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Reactive
VS. Proactive
The regulatory approach
doesn't consider the environmental
impacts of new or planned activities until changes are already in place.
This not only results in project delays when obtaining permits or approvals, but
could even mean regulatory non-compliance if environmental issues aren't
thoroughly addressed.
An
ISO 14001 EMS not only complies with applicable environmental
regulations, but develops corrective and preventative actions as needed.
It also prioritizes
and directs resources towards an organization’s most significant
environmental aspects. This continually improves overall performance and
may contribute directly to the bottom line.
A
Better Understanding
It's true that an organization can demonstrate
conformance to the ISO 14001 standard and not be in regulatory
compliance. However, an
organization can't be in conformance for long without meeting
regulatory guidelines, due to the nature of the ISO 14001 process - investigating the root cause and developing both corrective and
preventive actions when addressing problems.
Accordingly, an organization will be less likely to
repeat such a non-compliance once appropriately addressed.
These techniques rival a regulatory approach focused on
“quick fixes” and resuming compliance as expeditiously as
possible.
Result
Repeat and frequent non-compliances are indicative of
systemic failures, which ultimately compromise an organization’s
conformance status.
EMS is used to significantly reduce failures/compromises of the
"system."
Tune
in next issue for Part 3 of our series: "EMS Implementation."
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