ISO 14001:2015 Readiness Review

Auditor: Date: Company:

ISO 14001:2015

Readiness Review

This document was prepared for your use by American System Registrar. The purpose is to help you transition between the ISO 14001:2004 and the ISO 14001:20015 standard.

How to use this document:

Column 1 “Readiness Status”

This column describes the action or issue that needs to be considered for your transition.

Column 2 Blank – for your additional notes

This column can be used to write any additional detail specific to your organization.

Column 3 “Where Referenced”

This column is used to enter where this issue is addressed in your existing EMS.

Column 4 “OK or Not”

This column is used to designate if the issue has been addressed satisfactorily “OK” or if

it needs further action “Not”

Items highlighted in red are new for ISO 14001:20015

Please feel free to distribute this document within your organization or to your colleagues in other organizations.

To download the editable MSword version, click here.

Readiness Status / Where Referenced / OK or Not
Site Specific Information
Site to be certified – number of employees (regular & temps)
Supporting locations
Has management developed a strategic direction for the EMS process?
Has context of organization been established for the EMS information relative to internal and external issues related to strategic direction and requirements of external parties (4.1)?
Scope of EMS is based on information from internal and external interested parties and is documented including physical boundaries (4.3)?
Have the processes needed to improve the EMS been established? Are they effectively implemented (4.4)?
Responsibility defined for all processes?
Responsibility for EMS meeting requirements (5.3.a)?
Has EMS policy been established and meets requirements? Communicated and maintained as documented information (5.2)?
Responsibility for reporting performance of EMS (5.3.b)?
Have risks and opportunities been determined and actions to address risks and opportunities planned and effectiveness of the actions evaluated (6.1) (9.3)?
Environmental Objectives (6.2)
-documented objectives
-goals (planned results) documented
- action plan determined
- progress being made toward objectives and action plan
Has project management plan been utilized?
What will be done? Who? Resources? When? Are results being evaluated (6.2.2)?
Have necessary resources for EMS been determined and made available (7.1)?
Competency requirements been established and personnel trained in the general category? Competency for specialized skills, such as spill clean-up and managing EMS response teams (7.2)?
EMS awareness programs established to ensure personnel aware of EMS policy and what efforts are in place to continually approve (7.3)?
Communication process established (7.4, 1, 2, & 3)?
Operational controls in planned and in place? (8.1)?
Emergency preparedness and response (8.2)? Emergency plan in place to prevent or mitigate adverse environmental impact?
Internal audit results and action plans. (9.2)
Audit program plan
Auditor qualifications
Audit plan for each audit
Full system audit completed
Corrective action taken
Monitoring and measuring carried out as planned and criteria used to evaluate environmental performance (9.1.1)?
Compliance process in place at a defined frequency (9.1.2)?
Compliance status understood and knowledge being maintained?
Management review results (9.3)
Alignment with strategic direction?
Changes to external and internal issues relevant to QMS?
Effectiveness of actions to address risks and opportunities?
Internal audit results included?
ISO Concerns - which may lead to a not ready decision by your organization and that must be addressed before Stage 2 audit (Examples of issues: no EMS policy, Environmental objectives, less than 90 days of records, Management review of EMS has not been conducted. Has company’s compliance issues been addressed?
Other major issues which would require a significant amount of time or effort to implement:
For each concern, list how the organization has addressed the concern and whether it has been successfully resolved.
Timing of Stage 2 – DO CONCERNS LISTED ABOVE AFFECT SCHEDULING OF THE STAGE 2 AUDIT
During review of EMS, please document the retrained or maintained documented information
NOTE – Documented Information is expanded upon in Annex A1 and A6
Legend: Documented Information must be maintained (procedure, work instruction or form) = M
Or retained (record) = R
4.3 Scope (M)
5.2.2 Environmental Policy(M)
6.1.2 Environmental Aspects and significant aspects(M)
6.2.1 Environmental Objectives(M)
6.1.3 Compliance Obligations (M)
7.2 Competence (R)
7.4.1 Communications (R)
7.5.3 Documented Information of external origin
8.1 Operations: keep documented information as necessary(M/R)
8.2 Emergency Response (M/R)
9.1.1 Monitoring/measurement results(R)
9.1.2 Evaluation of compliance (R)
9.2.2 Internal audits- program implemented and audit results (R)
9.3.3 Management review (R)
10.2.2 Nature of NC and corrective action(R)


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Provided by:American System Registrar