ISO 14001 Internal Auditor Training Requirements

Does the internal auditor for ISO 14001 have to be trained specifically on the 14001 standard or would a certified ISO 9001 internal auditor training surfice?

Opinions please.

Re: 14001 Internal Auditor Training question

Depends upon the competence of the auditor and the audit program governing training requirements

One thing for sure, the auditor does not have to be an environmental expert or professional

Re: 14001 Internal Auditor Training question

Thanks. That is exactly what I was looking for. We are trying to revive our dormant system and we have qualified ISO 9001 auditors. We would hate to have to spend the extra dollars on specific training if it's not required.

Re: 14001 Internal Auditor Training question

rvanelli said:

Thanks. That is exactly what I was looking for. We are trying to revive our dormant system and we have qualified ISO 9001 auditors. We would hate to have to spend the extra dollars on specific training if it's not required.

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It's not required by 14001, but you will surely need to be able to provide evidence of their competence to audit 14001 and that can be done through the results of the audit itself..I have a couple clients that do exactly that.

It would help if you were able to show some communication, training or something of that nature your auditors received about the peculiarities of 14001...Like what an aspect is, the difference between a legal or other requirement and so forth. A good place to start would be Section 3 Terms and definitions of 14001 and Annex A - Guidance. Everybody covers 4.1-4.6 but very, very few actually cover what the words mean and how things should work

Good points. Thanks again.

rvanelli said:

Does the internal auditor for ISO 14001 have to be trained specifically on the 14001 standard or would a certified ISO 9001 internal auditor training surfice?

Opinions please.

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If you have followed and passed recognized external training for ISO 9001 , you should also have followed ISO 19011 ( common guidelines for auditor to audit quality, environmenta and safety & health systems). Consider to mantain updated the competences of the auditors.
However, it is clear that the internal auditosr should follow a trainining about ISO 14001 clauses to get familiar with the standards. To get familiar with the standard, the training is the most common acvity to follow. ISO 14001 standard have different contents form ISO 9001 .

There are four specific tasks must be addressed under this management system Audit section of the standard. First, the organization must develop a program and related procedures that define an audit plan of the environmental management system. In addition the program must define frequency of the audit process. Second, the procedures must specify the methodology of the audit process, including the qualifications of the auditors. Third, the audit reports must be submitted to top management. Fourth, the audit reports must provide recommendations directed at correcting any reported non-conformance that was discovered in the audit process. As a specification standard, it can be used as an audit tool, to evaluate whether an organization has a complete EMS in place.

qusys said:

If you have followed and passed recognized external training for ISO 9001 , you should also have followed ISO 19011 ( common guidelines for auditor to audit quality, environmenta and safety & health systems). Consider to mantain updated the competences of the auditors.
However, it is clear that the internal auditosr should follow a trainining about ISO 14001 clauses to get familiar with the standards. To get familiar with the standard, the training is the most common acvity to follow. ISO 14001 standard have different contents form ISO 9001 .

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Not really, a good portion of 14001 is nearly a mirror image of 9001..and anyway if the internal auditor is spending his time on the standard he's wasting it, time needs to be spent on the organizations documentation and auditing to it.