What are the main phases of the ISO 14001 registration audit?
The first step in the ISO 14001 registration process is review of documentation. The review is either carried out at the registrar’s offices prior to scheduling of the actual ISO 14001 audit, or on site as part of the audit. ISO 14001 documentation review usually results in some comments and observations, which must be resolved before the on-site audit. The next step is the ISO 14001 audit itself. The objective of the audit is to verify whether the environmental management system conforms with requirements of the ISO 14001 standard. The result of the audit is communicated by auditors at the closing meeting. If the company is recommended for certification, it will receive the ISO 14001 certificate within a couple of weeks. If there are major nonconformance, the certification is delayed. The company must implement corrective actions to deal with the nonconformance and the registrar would usually want to come back for a follow up audit.
