ISO 14001 Operational Planning and Control - Proving evidence of communicating environmental requirements to suppliers

[Sarahc]

Hi, We are a construction company with 9001 certification looking to achieve 14001.

We are struggling to work out a sustainable way to meet the requirements of clause 8.1 b and c
8.1 b- Determine environmental requirement(s) for the procurement of products and services
8.1c - Communicate its relevant environmental requirement(s) to external providers, including contractors


For contractors we have a site-specific site induction which we have added site specific environmental risks and controls to however our question is with suppliers.
We don't tend to have supplier environmental requirements and generally trust their expertise on products provided. We are struggling with how to prove we communicate environmental requirements when we don't do this as we don't often have requirements and therefore don't have evidence of this. We worked with a consultant who suggested we just send a couple of purchase orders through to suppliers stating some requirements and have this as evidence but we don't want to have to 'create' evidence for the sake of evidence and want a way to meet the requirement that is truthful and sustainable.

Does anyone have any ideas or could any similiar industry companies give me some examples of how they have met this?

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[Funboi]

If I understand, the place you start off from in determining your EMS and its scope is understanding your environmental aspects and impacts, and their significance. All things flow from that understanding. Are these contractors in anyway associated with significant aspects and impacts In scope?

 

[mattador78]

Keep it simple as said. An easy one is if they dispose of any waste from the projects they carry out for you ask for their controls and how they do it. We are a finishing company so our biggest enviromental impacts are our disposal of our waste, water and chemical residues so the majority of our 14001 audits are how we deal with that and the contractors we use to dispose of it.

 

[John Broomfield]

Hi, We are a construction company with 9001 certification looking to achieve 14001.

We are struggling to work out a sustainable way to meet the requirements of clause 8.1 b and c
8.1 b- Determine environmental requirement(s) for the procurement of products and services
8.1c - Communicate its relevant environmental requirement(s) to external providers, including contractors


For contractors we have a site-specific site induction which we have added site specific environmental risks and controls to however our question is with suppliers.
We don't tend to have supplier environmental requirements and generally trust their expertise on products provided. We are struggling with how to prove we communicate environmental requirements when we don't do this as we don't often have requirements and therefore don't have evidence of this. We worked with a consultant who suggested we just send a couple of purchase orders through to suppliers stating some requirements and have this as evidence but we don't want to have to 'create' evidence for the sake of evidence and want a way to meet the requirement that is truthful and sustainable.

Does anyone have any ideas or could any similiar industry companies give me some examples of how they have met this?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Sarah,

Take a fresh look at your criteria for selecting suppliers incl. subcontractors.

Review your boilerplate requirements for all suppliers to address environmental requirements.

You may apply your assessment of significant environmental aspects to most projects but leave room for adding project or site specific environmental aspects. Specify that specialist subcontractors are to determine significant environmental aspects that may be beyond your expertise.

Lastly ensure your project managers are trained to establish and monitor the use of specific process controls to fulfill their project’s environmental targets.

Best wishes,

John