As reported in an earlier post (Interpretation Process for ISO 14001:2015), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has developed a process to clarify the intent of ISO 14001:2015.
The ISO process allows for interpretations to be provided by each National Member Body (NMB), normally, the standards making body in each country, such as BSI in the United Kingdom & ANSI in the United States. A full list of NMBs can be found here.
The responsible ISO Sub-Committee (SC1) has developed the process for managing interpretations of ISO 14001:2015 which was recently revised on 4 September 2017. A copy of the process is available for a free download here.
It is important to note that Interpretations do not change the requirements in ISO 14001:2015 but are intended to give users a better understanding of ISO 14001:2015.
The ISO 14001:2015 Interpretation process provides that:
- It is the responsibility of each NMB to respond to any interpretation enquiries it receives;
- The NMB interpretations are submitted to the ISO SC1 Secretary and reviewed annually at the ISO SC1 plenary;
- After the review, the interpretation is made available to the public via ISO Livelink and the ISO SC1 website;
- Any questions about the interpretation should be referred to the NMB where the interpretation originated.
This process has led to several interpretations on areas, such as whether interested parties must be documented in the EMS, identification of risk and opportunities, clarity on “outsourced process” and “life-cycle perspective”.
Any organisation who already has an EMS based on ISO 14001:2015 or is seeking to develop an EMS, Environmental Auditors, Certification Bodies and other users of ISO 14001:2015 should be aware of these interpretations.
The reviewed ISO 14001:2015 interpretations are available as a PDF for free download from the ISO website here