gap analysis

A technique that businesses use to determine what steps need to be taken in order
to move from its current state to its desired, future state. Also called need-gap
analysis, needs analysis, and needs assessment. Gap analysis consists of (1) listing
of characteristic factors (such as attributes, competencies, performance levels) of the
present situation ("what is"), (2) listing factors needed to achieve future objectives
("what should be"), and then (3) highlighting the gaps that exist and need to be filled.
Gap analysis forces a company to reflect on who it is and ask who they want to be in
the future.

Usage Example
A gap analysis, which is used to compare actual business performance with ideal
performance, is often used in conjunction with needs analysis to maximize a
business' growth potential.
EMS: Three important things to remember

The benefits and advantages of developing/implementing a cohesive and comprehensive

environmental management system has been touted for long, but there are three important
things to remember with respect to EMSs.

EMS is not new

Managing the environment, and taking steps to protect it, per se, is not new. A number
of actions have been taken at different levels of governance, from households and
communities, to business, industries, and cities, all the way to national and global levels.
These actions have been both curative and preventive in nature, focusing on the natural
as well as man-made environments.

EMSs are therefore not new, but it is unique in that it is a management system for the
environment, and brings together the different environmental actions and actors within a
common umbrella: the management system itself.

EMS is more than just about the environment

Yes, an EMS primarily targets environment issues. But clearly it goes beyond that to
create a management system that enables incorporation of a range of issues such as
communications, awareness, decision-making, governance, subsidiarity,
monitoring/evaluation etc. within the management system, besides environmental
issues.

The PDCA cycle - of planning, doing, checking and acting - enables not only tackling
environmental problems, but also increases work efficiency, improves staff morale, and
saves costs. In the process of reducing the impact of an organization on the
environment, an EMS also provides several such 'side effects' that we have to keep in
mind.

EMS is not enough

While the advantages and benefits of a good EMS is well understood, we do have to
remember that it is not enough. Having an EMS in place provides a number of
advantages as outlined above - both environmental benefits, and others related to social
and economic issues too. Indeed, broader sustainability issues can be tackled with a
comprehensive EMS. An EMS is an umbrella initiative, a framework within which a
number of initiatives and policies/programmes/projects can be incorporated to achieve
set goals and objectives. It also enables the collaborative partnerships between different
actors to achieve such goals.

But an EMS is not enough. The success of an EMS depends on a number of provisions
and preconditions that need to be satisfied before an EMS is developed and/or
implemented. Key among them is political will and top management support to go
ahead with an EMS. Success of an EMS is not necessarily immediate, and is in most
cases long-term. This may affect committment and participation in the EMS processes,
if results are not visible regularly.
Key Elements of an EMS

 Environmental policy •EDevelop a statement of your organization’s

commitment to the environment. Use this policy as a framework for planning
and action.
 Environmental aspects •EIdentify environmental attributes of your products,
activities and services. Determine those that could have significant impacts on
the environment.
 Legal and other requirements •EIdentify and ensure access to relevant laws
and regulations, as well as other requirements to which your organization
adheres.
 Objectives and targets •EEstablish environmental goals for your organization,
in line with your policy, environmental impacts, the views of interested parties
and other factors.
 Environmental management program •EPlan actions necessary to achieve
your objectives and targets.
 Structure and responsibility •EEstablish roles and responsibilities for
environmental management and provide appropriate resources.
 Training, awareness and competence •EEnsure that your employees are
trained and capable of carrying out their environmental responsibilities.
 Communication •EEstablish processes for internal and external
 communications on environmental management issues.
 EMS documentation •EMaintain information on your EMS and related
documents.
 Document control •EEnsure effective management of procedures and other
system documents.
 Operational control •EIdentify, plan and manage your operations and
activities in line with your policy, objectives and targets.
 Emergency preparedness and response •EIdentify potential emergencies and
develop procedures for preventing and responding to them.
 Monitoring and measurement •EMonitor key activities and track performance.
Conduct periodic assessments of compliance with legal requirements.
 Nonconformance and corrective and preventive action •EIdentify and correct
problems and prevent their recurrence.
 Records •EMaintain and manage records of EMS performance.
 EMS audit •EPeriodically verify that your EMS is operating as intended.
 Management review •EPeriodically review your EMS with an eye to
continual improvement.

