Identifying and assessing environmental impacts: investigating ISO 14001 approaches

Due to the similarities in structure ISO 14001 is often “sold” to companies on the back of the ISO 9000 quality systems standard. However, there is no ISO 9000 equivalent to the identification and assessment of environmental aspects and impacts. Based on practical experiences within a UK automotive supplier, this paper compares and contrasts two approaches for identifying and assessing environmental aspects and impacts, namely a mass balance and audit. The type of approach was found to affect both the structure and operation of the overall system and highlights important issues that need to be addressed in initial design. The popularity of ISO 14001 suggests these findings are relevant for other organisations implementing environmental management systems.