ISO 14001: Why It's Important to Die Casting

What Is ISO 14000?

ISO 14000 is a series of voluntary international standards pertaining to environmental issues. The reasons for developing these national standards stemmed from the European success terms of the ISO 9000 Quality Management Standards, and from the "nadca movement" in Europe. These standards were envisioned to provide a market-driven, competitive attitude in business. They are designed to reduce the environmental effects from all aspects of business activities. It is believed that higher efficiency would be realized and "the cost of doing business" would also be reduced , by minimizing business exposure to environmental issues.

The table below summarizes the environmental standards included in the ISO 14000 series of standards.

ISO 14000 Standard	Title	General Description	Thrust Area
14001	Environmental Management Systems—Specification with Guidance for Use	Main organizational environmental standard and the ISO standard to which an EMS is formally registered.	Organizational
14004	Environmental Management Systems— General Guidelines on Principles, Systems and Supporting Techniques	Complementary document to ISO 14001 which provides more information and assistance in understanding and implementing the EMS standard.	Organizational
14010	Guidelines for Environmental Auditing—General Principles	Covers the concepts of environmental auditing which can be used separately to create an organizational environmental audit program or is used to implement a program in support of the ISO 14001 EMS audit requirements	Organizational
14011	Guidelines for Environmental Auditing—Audit Procedures: Auditing of Environmental Management Systems	Provides additional detail into the auditing of an EMS.	Organizational
14012	Guidelines for Environmental Auditing: Qualification Criteria for Environmental Auditors	Presents the consensus international requirements for certification as an environmental auditor; each national registration accreditation organization is charged with developing and implementing the program for registering auditors to the national program.	Organizational
14020-14025	Environmental Labeling	Series that includes requirements for self-declaration, testing and validation and symbols used.	Organizational
14031	Guidelines on Environmental Performance Evaluation	Presents methods for monitoring and measuring the environmental performance of an organization or elements within the organization.	Organizational
14040-43	Life Cycle Assessment	Provides principles and framework, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation of the environmental aspects associated with specific products or services including the design, manufacture, distribution, inventory, use and final disposition.	Product-specific
14050	Terms and Definitions	Details the terminology and use of ISO 14000 specific language for consistency of meaning to support the efforts of developing and implementing the standards.	Overall
ISO Guide 64 (formerly 14060)	Guide for the Inclusion of Environmental Aspects in Product Standards	Provides guidelines to specification writers to consider and incorporate environmental aspects.	Product-specific
Table 1. Summary of the environmental standards included in the ISO 14000 series of standards.

How does EMS Relate to ISO 14001?

ISO 14001 and any EMS should focus on the evaluation of environmental impacts to determine the requirements of the system and required procedures for conducting day-to-day operations and for responding to emergencies. The result of this requirements-driven EMS will be to minimize the environmental impacts of business activities, and to ensure that management systems are in place to efficiently and effectively manage the applicable requirements. The ISO 14001 standard includes the basic elements of a formal environmental management system (EMS).

The ISO 14001 standard, like most management systems standards, includes the following elements:

• Policy
• Organizational structure and responsibilities
• Standard Operating Procedures
• Controls for Critical Operations
• Document Control
• Training
• Recordkeeping Systems
• Internal Audits
• Corrective Action Systems
• Management Review Processes for Ensuring Continual Improvement

What Are The Benefits of ISO 14001 For Your Company?

There are a number of reasons for committing to the implementation of ISO 14001, some of which can be accomplished through implementing an environmental management system, whether or not the organization pursues certification or "registration" by a recognized outside organization. However, some benefits of implementing a formal EMS will only be realized through the formal registration process. The following information will assist in determining if pursueing ISO 14001 makes sense for your company:

Cost Control. Environmental management costs associated with waste management, disposal, and site remediation as well as the costs associated with raw materials and energy consumption can be reduced or eliminated.

Customer Assurance. The needs or concerns of ownership/management, customers, suppliers, regulatory agencies, the community, and insurance companies regarding the organization's environmental practices may be satisfied having an EMS in place.

