One of the most common misunderstandings about ISO 9001 certification is what must be in place to successfully pass a certification audit. This confusion most often stems from previous experience with ISO 9001 certification at a previous organisation, or what’s been “heard through the grapevine” over the years. The question to ask is “Are these comments really valid?”

Certification to ISO 14001 can assure your stakeholders that your environmental management system (EMS) meets international industry specific environmental standards. It doesn’t matter if you are a big organization or a small one – you have an impact on the environment and can therefore benefit from ISO 14001 certification.

The other way of asking this question is “Why is there a series of international standards on things like Quality, Environment & Safety?”. The key focus of international standards is to provide a more disciplined approach to management while encouraging a continuous improvement approach. Getting certified to a standard tells your customers that an independent accredited organisation has verified you comply with a set of internationally accepted good management principles.