ISO 14001 Clause 4.1

ISO 14001; Clause 4.1 ~ General Requirements:

ISO 14001, clause 4.1 starts off with the phrase ‘top management’ that is defined as the person or group of people who direct and control a company at the highest level. This is an important difference from the previous edition of ISO 14001 that used the terms ‘executive management’ which went undefined in the standard. This permitted companies to lay the responsibility for the ISO 14001 system on the shoulders of anyone they called staff. Now, with the 2004 revision, top management is directly accountable for making certain the EMS is effective.

The organization must define and document the scope of their environmental management system. This is generally accomplished with the writing and publishing of an ISO 14001 System Manual. Although the ISO 14001 standard does not specifically call for this manual it has become the most common method.

An organization will further define and document their ISO 14001 system through written procedures and perhaps operating instructions.

The ISO 14001 System manual is used to describe the organization's environmental policies and committments. It is generic in nature in that it does not decribe specifically what or how the organization will fulfill its environmental obligations.

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