Reductions in Audits and Paperwork. The organization may eliminate its external demands for costly, time-consuming specialized audits by satisfying these needs through the ongoing and systematic management of the environmental program.

Insurance Premium Reductions. Insurance companies may reduce coverage premiums if environmental risk is controlled and reduced. In addition, long term costs associated with liability and risk may also be reduced.

Increases in Employee Efficiency and Involvement. Environmental management systems can also facilitate more consistent, efficient, and effective internal operations due to greater employee involvement in operations. An effective EMS can result in more effective communications both inside and outside the organization.

Public Image. An improved public image can be critically important for winning the support of the neighborhood and community alike. Increased International Competiveness. Registration to ISO 14001 may help your company have a competitive edge in expanding their market either regionally or internationally. Evolution of ISO 14001 registration acceptance may follow the trend set by ISO 9000, where some companies may prefer or require their suppliers to be ISO 14001 registered.

The Process Flow Diagram (Figure 1). For a typical aluminum die casting operation illustrates the increasing complexities associated with managing the entire environmental system. EMS helps to organize an operation.

 

FIG. 1. TYPICAL DIE CASTING OPERATION—PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM

 

How Do ISO 14000 and 9000 Elements Compare?

ISO 14000, a series of environmental management standards, is structurally similar to ISO 9000, a series of quality management standards. Both systems are total management systems, and include the requirements to conduct a management review and a periodic comprehensive audit of the system to ensure compliance with regulations and management standards, and to ensure that the system is effective and that it makes sense for the organization. In both ISO 14000 and ISO 9000, the management review and planned audit are vehicles to check the system and provide opportunities for improvement from current practices. In general, ISO 14001 and ISO 9000 share or have similar following elements:

• Policy
• Organizational Structure/Structure and Responsibility
• Training/Training Awareness and Competence
• Document Control
• Corrective/Preventive Actions/
• Nonconformance and Corrective and Preventive Action
• Records
• Internal Audits/Environmental Management System Audit
• Management Review

One major difference between the ISO 14001 and ISO 9000 management standards is the scope of the needs addressed by each standard.  While ISO 9000 is focused solely on quality concerns for customers, ISO 14001 considers the environmental concerns of a wide range of parties--employees, the public, environmentalists, regulatory agencies, and investors. Another difference between ISO 14001 and ISO 9000 is the scope of the policy requirement under each standard.

Further, even with similarities under some elements and management system issues, there are additional differences between the two programs. For example, under ISO 9000, employees are required to be aware and understand the policy, and are often questioned about this knowledge. Under ISO 14001, the policy must provide clear direction from top management regarding the company's activities and resulting environmental aspects and impacts, and objectives and targets. The policy is required to be in line with the company's environmental goals and procedures, and must be understood by and made available to employees and the public. Therefore, even if you have a quality management system in place, and plan to use the current program as a framework with which to incorporate environmental elements, you also need to address some of the subtle element differences. Other more substantive differences between the two systems may be best understood by listing some issues unique to ISO 14001:

• Required compliance with existing environmental laws and regulations, and industry codes of practices
• Identification of environmental aspects and impacts, and resulting environmental objectives and
• targets
• Focus on emergency preparedness and response
• Internal and external communications concerning environmental aspects and impacts
• Goal of continual improvement and prevention of pollution

Finally, a technical advisory group is working on the task of integrating the ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 series of standards. The group is to assess business and consumer needs for integrating the two series of standards, recommend a strategic plan for integrating the standards, recommend a way to monitor progress in the process, and report and make recommendations to the Technical Management Board. This group will then make a proposal to ISO Council before the end of 1997.

What are the Elements of ISO 14001?
Below are brief descriptions of the requirements of each element of the ISO 14001 standard.

ELEMENT 4.2: ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY. An environmental policy should be developed that includes the company's commitment to continual improvement and prevention of pollution. The policy must also include a commitment to comply with applicable environmental laws and regulations, and a framework for setting and reviewing environmental objectives and targets. The policy must be documented, implemented and maintained, and communicated to all employees and must be made available to the public.

