This clause begins with a requirement that organizations shall
determine and provide the necessary resources to establish,
implement, maintain and continually improve the EMS. Simply
expressed, this is a very powerful requirement covering all EMS
resource needs.
The clause continues with requirements for competence, and
awareness, which are similar to their counterparts in ISO
14001:2004. Organizations will need to determine the necessary
competence of people doing work that under its control that affects
its environmental performance, its ability to fulfill its compliance
obligationsand ensure they receive the appropriate training. Within
this clause there is a requirement to retain documented information
as evidence of competence.
In addition, organizations need to ensure that all people doing work
under the organizations control are aware of the environmental
policy, how their work may impact this and implications of not
conforming with the EMS In addition, they need to be aware of their
contribution to the effectiveness of the environmental management
system including the benefits of enhanced environmental
performance. Whilst there is no fundamental change from the
previous version, there are now additional requirements covering
both internal and external communication.
Finally, there are the requirements for ‘documented information’
which is a new term that replaces the references in the 2004
standard to ‘documents’ and ‘records’. These requirements relate to
the creation and updating of documented information and their
control. The requirements are similar to their counterparts in ISO