EHS Support completed a gap analysis and cost estimate to establish, implement, and maintain an environmental management system (EMS) in accordance with ISO 14001. The company was evaluating ISO 14001 certification as a way to add credibility to its environmental programs and raise its ESG performance and rating agency score(s). The scope of work included document review, management interviews, analysis, and reporting.
The report identified the need to clarify the scope of the company’s EMS, as well as a variety of approaches, processes, and systems currently applied to the company’s existing environmental programs or other business processes that could be applied to an EMS that conforms to ISO 14001. EHS Support identified two options for establishing the scope of its EMS, with implications for predicted costs and impacts on its ESG ratings. EHS Support recommended using an observational approach to evaluate the planning phase of the more comprehensive option, and the use of the screening process built into ISO 14001 to limit its EMS objectives where appropriate based on technological options and financial, operational, and business considerations while maintaining the beneficial impact of the EMS on the company’s ESG ratings.