ISO 14001 Section 4.3.1 Environmental Aspects

1. ISO 14001Section 4.3.1 Environmental Aspects Julie Woosley, NC DPPEA Coordinator, EMS Development Course for Government Agencies Novozymes facility Franklinton, NC October 9, 2001

2. 4.3.1 Environmental Aspects • “The organization shall establish and maintain (a) procedure(s) to identify the environmental aspects of its activities, products, or services that it can control and over which it can be expected to have an influence, in order to determine those which have or can have significant impacts on the environment. The organization shall ensure that the aspects related to these significant impacts are considered in settings its environmental objectives. • The organization shall keep this information up-to-date.”

3. Core Elements of EMS • Most other elements are directly associated with results from identifying and ranking aspects and their associated impacts: • Objectives and Targets • Management Program • Training/Awareness • Operational Control • Emergency preparedness • Monitoring and measuring • Corrective and Preventative Action • Auditing

4. Definition of Aspect / Impact • Environmental aspect (cause or input) • element of organizations activities, products, or services which can interact with the environment. • Environmental impact (effect or output) • any change to the environment whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from an organization’s activities, products, or services

5. Aspect and Impact Example

6. Step One • Establish a team. Examples: representative of QA/QC, maintenance, utilities, production divisions, office, environmental, etc. • Educate the team on purpose and implications of identifying aspects and impacts. Include general training on EMS’s and ISO 14001.

7. Purpose and Implications • Determining the significant environmental aspects and associated impacts allows a facility to focus its time and resources on those issues with the greatest potential for environmental impact.

8. Purpose and Implications • The evaluation of environmental aspects and their associated impacts should be primarily “fenceline” issues. • 3.12 Definition of organization will establish “fenceline” or boundaries. • Internal issues should not be a primary focus unless health and safety are included in management system.

9. Purpose and Implications • The organization only has to identify those environmental aspects that it “can control and over which it can be expected to have influence”. • Control includes fiscal control (financial ability that can affect aspect) and organizational control (decision making authority that can effect aspect) • The facility should not spend resources assessing aspects it cannot do anything about.

10. Purpose and Implications • The significant environmental aspects that are identified will determine how other elements of the standard are fulfilled: • Operational procedures • Education, competence and training of employees whose activities affect these aspects. • Monitoring and measuring techniques.

11. Step Two Identify Aspects / Impacts • Select an activity, a product or service. • Identify as many environmental aspects as possible associated with the selected activity. • Identify as many actual and potential, positive and negative, environmental impacts associated with each identified aspect.

12. Example Aspect / Impact Form

13. Identifying Aspects of Activities Activity Inputs: Raw material Electricity Water Outputs: Finished product Exhaust Waste products

14. Identifying Aspects and Impacts • Aspects of activities that should be considered include: • Emissions to air / releases to water • Surface and groundwater • Waste disposal / land contamination • Raw material / natural resource use • energy, water, chemicals, lumber, etc. • Local environmental / community issues • noise, odor, land use, appearance, etc.

15. Sources of information • process flow diagram • input/output (mass balance) • regulatory reports • utility bills • QC information (defects, product changes) • waste hauling records • purchasing receipts • records of external communication

16. Aspects and Impacts - Feedback • What did your facility do? • Are you finished identifying aspects/impacts? • How many did you identify?

17. Step Three Identify significant aspects • Develop a definition of significance and determine what factors will be considered in determining significance • Should involve input from top management • Establish a rating scheme for the factors of significance

18. Factors to Consider • Environmental Concerns such as: • The scale of the impact • The severity of impact • The probability of impact • Duration of impact • Business Concerns such as: • Potential regulatory and legal exposure • Difficulty and cost of changing the impact • Effect of change on other activities and processes • Concerns of interested parties • Effect on the public image of the organization

19. Example Rating Scheme

20. Example Significance Matrix

21. Dames and MooreSignificance Determination • Included Health and Safety in their EMS: EHS • Why?: • Leverage clear relationship b/w H&S and Env. impacts • To prioritize H&S and improve performance • Organizational convenience • NOTE: Don’t recommend including H&S during implementation • Organized in form of a consequence and frequency matrix

29. Ranking Environmental Aspects: Example Procedures and Lists • City of Gastonia, NC • City of Charleston, SC • City of Scottsdale, AZ

30. Additional Resources • ISO 14004 • See DPPEA website http://www.p2pays.org/iso/index.htm • Refer to Alcoa and Uniroyal Chemical Co. EMS Manuals on our website, others: http://www.p2pays.org/iso/tools/manuals.htm • Coaches – ask if you would like help on aspect/impact identification and ranking • Road maps

31. From the EMS Team Meeting to determining significance • Effective Meeting/Group Project Management Handbook • Remember to take notes at EMS Team meetings: how did you agree to determine aspects/impacts, ranking? • Use discussion techniques listed to determine what factors you will use to rank aspects: brainstorming, multivoting, nominal group consensus, reaching consensus • Write the procedures

32. Exercise: Determining Significance • What factors do you think are important for determining significance? List at least 15 • Vote on three each

33. Expectations of Participants: Your BACK PACK! • Be enthusiastic • Attend all courses • Complete homework and bring to course • Keep in touch with your coach • Persevere • Ask for help • Be Creative • Keep developing your EMS between course meetings and after the course ends

34. EMS Team Members: Add some WATER to your backpacks! • Willingness - to learn and participate • Agenda - so everyone is prepared • Talking stick – so everyone knows the ground rules for meetings • Energy and Enthusiasm – no such thing as too much • Role understanding – for each participant, for both EMS meetings and for EMS design and implementation

35. Road Maps Don’t go hacking through the jungle, follow the Yellow Brick Road See Guides – Online Resources • IEMS • Implementation Guide for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses • Environmental Aspects Identification – activities list (fishbone diagram) – Suzanne Sessoms, August 28 • Gap analysis (initial environmental review) See GEMI handout – John Burke

36. Homework Assignment For next course meeting (Nov. 13): • Complete identification of aspects and impacts • Rank aspects and impacts • Determine significant aspects and impacts

37. If you get stuck. . . . . . Ask for help! • On-line Resources • Your Coach – ask them to help you! • DPPEA Staff • DPPEA’s free EMS training • DPPEA’s free, non-regulatory waste assessments