Utmaningarna med ISO 14001:2015

Sammanfattning: ISO 14001 is the most commonly used international standards for implementation of environmental management systems and is embraced by businesses for managing environmental issues. A new revision of the ISO 14001 standard was introduced 2015. Companies that have been certified according to the older version of the standard have three (3) years to adapt to the new version of the standard to maintain the certification. The report aims to investigate the differences between ISO 14001: 2004 and ISO 14001: 2015. Focus will be to identify the challenges that companies will face to adapt to the new version. In the report three (3) methods was applied, literature analysis, questionnaire survey and situation analysis (gap-analysis). The investigation concludes that the new version requires seven (7) major adaptations to successfully fulfill the difference for re-certification. These changes will impact business differently depending on the design of their presently used management system. Advantages and disadvantages of implementing the new version relates to multiple factors, but most essentially, on the organizations commitment and attitude. An organization must realize that it will be a considerable effort which will require time and manpower to successfully implement ISO 14001:2015. This is stated even though the standard is very well developed. For a business to achieve ISO 14001:2015 a diligent business investigation is recommended and a careful planning for implementation should be performed.