Hello,
we are a small multi-national company looking to integrate our ISO14001 EMS documentation across a number of sites in several different countries. I understand that most procedures need to be site/country specific, but was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on standard EMS documentation that works well across multiple locations?

:thanks:

Well hello and welcome....:bigwave:

basically you're not perfectly correct in your assumption. Procedures need to be:

1. As required by the standard

2. Adequate to meet the needs of the organization to effectively manage the system in order to meet requirements...

That's it.

Do what meets your organization needs

I would just add that your multi-national company procedures will need to address the legal and other requirements for each country where the company operates, as well as any other requirements that the company subscribes (e.g., industry standards).

I would just add that your multi-national company procedures will need to address the legal and other requirements for each country where the company operates, as well as any other requirements that the company subscribes (e.g., industry standards).


I think I kinda said that in far fewer words.....

Hi,

I am from a multinational company working in over 60 countries that has over 200 ISO-14001 certified units. My experience may be of some assistance to you.

We have envioronmental (sustainability) standards at the Coporate level - e.g. on substances, product data collection, real-property transaction (environmental due diligence) etc.

We have environmental (sustainability) standards at the Product Division level - e.g. on purchasing, design and substances etc.

These two sets of standards address the company's requirements to meet global customers (and to address business risk) and beyond.

In the ISO-14001 system of the units, these sets of standards are identified as "Other Requirements" and also as "Significant Aspects" (by explicitly stating that "legal" and "other requirements" are identified as significant aspects). Once identified as "signficant aspects", they are addressed under 4.4.6 of ISO-14001, with operational control procedures. For example, the Purchasing procedure of the local unit will incorporate the "green puchasing requirement" of the Corporate/Product Division standard - i.e. the other requirement will be embedded in the local operational control procedure. In my experience, units from the same product division end up having similar procedures, with minor modifications to take care of the local requirements.

As for the legal requirements, our experience is that units from the same country have similar procedures for compliance with legal requirements.

If one can identify common subjects for all the units, such as purchasing, design and development, production processes, emergency preparedness etc., common procedure templates (at the Corporate or Product Division level or regional level) for each of these subjects may be prepared for all the units; the units then may be allowed to make appropriate changes to these procedures to meet the local requirements. This approach may be difficult for subjects that are related to local legal requirements, such as storage of chemicals, transportation of chemicals, Collection,storage, transportation and disposal of hazardous waste etc. In these cases local unit has to be encouraged to develop the procedure in consultation with other units of the company in the same country (you may have a common template for each country on these subjects).

The above is just an indication as to how I had proceeded and which has worked for about 9 years now. I hope the above is of some assistance to you in developing your model.

With best regards,

Ramakrishnan

Thanks for your inputs guys. I guess I need to look at the corporate level (site/division/team) that these documents/templates should be to be aimed at, and as Randy suggests ensure they are sufficient to meet the needs of the standard.

I like the suggestion from Ramakrishnan that various units could be provided with standard templates based on the legal requirements of different countries. It’s certainly given me plenty to think about. Thanks again.

PS I’ve looked at Pfizer’s standard EMS templates via the http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/pollprev/Iso14001/iso14000.htm website, but these appear to be for the 1996 standard. Does anyone know if any updates to the 2004 standard are avalible?

Just make the necessary modifications and use them because the difference is minimal.

I'll do just that. Cheers Randy!