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Common questions around environmental aspects registers for ISO 14001:2015

WHAT IS AN ASPECT?

‘An element of an organisation’s activities or products or services that interacts or can interact with the environment’.

So environmental aspects are all the things that you do in carrying out your activities and services that can affect the environment in some way, either positively or negatively, for example:

  • using electricity to power IT equipment;
  • producing waste water during a manufacturing process;
  • creating a noise nuisance from transport activities; or
  • creating a wildlife area on site.

WHAT IS AN IMPACT?

‘change to the environment, whether adverse or beneficial, resulting from an organisation’s environmental aspects.’

If an impact is the effect or the result on the environment from an environmental aspect, we can therefore look at an aspect as the cause or reason of this effect.

The aspects suggested above will have a negative or positive impact on the environment, whether that is contributing to global warming and climate change when using electricity, water pollution from discharging dirty water to a local stream, or increasing biodiversity by planting a wildlife area.

WHAT ACTIVITIES SHOULD MY ASPECTS COVER?

HOW DO I SCORE MY ASPECTS?

The method you choose needs to be consistent i.e. the same way used for every aspect. There are suggestions in the Annex to the Standard to criteria that can be used including those that relate to the aspect (type, size and frequency) or the impact (scale, severity, duration, exposure) as well as organisation issues such as legal requirements or interested party concerns. You also need to ensure the criteria is written down as it is a documented information requirement within the Standard.

Using the standard scoring criteria in the aspects tool within LUS will ensure your aspects are scored appropriately as this has been developed by our experienced consultancy team and when used correctly has great feedback from external auditors.

HOW MANY ASPECTS SHOULD I HAVE?

HOW MANY SIGNIFICANT ASPECTS SHOULD I HAVE?

HOW OFTEN SHOULD I REVIEW MY ASPECTS REGISTER?

The requirements of ISO 14001:2015 when it comes to environmental aspects registers can be confusing and unclear but they don’t have to be if you break it down into steps and keep it simple. Hopefully this article has addressed some issues you may have with aspects.