Explain The Iso 14001 Control Of Records

By Author: Emma
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All businesses maintain records of the various aspects of their operations, but two common inquiries during ISO 14001 implementation are: What records are required for the environmental management system, and what are the particular requirements for keeping these records up to date? Although the ISO 14001 standard is not extremely lengthy or complex, there are a few considerations to make sure your business's procedures adhere to it.

What Needs to Be Recorded?
The Environmental Management System and ISO 14001 criteria simply specify that you must keep records to show that you comply with them, but what does this mean? Every record that your organization has determined is necessary to demonstrate that your system is operating should be included in the list of records required by ISO 14001.

The following are the ISO 14001 required records:
• Records of Demonstrating Competence, Awareness, and Training: These records demonstrate the steps you have taken to guarantee that your staff members and other stakeholders are capable of carrying out the necessary tasks in a way that minimizes your environmental ...
... effects.
• Records of Compliance Evaluations: These ISO 14001 documents templates show that your business has complied with all legal requirements as well as additional requirements, or that any noncompliance has been remedied.
• Operational Control Records: Your company processes' recorded interactions with the environment (e.g., trash disposal or air emissions) make up your environmental aspects. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the EMS, the records of the controls you have implemented to manage these factors are essential.
• Lastly, documentation of nonconformity, remedial and preventive actions, internal audit, and management review shows that all EMS procedures are implemented and operating as intended.
By the standard, you must also keep track of the outcomes that the EMS produces. This documentation will show if you have fulfilled your objectives or are on course to meet ongoing objectives. Records of air emissions to indicate compliance with target emissions or records of waste disposal to demonstrate meeting waste reduction targets are a few of examples of these.

How are the Records to be Kept up to Date?
For the records you've identified to demonstrate the effectiveness of your environmental management system, they must meet the following nine requirements:
• Identification: Have you determined where records are required, both for the legally required records and any additional records you require? How may those utilizing the processes be aware that a record is required? To track trash reduction efforts, it is necessary to keep track of waste disposal records.
• Storage: Where will the records be kept? How are you going to make sure that no electronic or print copy of the records is harmed? If your records are electronic, make sure you have a suitable backup in case something goes wrong with the computer and the records, if they are paper, should be kept in a place where they won't be harmed by Mold or water damage.
• Protection: How are the records guarded against accidental use as well as against harm? Who can see records, and who cannot? Sensitive information, for example, should be stored on a computer drive with controlled access so that only authorized users can view it.
• Retrieval: How do you retrieve a record that is being stored when you need to look at it? Do the records need to be approved by the record keeper, or are they openly available? If a record is required, how soon must you locate it and can you locate it in this amount of time?
• Retention: What is the duration of record-keeping? This will differ depending on the record in question as well as any applicable legal obligations. For example, there may be a legal need for the retention period of records about corrective actions taken in response to legal non-compliance.
• Disposal: How will you dispose of the records when the time comes? Who is responsible for keeping track of when records should be destroyed? Records of trash disposal must be retained for the full seven years if you are obligated to keep them, else you should delete them.
• Legibility: How can one ensure that a record is readable both when it is written down and while it is being stored? This need for electronic records applies to the capacity to read the media on which the record is stored; do you still have the ability to read old floppy drive records?
• Identifiable: Are you able to tell what the record is used for and when it becomes pertinent? If this is a calibration record for a piece of measuring and monitoring equipment, can you identify which equipment it pertains to and when the calibration was completed?
• Traceable: Are you aware of the locations of every record's storage for simple access? Is it possible to discover a second record from the first and follow the relationship between connected records?

Importance of ISO 14001 Records
In the end, you must be able to demonstrate that all of the claims you make in your environmental management system have been taken into consideration. If you claim to monitor air emissions from a chemical process, you must provide documentation proving not only that the monitoring was carried out (emissions records), but also that it was executed accurately (calibration records for monitoring equipment). Records are not the only means of proving your actions, but if you are working with a process where completion of a task is mandatory, consider how you will be able to demonstrate that the activity was completed correctly and did not negatively impact the environment.

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