Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Third party registrars of environmental management systems

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  • During the last decade environmental management has moved from reaction-based management to regulatory requirements to a more progressive approach that incorporates regulatory requirements and voluntary programs, such as the ISO 14001 environmental management system (EMS), to successfully administer their environmental programs. Organizations that transitioned from reaction-based to progressive management through certification to the ISO 14001 standard have witnessed improved profitability through more efficiently run operations, a decrease in natural resource and raw material costs, a decrease in waste management costs, increased employee buy-in to the environmental policy and programs, a positive public image, and an improved competitive advantage. Organizations with legitimate environmental management systems have had their systems certified and registered by a registrar accredited by the national accrediting body for the country in which their organization is domiciled. In the United States (U.S .), the accrediting organization is the American National Accreditation Board (ANAB). The purpose of this study was to determine what third party certification groups exist in the United States and how they obtain their accreditation for certifying environmental management systems. The study also sought to identify what means third party certification groups use to validate and register environmental management systems. A list of U.S. accredited registrars was obtained from the American National Accreditation Board's website. Registrars of ISO 14001 were contacted via email and their company websites were perused to obtain information on what they do to certify organizations to ISO 14001 and on how they determine conformance to the ISO Standard. The ISO Standards, 14001 (evironmental management systems) and 19011 (auditing) were obtained and examined to determine conformance requirements to the ISO environmental management system and to ascertain what ISO requires of the auditing registrar. Organizations that are seeking to certify their environmental management systems to ISO 14001 have multiple registrars to select from but may not find it easy to begin the process due to a lack of available information to make an educated choice for their organization. Five company's websites stood out for providing substantial information on the certification process in a downloadable document. These documents provided in depth information on the expectations of the registrar and client, the steps of audit process, certification maintenance and use of certification mark, and the complaints and appeal process for the client against the registrar. These documents provide a good foundation for understanding the certification process and for understanding the registrar's methods. The actual auditing techniques of a registrar are, however, considered proprietary and will not be found in public information sources.
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