ELEMENT 4.3.1: ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS. Environmental aspects of activities, products, or services that the organization can control must be established, maintained, and kept up to date, in order to determine which can have significant impacts on the environment.

ELEMENT 4.3.2: LEGAL AND OTHER REQUIREMENTS. Procedures to ensure that the company can identify legal and other environments requirements are required to be established and maintained. Procedures to ensure that the company can identify legal and other environments requirements are required to be established and maintained.

ELEMENT 4.3.3: OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS. Documented environmental objectives and targets for each relevant function and level within the organization are required to be established and maintained. These set objectives and targets must address legal consideration and other requirements, the facility's significant environmental aspects, technological options, financial/operational/business requirements, and views of interested parties. These objectives and targets must be consistent with the environmental policy.

ELEMENT 4.3.4: ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT PROGRAM(S). A program(s) for achieving set objectives and targets is required to be established and maintained. The program must include designated responsible parties for achieving objectives and targets at each relevant function and level of the organization and the means and timeframe by which the objectives and targets are to be achieved. In addition, the program must be amended as needed to ensure that the environmental management program applies to new developments and new or modified activities, products, or services.

ELEMENT 4.4.1: STRUCTURE AND RESPONSIBILITY. Roles, responsibilities, and authorities are required to be defined, documented, and communicated to facilitate effective environmental management. Sufficient resources must be provided to implement and control the environmental management system. A specific management representative(s) must be appointed to ensure that environmental management system requirements are established, implemented, and maintain in accordance with the ISO 14001 standard. The management representative must have defined roles, responsibilities, and authority for reporting on environmental management system performance to top management.

ELEMENT 4.4.2: TRAINING AWARENESS AND COMPETENCE. Appropriate training for all personnel whose work may create a significant impact on the environment must be identified. Procedures are required to be established and maintained to make employees aware of: (1) the importance of conformance with the environmental policy and procedures and with EMS requirements, (2) the significant actual or potential environmental impacts of work activities and benefits of improved personal performance, (3) roles and responsibilities in achieving conformance with policy, procedures, EMS requirements, and (4) potential consequences of departure from specified operating procedures. Finally, the personnel who perform tasks which can cause significant environmental impacts must be competent on the basis of appropriate education, training, and/or experience.

ELEMENT 4.4.3: COMMUNICATION. Procedures for internal communication between levels and functions of the company are required to be established and maintained. Procedures must also be developed for receiving, documenting and responding to relevant communication from external parties. Finally, processes for external communications must be considered and the decision recorded.

ELEMENT 4.4.4: ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. Information describing core elements of the management system and their interaction is required to be established and maintained. The information must also provide direction to related documentation.

ELEMENT 4.4.5: DOCUMENT CONTROL. Procedures for controlling all documents required by the standard are required to be established and maintained. These procedures must ensure the following: (1) the documents can be located, (2) the documents are periodically reviewed, revised as necessary and approved by authorized personnel, (3) the current versions are available at all locations where operations essential to the effective functioning of the environmental management system are performed, (4) obsolete documents are promptly removed from all points of issue/use, or otherwise assured against unintended use, and (5) obsolete documents that are kept for legal/knowledge preservation are identified. Further, documentation must be legible, dated (with dates of revision), readily identifiable, maintained in an orderly manner, and retained for a specific period. Procedures and responsibilities must be established and maintained for the creation and modification of documents.

ELEMENT 4.4.6: OPERATIONAL CONTROL. Operations and activities associated with the identified significant environmental aspects are required to be identified. These activities must be planned, including maintenance, in order to ensure that they are carried out under certain conditions. That is, an organization must: (1) establish and maintain documented procedures to cover situations where their absence could lead to deviations from the environmental policy and the objectives and targets, (2) stipulate criteria in the operational procedures, and (3) establish and maintain procedures related to the environmental aspects and communicating those relevant procedures and requirements to suppliers and contractors.

