EHS Services - Management Systems
& ISO Assessment
Introduction. Many companies have found that strong
management systems are critical to maintaining compliance and
implementing EHS improvements. The experienced eye of an independent
consultant can be particularly valuable in understanding your
company’s management systems.
Experience. As shown by our management
systems and ISO 14001 experience, our consultants have assessed
the management systems of over 30 organizations. This experience
allows us to effectively assess what is working and what is not
and bring knowledge of examples of leading practices from other
companies. We can identify unique aspects of your company culture
or organization that can help or hinder effective EHS management.
ISO 14001. ISO 14001 is becoming a well-established
tool to develop a formalized environmental management system that
can be verified by a third party. We conduct ISO 14001 gap analyses
to help an organization establish how its current systems compare
to the requirements of the standard. We provide a report that
summarizes the gaps and includes prioritized recommendations to
close the gaps. Once the gaps are identified, we can provide guidance
and hands-on assistance to help implement the required elements
of a management system. This includes assistance in areas such
as environmental aspects evaluation, procedure development, training,
auditing, and management review (see implementation).
Among the topics we often review during a management systems
assessment are:
Policy development and communication
Risk assessment and management
Regulatory tracking
Goals and objectives
Emergency response systems
Standard operating procedures
Data management systems
Document control and recordkeeping systems
Training programs
Change control systems
Incident/accident management and investigation
Internal and external reporting
Internal audit & inspection programs
Personnel reward and recognition programs
Roles, responsibilities, organizational structure
Resources
The Information Technology Connection. An important
aspect of effective and efficient EHS management systems today
is the integration of information technology and software tools.
Increasingly, proper use of information technology and software
within an organization can help save time and money by streamlining
how information gets managed and communicated throughout an organization.
Our consultants have extensive experience developing such tools
and, most importantly, helping organizations integrate those tools
within their current management systems.
Our Qualifications. To better understand our experience
in this area, review descriptions of projects we've conducted
in the areas of management systems / ISO 14000
and information technology.
KCI Case Study: The following case study describes a
recent project we undertook for a global manufacturer of specialty
chemicals and pharmaceuticals:
