Seeking opinion for ISO14001 team activity

[Muhd Firdaus]

Hi to all,

Currently,for ISO 14001,my company has set up 4 team:

1) Training and Promotion Team

2) Legal Team

3) Operational Team

4) Emergency Response Team

The Scope of their task are as below:


Training and Promotion Team

?Promote and prepare materials for environmental awareness among staff, contractors and suppliers
?Prepare and implement relevant procedures on training and communication
?Receive and respond to all internal environmental complains, feedback, suggestions, etc
?Report to site EMR on status of progress on promotion/training & education/communication matters


Operational Team

?Ensure chemical and hazardous wastes be properly stored, handled and disposed
?Provide appropriate measures and equipment to control spillage/release
?Prepare all relevant operational control procedures
?Conduct relevant training and emergency drills
?Maintain and update all records, e.g. MSDS, licenses, permits, inventory, etc., on chemicals, poisons and hazardous substances



Legal Team

?Understand general environmental legal requirements and all applicable environmental laws and regulations
?Identify potential non-compliant areas/sections
?Communicate legal and other requirements to relevant staff at all level and function
?Obtain and compile all licences, permits and approvals, etc
?Prepare procedure to identify and have access to legal and other requirements


Emergency Response Team

?Identify potential accidents and emergency situations to ensure effective response and to prevent/mitigate the environmental impacts that can be arisen
?Review emergency response
?Test such procedures where practicable
?Set up the emergency response team and communication
?Report to site Environmental Committee on progress status

a) Chemical Spillage Handler
?Coordinate clean up and ensure spill residue is cleaned up as accordance with EQ(Scheduled Waste) Regulations
?Assist in identifications of root cause and provide mitigative actions after incident
?Report to emergency response team leader
?Inspect adequacy of spill kit


b) Fire Fighter
?Suppress fire if possible
?Coordinate evacuation during emergency
?Conduct inspection on all fire fighting system or equipment
?Assist in investigation of roof cause and provide mitigative actions after incident


c) First Aider
?Respond to first aid emergencies if possible and render appropriate first aid and CPR
?Arrange without delay medical assistance uncless injury is so minor it can be handled without professional attention
?Report any first aid supplies needed to the person in charge


I sincerely hoping that the group member here can assist us because we do not have any experience in running activity for each team Since,we have four team,each of the team must do their own activity. Please give us some idea or maybe example of activities that conducted in your company so that i can study them and apply ,if suitable. Thanks

 

[isoalchemist]

Not sure what you are asking. The scope of the tasks look like a great start to define the activities. Your emergency response team would set up drills and get or perform training, the Legal group would have "meetings" to ensure their areas are covered and either audit them or have someone else audit them specifically etc.

 

[RoxaneB]

It's an interesting approach, but with any large initiative, when there are multiple teams involved, it is important to ensure that they have their own action plans and milestones, but also understand how other teams may impact them...and how they may impact other teams.

For example:

Legal may discover a substance must be stored in a particular manner...Training trains people on the process...Operations performs the proper storage.

Personnel are trained on proper chemical clean up...Operations accidentally spills a chemical and it is cleaned up...Legal is involved in case of environmental impacts.

 

[John Broomfield]

Hi to all,

Currently,for ISO 14001,my company has set up 4 team:

1) Training and Promotion Team

2) Legal Team

3) Operational Team

4) Emergency Response Team

The Scope of their task are as below:


Training and Promotion Team

•Promote and prepare materials for environmental awareness among staff, contractors and suppliers
•Prepare and implement relevant procedures on training and communication
•Receive and respond to all internal environmental complains, feedback, suggestions, etc
•Report to site EMR on status of progress on promotion/training & education/communication matters


Operational Team

•Ensure chemical and hazardous wastes be properly stored, handled and disposed
•Provide appropriate measures and equipment to control spillage/release
•Prepare all relevant operational control procedures
•Conduct relevant training and emergency drills
•Maintain and update all records, e.g. MSDS, licenses, permits, inventory, etc., on chemicals, poisons and hazardous substances



Legal Team

•Understand general environmental legal requirements and all applicable environmental laws and regulations
•Identify potential non-compliant areas/sections
•Communicate legal and other requirements to relevant staff at all level and function
•Obtain and compile all licences, permits and approvals, etc
•Prepare procedure to identify and have access to legal and other requirements


Emergency Response Team

•Identify potential accidents and emergency situations to ensure effective response and to prevent/mitigate the environmental impacts that can be arisen
•Review emergency response
•Test such procedures where practicable
•Set up the emergency response team and communication
•Report to site Environmental Committee on progress status

a) Chemical Spillage Handler
•Coordinate clean up and ensure spill residue is cleaned up as accordance with EQ(Scheduled Waste) Regulations
•Assist in identifications of root cause and provide mitigative actions after incident
•Report to emergency response team leader
•Inspect adequacy of spill kit


b) Fire Fighter
•Suppress fire if possible
•Coordinate evacuation during emergency
•Conduct inspection on all fire fighting system or equipment
•Assist in investigation of roof cause and provide mitigative actions after incident


c) First Aider
•Respond to first aid emergencies if possible and render appropriate first aid and CPR
•Arrange without delay medical assistance uncless injury is so minor it can be handled without professional attention
•Report any first aid supplies needed to the person in charge


I sincerely hoping that the group member here can assist us because we do not have any experience in running activity for each team Since,we have four team,each of the team must do their own activity. Please give us some idea or maybe example of activities that conducted in your company so that i can study them and apply ,if suitable. Thanks

Muhd,

What are these teams doing if not already doing what you have listed?

To me it seems your are in danger of developing a department-based set of procedures, ignoring the cross-functional (process-based) management system that already runs your business while preventing pollution.

Disrespecting the existing system may lead to some push-back.

Why not involve reps from each subteam in the the system development team where you work together to determine your environmental aspects with significant beneficial and adverse impacts on the environment?

You can then work with the system development team to analyze how your organization works as a system and determine the processes that are essential to its success (fulfilling objectives and targets).

Present this to top management for their understanding, agreement and buy-in so they can lead by example and approve any necessary resources.

Then you can work with the person who knows the process well (process owner) to document its procedures sufficient for effective planning, operation, control and monitoring.

John