ELEMENT 4.4.7: EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE. Procedures to identify potential for and respond to accidents and emergency situations, are required to be established and maintained. In addition, the emergency procedures must be reviewed and revised, when necessary, especially after an accident or emergency situation. Where practicable, it is required that these procedures are periodically tested through drills, exercises, etc.

ELEMENT 4.5.1: MONITORING AND MEASUREMENT. Procedures to regularly monitor and measure the key characteristics of operations and activities that can have significant impacts on the environment are required to be established and maintained. These procedures include performance tracking data, relevant operational controls, and adherence to identified objectives and targets. Monitoring equipment must be calibrated and maintained, and records retained in accordance with procedures. The organization must also maintain a documented procedure for periodically evaluating compliance with relevant environmental laws and regulations.

ELEMENT 4.5.2: NONCONFORMANCE AND CORRECTIVE AND PREVENTIVE ACTION. Procedures for defining responsibility and authority for handling and investigating nonconformance, taking action to mitigate any environmental impacts, and for corrective and preventive action completion, are required to be established and maintained.

ELEMENT 4.5.3: RECORDS. Procedures for identification, maintenance, and disposition of environmental records are required to be established and maintained. The records must be legible, identifiable and traceable to the activity involved. The records must be stored/maintained so that they are readily retrievable and protected against damage, deterioration, or loss. Retention times must be established and recorded. Records must be maintained, as appropriate, to demonstrate conformance to the standard.

ELEMENT 4.5.4: ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AUDIT. A program and procedures for conducting periodic environmental system audits are required to be established and maintained. The audit program/procedures must: (1) determine whether the environmental management system conforms to requirements of the standard and has been properly implemented and maintained to provide information on the results of the audits to management, (2) ensure that information on the audit results are provided to management, (3) be based on the environmental importance of the activity concerned and results of previous audits, and (4) cover audit scope, frequency, methodologies, and responsibilities and requirements for conducting audits, and reporting results.

ELEMENT 4.6: MANAGEMENT REVIEW. Top management is required to review the environmental management system, at specified intervals, to ensure its continuing stability, adequacy, and effectiveness. Under this process, the necessary information must be collected to enable management to carry out this evaluation. The review must be documented, and must address the possible need for changes to policy, objectives, and other elements of the environmental management system including audit results, changing circumstances, and the commitment to continual improvement.

What Is Available for Help with the Standard?

NADCA has a guidance manual which has been developed for die casting facilities interested in gaining broad knowledge about the ISO 14000 series of environmental standards. The main focus of the manual is the ISO 14001 standard on environmental management systems (EMS). The manual is intended to specifically benefit die casters determined to understand the importance and benefits of the development of a formal EMS. The manual includes useful approaches for gathering information in determining the perception of customers when deciding whether or not to commit to a formally registered EMS. The manual contains extremely useful information such as:

• A detailed section on identifying and ranking environmental aspects and impacts, and a discussion of the need to survey customer needs when determining whether to go forward with ISO 14001.
• Contains several process flow diagrams and environmental aspects/impacts evaluation table in that can be used to help with the identification and analysis of each process input and output and all relevant aspects associated with each operation and activity.
• A section on how to get registered.
• Examples and worksheets for evaluating the significance of environmental aspects and impacts.
• Possible criteria, example weighting factors and criteria scoring, an example evaluation matrix, and sample blank worksheets are provided.

In addition, the manual comes with disks containing spreadsheets, flowcharts, and worksheets which can be easily customized to suit your facility.

For more information specific to die casting facilities relating to ISO 14000, contact:

North American Die Casting Association
241 Holbrook Dr
Wheeling, IL 60090
Phone: (847) 279-0001
Fax: (847) 279-0002
E-mail: research@diecasting.org  ¤ Website Address: http://www.diecasting.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. OFFICE
Tel: (202) 898-1444
Fax: (202) 898-0188

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Prepared for the North American Die Casting Association
 under a grant from the American Institute for Pollution Prevention