For any business in California to be successful, it must comply with local California HSE regulations. Such compliance means following the rules and regulations formulated by government regulatory bodies and laws passed by the state of California that are designed to foster a culture of safety in the workplace and fair competition in business. In short, you and your business will stand to benefit from compliance with these regulatory obligations.
Compliance, first and foremost, means that you are committed to doing things right and following the rules. This alone has the power to encourage your workers to strive toward a higher ethical standard. A culture of compliance with laws and regulations will help in motivating employees to maintain a positive esprit de corp or company morale.
Second, compliance safeguards the organization from legal complications. Failing to meet these obligations brings lawsuits, legal penalties, and hefty fines. All in all, knowing your exact compliance obligations is essential for all business owners.
Here’s a quick list of the type of obligations your business may face.
- External Obligations: These are the rules, regulations, and standards deemed essential on a governmental level. They are necessary and exist to protect the public interest, promote fair competition, and enhance industry standards.
- Internal Obligations: A successful business must set itself apart from the competition by setting its own internal standards regarding health, safety, and environment (HSE). You can achieve this by having rules, standards, and protocols that your employees are educated and trained in. These types of internal obligations may make it easier to meet external obligations.
Understanding compliance obligations, especially those arising from external sources, is key to organizational success. Here’s what you need to know.
What Are The ISO 14001 Compliance Obligations?
One of the major external compliance obligations your organization must adhere to is those arising from ISO — the International Organization for Standardization. While this is a non-governmental body, it’s a developmental organization that provides international standards that organizations may take advantage of.
The ISO 14001 compliance obligation in particular focuses on the environment. Specifically, it dictates the exact compliance obligations of a business in the context of its environmental management system (EMS). These obligations are as follows:
- Legal: Mandatory obligations as defined by laws, regulations, and permits.
- Voluntary: Adopted commitments such as industry standards, codes of practice, and stakeholder agreements.
How To Ensure Your Business Meets Compliance Requirements?
Compliance does not happen overnight. In reality, meeting environmental compliance obligations takes conscious effort and energy in the right direction. However, by focusing on certain areas, you can make this process easier. This includes:
- Improving auditability with centralized management: Easier audit methods make compliance easier. This is mainly because audit-related documentation is consolidated and easy to access. Additionally, the process of compliance checks and alerts can be automated to a certain extent.
- Simplifying employee training and onboarding: Employees who are directly and indirectly involved with a specific aspect of compliance must be trained accordingly. This reduces the chances of human error and generally improves performance across the board.
- Managing record retention: No matter how well your organization focuses on compliance, effective documentation is required for legal safety. Clear record retention policies along with a quality centralized document management process are essential.
How Can I Get Certified to ISO 14001?
Obtaining ISO 14001 certification for your business will send the signal that you are focused on your environmental compliance obligations. It is an involved and rigorous process. This means that only organizations dedicated to HSE receive this prestigious certification. Here’s what it involves:
- An Initial Environmental Review: An assessment of current environmental exposure and practices can help identify where your organization excels and needs attention.
- Development of an Environmental Policy: A strong internal obligation to foster focus on the environment is a great start.
- Plan EMS Implementation: The environmental challenges faced by the organization must be adequately answered by the EMS.
- Continually Monitoring and Measuring Performance: Environmental compliance is not a one-and-done process. It requires regularly monitoring how it performs against internal and industry benchmarks.
ISO 14001 has a strict and rigorous evaluation process. It involves both internal assessment and external audits. This makes it clear to the organization where gaps still exist still and whether or not current business processes comply with industry requirements. The process can be somewhat daunting.
Expert services can help make the process easier. At CDMS, we have the expertise necessary to get you on the right track for ISO 14001 certification. While we don’t offer a direct certification service, our comprehensive environmental compliance management solutions cover all the requirements for ISO 14001. This means your organization can meet and even exceed the standards demanded by ISO 14001 with our help.
Final Thoughts
Adhering to compliance obligations can set your organization up for long-term success. The standards required in such obligations were developed only after deep research and scrutiny. You should not simply rely on external obligations but instead also develop internal obligations that hold you, your employees, and your business to a higher standard.
Nonetheless, external certifications such as ISO 14001 are recognized locally, nationally, and internationally. More than that, ISO 14001 is universally seen as prestigious and rigorous. Your business would benefit in terms of both prestige and credibility by obtaining ISO 4001 certification.
CDMS EHS compliance services are on standby to help with the process. Get in touch today to start on your path toward ISO 4001 certification.
