In this blog, we're going to talk about a specific part of ISO 14001:2015, which is all about being ready for emergencies. Don't worry if it sounds complicated—we're going to break it down so it's easy to understand. By the end, you'll know how to ensure your business is better prepared for any unexpected situations.
This clause states that...
The organization shall establish, implement and maintain the process(es) needed to prepare for and respond to potential emergency situations, as identified in 6.1.1. The organization shall:
a) prepare to respond to prevent or mitigate adverse environmental impacts from emergency situations;
Let’s stop there for a bit and understand what is needed so far. We need to understand what our potential emergency situations are and prepare for them so that we can respond adequately. We need to have a planned response to these emergency situations. How do we know what the potential emergency situations are? Luckily, earlier on in clause 6.1 Actions to address risks and opportunities, it states that the potential emergency situations, including those that can have an environmental impact are to be determined.
Taking this into consideration, we should already have an idea of what our potential emergency situations are and of course, part of our action to manage these is to establish planned responses. These planned responses can include these further points in this clause:
b) respond to actual emergency situations
c) take action to prevent or mitigate the consequences of emergency situations, appropriate to the magnitude of the emergency and the potential environmental impact;
d) periodically test the planned response actions, where practicable;
This means that once we have established our planned responses, we need to conduct tests or drills on the response processes. You might choose to do a run-through of the response based on a scenario or you could do a desktop review. By testing the response processes, you will be able to obtain feedback from everyone involved in the testing and therefore your response to an actual emergency situation should run smoother and the people involved will be well-practiced and prepared.
As part of our response to an environmental emergency, we should deal with the consequences first. This might be containing a spill or isolating a work area, depending on what the situation is.
I used to audit a civil construction company. I audited them for about 9 years. They regularly tested their emergency response to chemical spills. For chemical spills in waterways, they used a harmless dye or food coloring and they used a contained pond that they had at their own workshop location so the test was in a controlled environment.
If you aren’t able to conduct field drills like this you can always conduct desktop exercises which is about simulating potential emergency situations with relevant parties, including employees, contractors, visitors and emergency responders to test their knowledge and understanding of the response procedures. These can be conducted in a meeting room or office and involve discussing hypothetical scenarios and responses.
Now that we’ve established these response processes and are responding and testing, this clause moves on to state …
e) periodically review and revise the process(es) and planned response actions, in particular after the occurrence of emergency situations or tests; and
f) provide relevant information and training related to emergency preparedness and response, as appropriate, to relevant interested parties, including persons working under its control.
So, when you are testing your response processes you should be reviewing what went well and where the response process could be improved. This also applies in the event of an actual emergency that has occurred.
And don’t forget that part of involving interested parties in the testing of response includes providing the relevant training.
The final statement of this clause is:
The organization shall maintain documented information to the extent necessary to have confidence that the process(es) is (are) carried out as planned.
The words, maintain documented information means that our planned responses should be documented. What we have to do should be written down somewhere so we can access it and follow it when we need to.
This clause doesn’t state to retain documented information; however, it may be beneficial to retain evidence of training, testing, and emergency responses so that you do have records of following the response procedures and improvements as a result of this.
Now that you have a better understanding of these requirements, it's time to take action and implement them in your own organization and ISO 14001 Environmental management systems.
If you're keen to expand your knowledge on ISO 14001, make sure to check out our other articles on the topic, starting with a comprehensive breakdown of What is ISO 14001:2015 Environmental management systems??
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