Doing an EMS Gap Analysis

Doing an EMS Gap Analysis

A gap analysis is a good way to determine what the current situation is, and where action is
critically needed. The following list provides some of the key issues that need to be completed
for an EMS in each case. Click on the title to get the criteria. Click on the title again to close
that title's criteria.

1: Environmental Policy
2: Environmental Aspects
3: Legal and Other Requirements
4: Objectives and Targets
5: Environmental Management Programs
6: Structure and Responsibility
7: Training, Awareness, and Competence
8: Communication
9: EMS Documentation
10: Document Control
11: Emergency Preparedness and Response
12: Monitoring and Measurement
13: Nonconformance and Corrective and Preventive Action
14: Records
15: EMS Audit
16: Management Review

1: Environmental Policy
An environmental policy has been defined by top management that includes the following:

 It is appropriate for the nature, scale and environmental impacts of the company's
activities, products, and services.
 It includes a commitment to continual improvement in the prevention of pollution.
 It includes a commitment to comply with relevant environmental legislation,
regulations, and requirements.
 It provides a framework for setting and reviewing environmental objectives and
targets.
 It is documented, implemented, and maintained.
 It has been communicated to all employees.
 It is available to the public.

2: Environmental Aspects
 A procedure exists to identify environmental aspects and determine which have
significant impacts on the environment.
 Significant aspects are considered when setting environmental objectives.
 This information is kept up-to-date.

3: Legal and Other Requirements

 A procedure exists to identify and have access to legal and other requirements
pertaining to the environmental aspects.

4: Objectives and Targets

 These have been established at each relevant function and level.
 Legal and other requirements were considered in establishing them.
 Significant environmental impacts were considered in establishing them.
 Technological options were considered in establishing them.
 Financial, operational, and business requirements were considered in establishing
them.
 The views of interested parties were considered in establishing them.
 They are consistent with the environmental policy.

5: Environmental Management Programs

An environmental management program for achieving objectives and targets has been
established and includes:

 Designation of responsibility for achieving objectives and targets at each relevant

function and level of the company.
 The means and time-frame for accomplishment.
 The program applies to new developments, new or modified activities, products, and
 services.

6: Structure and Responsibility

 Roles, responsibilities, and authorities are defined, documented, and communicated.
 Resources are provided that are essential to the implementation and operation of the
environmental management system.
 A specific management representative (one or more) has been appointed by top
management with defined roles, responsibility, and authority for:
 Establishing, implementing, and maintaining the EMS.
 Reporting on the performance of the EMS to top management.

7: Training, Awareness, and Competence

 Training needs are identified and all personnel whose work may create a significant
impact upon the environment have received appropriate training.
 Procedures are established and maintained to make appropriate employees aware of:
 The importance of conformance with environmental policy and procedures and the
requirements of the EMS.
 The significant environmental impacts of their work activities and environmental
benefits of improved personal performance.
 Their roles and responsibilities in achieving : conformance with environmental policy,
procedures, and EMS.
 The potential consequences of departure from specified operating procedures.
 Personnel performing tasks which can cause significant environmental impacts are
competent.

8: Communication
The company has established and maintains procedures for:

 Internal communications among levels and functions.

 Receiving, documenting, and responding to relevant communication form external
interested parties.
 The company has considered processes for external communication on its significant
environmental aspects and recorded its decision.

9: EMS Documentation
 Information describing the core elements of the EMS and their interaction has been
established and maintained.
 Information providing directions to related documentation has been established and
maintained.

10: Document Control

A procedure has been established and maintained for controlling documents to ensure that:

 They can be located.

 They are periodically reviewed, revised, and approved by authorized personnel.
 Current versions are available at all appropriate locations.
 Obsolete documents are promptly removed.
 Obsolete documents retained for preservation purposes are identified as such.
  Documents are legible, dated, readily identifiable, maintained, and retained.
 Procedures exist and are maintained for creation and modification of documents.

11: Emergency Preparedness and Response

 There are procedures for identifying the potential for and response to accidents and
emergency situations.
 There are procedures for preventing and mitigating the environmental impacts that
may be associated with emergencies.
 These are reviewed and revised as necessary.
 Procedures are periodically tested where practicable.

