,
«Frequency of occurrence» and «Sensitivity of the receiving environment» and it has 4 stages:
1. Intrinsic gravity assessment (G): This involves determining the severity of the environmental impact. For this, it is important to
define beforehand the criteria that will be taken into account in order to carry out this evaluation. Criteria such as: toxicity of
products, amount of water or energy consumed… what helps to determine the order of magnitude of impacts, either critical,
major, limited or minor;
2. Frequency of occurrence assessment (F): this involves determining the frequency of occurrence of the Environmental Impact;
3. The evaluation of the Sensitivity (S): the sensitivity of the receiving medium is also determined by characterizing the receiving
medium (floor tightness for example);
Table 2. Environmental impact assessment
4. Determining the criticality of the environmental impact: Taking into account the previous criteria. This score is obtained by
multiplying the elementary scores for each criterion:
The Table 3 below represents the criticality matrix and determines the significance of the environmental impact:
Score/Criterion
Gravity (G)
Frequency (F)
Sensitivity (S)
1
Irreversible damage to living beings (humans,
fauna and flora) whether they are internal or
external to the organism (critical)
Permanent
Critical
2
Irreversible damage to the environment (major)
Frequent
Important
3
Reversible harm to environment (limited)
occasional
Limited
4
Gene for staff
(minor)
Rare
Low
CI= G x F x S

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Table 3. Matrix of Environmental impact criticality
II.2.2. Assessment of significant environmental aspects:
This part consists of 3 steps, this is to identify 2 other criteria related to the identified environmental aspects:
3. Determination of the criticality of the environmental aspect:
Gravity x Frequency ( G x F )
16
16
32
48
64
12
12
24
36
48
9
9
18
27
36
8
8
16
24
32
6
6
12
18
24
4
4
8
12
16
3
3
6
9
12
2
2
4
6
8
1
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
4
Sensitivity (S)
Significant impact (CI < 8)
Impact assumed or tolerated (8  CI < 27)
Non-significant impact (CI  27)
0
Non-compliant
1
Compliant or non-regulatory
1
Non-existent
2
Low
3
Good
4
maximum
1. Study of regulatory compliance (C): any aspect
not satisfying regulatory constraints and necessarily
significant
2. Environmental Control Level Assessment (M):
Control level is technical, human and organizational.
The evaluation must take into account the principles of
prevention
CA = CI x C x M

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The Table 4 represents the criticality matrix and determines the significance of the environmental aspect:
Table 4. Matrix of Environmental Criticality
CONCLUSION
The ISO 14001 standard is the most suitable and appropriate environmental management system for its application, given its
commitments and its proactive aspect that does not require an environmental declaration.
In practice, there is a wide variety of methodologies that make it possible to achieve the environmental objective, some of
which are limited to a purely formal approach, while others integrate consultation or worker participation.
The methodology proposed in this work allows an improvement of environmental performance in order to achieve a clearly
defined goal, the management and protection of the environment in which the activities take place.
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