Understanding ISO 14001 Clause 6.1.3 Compliance Obligations

In this article, I’m going to cover clause 6.1.3 Compliance obligations which falls under the overarching clause 6 Planning. I’m going to break this clause down and turn it into something you can all understand.

You’ll then be able to apply this to your own organization's system and understand what the requirements will look like for you. No more guessing! 

Before we get stuck into the actual clause requirements it is important to note Compliance obligations include mandatory legal requirements as well as Other requirements which may come from our interested parties. If you’re not sure what an interested party is check out our video for clause 4.2 to get a refresher.

Now, we probably all understand what mandatory legal requirements are referring to, but what about these Other requirements? It’s a bit vague, isn’t it? If you use the process of deduction, obviously the Other requirements are NOT the Legal requirements – so what could these Other requirements be? They can be:

• - Your own organization's requirements – so your own system, policies, and procedures.
• - Contractual requirements – which could be from your customers or even suppliers or the community. Your customers or the community may have specific environmental requirements for you when conducting work or supplying a product or a service.
• - Employment agreements – your organization will more than likely have in place employee agreements that do state certain environmental requirements.
• - Industry standards – depending on what industry you are in your overarching industry body or organization may have environmental requirements.
• - Voluntary associations – your organization may have taken on board a voluntary cause that may support an environmental cause, like the Plant a Tree Conservation program for example.

Now you can see just a few examples of what might fall under other requirements.

Ok, let’s get started! There are 3 key points in this clause, so let’s take a look at them.

First up The organization shall:

a) determine and have access to the compliance obligations related to its environmental aspects;

Sounds simple enough right? Two statements here stand out to me – determine and have access to.

The first step is that you need to determine the compliance obligations that are relevant to your activities, products, and services – and of course, the environmental aspects identified – which of course we covered in clause 6.1.2 Environmental aspects. Be sure to check out that video if you want a refresher.

So, where can you find out what your compliance obligations are relevant to your business? It really depends on the resources you have within your organization. I say this as I see a lot of larger businesses have their own internal legal teams. And of course, these legal teams are the experts in identifying and determining what is relevant.

Now, of course, we don’t always have access to these resources. If we are a smaller business, it is more than likely that we won’t have our own internal legal team! What I normally see in these circumstances is that the business will have a consultant or a subscription that provides this information. A subscription I see around a lot is EnviroLaw which falls under a company called Environmental Essentials.

Having this provided externally does take a lot of pressure off you and puts it in the hands of the professionals. That way you can spend your time doing what you’re good and knowledgeable at. However, if you do want to take this on yourself Environmental legislation is reasonably accessible online.

You just need to make sure that you access the requirements of each state, particularly if your business conducts activities in different states. If your business conducts activities internationally you also need to be aware of what is relevant and where, when it comes to environmental legislation in other countries.

The challenge with doing this yourself is determining how to apply the legislative requirements to your specific business. This is where the experts come in handy.

Now, remember the 2 keywords – determine and have access to that I mentioned earlier? All of this so far is about how you will determine your requirements. Don’t forget that once you have determined them you need to ensure that you have access to them. This might not mean just having access to the legal jargon documents, it will also mean access to how you will apply the requirements within your business through your activities, products, and services.

Which is a great segue to the next point in this clause which states...

b) determine how these compliance obligations apply to the organization.

Somehow you have to interpret what the compliance obligations are and figure out what actions or processes you will take within your environmental management system to ensure they are applied. This is where it is handy to have a legal team (I wish) or a consultant. Even with a subscription they do tend to turn it into language that we understand and then we know how to apply it to our activities, products, and services.

Then the third key point states...

c) take these compliance obligations into account when establishing, implementing, maintaining and continually improving its environmental management system.

These compliance obligations should be embedded into your environmental management system. So, they become ‘just the way you operate’. These requirements don’t sit in a corner with people too scared to go over there! If they are applied and integrated into your environmental management system, it becomes part of your day-to-day operations. And of course, it’s important to stay up to date with any changes and then if any changes influence your environmental management system, then it is simply updated. The method you use to determine your relevant requirements will be the method you use to keep up to date with changes.

Then finally, the last sentence of this clause states...

The organization shall maintain documented information of its compliance obligations.

So, if you are implementing a system, please ensure that you have documented information on what you have identified as your compliance obligations – both legal requirements and other requirements. This is not something that should just be kept in your head. It’s here in black and white that documented information is to be maintained.

Ensure that what you identify and how it’s applied can be easily demonstrated through your system, procedures, or even a legal register.

Right! Now that I’ve explained all of these requirements, can you see more clearly how you could action and demonstrate this within your management system and what it might look like also – seeing as you need to maintain documented information?

Learn more about ISO 14001 by gaining an internationally recognized qualification today!