12: Monitoring and Measurement

 Procedures exist and are documented to regularly monitor and measure the key
characteristics of operations having a significant impact on the environment.
 This includes recording information to track performance, relevant operations
controls, and conformance with objectives and targets.
 Monitoring equipment is calibrated and maintained and records of the process
retained.
 A procedure exists for periodically evaluating compliance with legislation and
regulations.

13: Nonconformance and Corrective and Preventive Action

 Procedures exist and are maintained for defining responsibility and authority for
handling and investigating nonconformance and taking appropriate action.
 Corrective or preventive action are appropriate.
 Changes in procedures resulting from corrective and preventive action are
documented.

14: Records
 Procedures are established and maintained for the identification, maintenance, and
disposition of environmental records. These include training and audit results.
 Records are legible, identifiable, and traceable to the activity, product, or service
involved.
 Records are easily retrievable and protected from damage, deterioration, or loss.
 Retention times are established and recorded.
 Records demonstrate conformance to the standard.

15: EMS Audit

A program and procedures for periodic EMS audits is established and maintained. The audits
determine:

 Whether the EMS conforms to the ISO 14001 standard.

 Whether it has been properly implemented and maintained.
 The program provides information on the results of audits to management.
 Procedures cover the audit scope, frequency, and methods, and responsibilities and
requirements for conducting audits and reporting results.

16: Management Review

  Top management regularly reviews the EMS to ensure its suitability, adequacy, and
effectiveness. The review is documented.
 Information necessary for management to do this is collected.
 The review shall consider the need for changes to policy, objectives, and other
elements of the EMS resulting from audit results, changing conditions, and the
commitment to continual improvement.

An EMS is about the 'E', but don't forget the 'M' and the 'S'!

The EMS and ISO 14001 includes issues more than what we normally include as
'environment'. A good EMS is as much about
communications, awareness, decision-making, governance,
subsidiarity, monitoring/evaluation etc. as it is about
environmental issues! It is very easy for us to forget this ...

An EMS is more than a tool for 'saving the environment -

embedded within an EMS are elements related to, yes - the
environment - but also management and systems issues.

For example, decision-making, capacity building,

governance, subsidiarity, leadership, review etc. are some of
the management issues; communication, awareness-raising,
the PDCA cycle, monitoring and evaluation etc.. are some
of the systems issues; all of which go with nature, ecology,
natural materials flow, pollution etc. that are some of the environmental issues.

It is this combination of issues related to the environment, management and systems

components that really make an EMS a flexible, scalable and holistic tool that can be applied
to a wide range of problems. It can be applied to a household of 5 people, or a city of 5
million people!

Steps involved in obtaining ISO 14001 certification

1. Initial review of impacts and influences on outside the environment.

2. Evaluation of environmental policy aspects
3. Setting up of environmental objectives and targets
4. Setting up an environmental management programme
5. Promulgation of an Environmental Policy

•EFirst Provisional Audit of steps taken •E

6. Training of staff and other personnel

7. Communication and documentation of environmental aspects
8. Operation and management control
9. Emergency preparedness and response (including satisfying building/fire
control laws)
10. Monitoring and evaluation
11. Non-performance and corrective action
12. Documentation and recording
13. Internal auditing
14. Management review

Second Provisional Review •E

Corrective action
Final Audit Report and Certification

The entire process above can take from a year to two years to complete.

Source: UNU ISO Working Group

An EMS Flowchart

Just run your mouse over the boxes, to get a short description of the term.
Source: Adopted from Adreas Strum

he full ISO 14000 series

ISO 14000 series of standards provides specifications and guidelines for various
environmental management disciplines, including environmental management system (EMS),
environmental performance, environmental auditing, environmental labeling and life cycle
assessments. The most popular of the ISO 14000 series of standards is ISO 14001:
Environmental Management Systems - Specification with Guidance for Use.

 EMS = Environmental Management Systems

 EA = Environmental auditing
 EL = Environmental Labelling
 LCA = Life Cycle Assessment

ISO 14000
EMS- General Guidelines on Principles, Systems and Supporting Techniques
ISO 14001
EMS- Specification with Guidance for Use
ISO 14004
EMS - General Guidelines on Systems, Principles and Supporting Techniques
ISO 14010
EA- General Principles of Environmental Auditing
ISO 14011
EA- Auditing of Environmental Management Systems
ISO 14012
EA- Qualification Criteria for Environmental Auditors
ISO 14013
Management of Environmental Audit Programs
ISO 14014
Initial Reviews
ISO 14015
Environmental Site Assessments
ISO 14020
EL- Basic Principles of Environmental Labeling
ISO 14021
EL- Self Declaration- Environmental Claims- Terms and Definitions
ISO 14022
EL- Symbols
ISO 14023
EL- Testing and Verification Methodologies
ISO 14024
EL- Practitioner Programs- Guiding principles, practices and certification
procedures of multiple criteria (type1)
ISO 14031
 Environmental Performance Evaluation
ISO 14040
LCA- General Principles and Practices
ISO 14041
LCA- Goal and Definition/Scope and Inventory Assessment
ISO 14042
LCA- Impact Assessment
ISO 14043
LCA- Improvement Assessment
ISO 14050
Terms and Definitions
ISO 14060
Guide for the Inclusion of Environmental Aspects in Product Standards
Disaster Management and EMSs

For many cities that face the risk of natural disasters - whether floods, earthquakes or
typhoons/cyclones - having a clear preparedness plan is key in ensuring that the damage to
life and property is kept to a minimum possible. A disaster preparedness plan requires a
number of issues to be considered: assessing vulnerability to crises and natural disasters;
establishing early-warning systems; developing and maintaining a framework of
developmental responses and other contingency disaster plans. forming and strengthening
disaster management teams; integrating disaster preparedness, mitigation, prevention, and
response programmes into development programmes; identifying and engaging communities;
regular reporting and updating of disaster risk, as a part of the early warning process.

ISO 14001 defines a voluntary environmental management system. Used in conjunction with
appropriate goals, and with management commitment, the standards help improve
environmental performance and reduce negative impacts. They provide an objective basis for
verifying claims about a local government's environmental performance in its day-to-day
operations. How can disaster preparedness issues be incorporated into an EMS?

There are essentially two ways in which this can be done.

 As a part of the EMS:

Emergency preparedness is an integral part of the EMS. An organization that is
seeking to develop and implement an EMS, in order to obtain ISO 14001
certification has to inherently have an emergency preparedness plan. The
objective of such a plan is to identify potential emergencies and develop
procedures for preventing and responding to them. While many of these
include chemical spills, hazardous wastes, fire risks, and other such man-made
causes, it can very well include natural disasters too.
 By making it a Significant Environmental Aspect (SEAs):
An EMS is essentially operationalized through the identification of 'significant
environmental aspects.' Environmental aspects, within the purview of an EMS,
are attributes of the organization's products, activities and services, and their
environmental impacts. These impacts may relate to the local as well as global
environments. In a region where disasters are a key phenomena, an
organization can include it in their process of identifying their SEAs. What will
 the impact be of a disaster (particularly a natural disaster such as an earthquake
or a flood) on the SEA?

Life Cycle Assessment and ISO 14001

It has been widely agrued that objectives of sustainable development can be achieved if
organization-related environmental management (as embodied in the ISO 14001) is adopted
along with product-related enviromental management (as embodied in ISO 14040's Life
Cycle Assessment).

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) essentially calls for the compilation and examination of the
inputs and outputs of materials and energy and the associated environmental impacts directly
attributable to the functioning of a product or service system throughout its life cycle. 'Life
Cycle' itself constitutes the consecutive and interlinked stages of a product or service system,
from the extraction of natural resources to the final disposal.

Due to the complexity and diversity of organizations and services in an urban area, it may be
difficult to adopt a single, unified approach to tackle environmental problems. It is becoming
increasingly clear that unique local solutions and apporaches have to be developed for local
situations and problems. Integrating and combining elements of LCA and elements of EMS
into a comprehensive local environmental management plan is cost-effective because it
permits individual solutions.

Modest and obvious organizational changes brought about by an EMS in the initial stages of
its implementation (eg. through eco-balances) needs to be sustained on a long-term basis
through additional tools that measure achieve and maintain continual improvement of the
EMS. A key tool being proposed for this purpose is LCA. LCA as a more detialed and
technically oriented assessment tool can help to broaden the EMS perspective by the life cycle
and system view.

Source: Finkbeiner et al. "Analysis of the Potential for a Comprehensive Approaqch Towards
LCA and EMS in Japan" International Journal of LCA. 4 (3) 1999, pp. 127-132