Case Study – ISO 14001:2015 Transition
Roband Electronics
Based in Charlwood near Gatwick Airport, Roband Electronics is an independent British company specialising in the design, development, manufacture and support of electronic power supplies. In 2016, Roband celebrated its 60th anniversary.
Eshcon helped Roband achieve ISO 14001:2015 certification, with a Gap Analysis of its EMS and then updating the system to transition to the new standard.
Roband has a history of good environmental practice and decided to formalise this into an Environmental Management System (EMS). ESHCon has worked with Roband for a number of years, initially to develop & implement the EMS and their first certification to ISO 14001.
As the EMS has progressed, Eshcon has lead internal audits, attended certification audits and provided support to the environment team, where knowledge or experience needed a boost.
In 2016 Roband decided to transition the EMS to ISO 14001:2015 in time for the scheduled recertification audit.
Work started with a Gap Analysis to identify where the EMS needed to change. This gave a RAG-rating for each issue and a transition plan, with actions & timescales.
Eshcon then worked with the environment team on the transition work, starting with workshops covering context, risks, opportunities, interested parties & lifecycle. Exercises engaged staff from across the company, so increasing understanding, involvement & ownership of the EMS. There was ongoing liaison with top management, thus considering the company’s strategic direction.
Further consideration was made to objectives & new targets (with associated data requirements), communicating with interested parties and evaluation of compliance.
A large part of the transition work was to amend the system itself, including updating the EMS core documentation, including policy, manual, aspects & compliance registers, plus key procedures. There was also an opportunity to streamline these documents, to make them more user-friendly.
Eshcon continued to be part of the internal audit team, particularly covering EMS operations, compliance etc, and also contributed to the certification audit – this proved particularly important, covering for two recently departed critical members of staff.
The benefits included:
- Provide knowledge of the changes required to meet the new ISO 14001:2015 standard
- Experience of certification audits & the auditors’ approach
- Update EMS core documentation as required by the standard
- Coordinate the project, ensuring it runs smoothly – thus freeing staff up to focus on their work or specific role in the EMS
- Ability to engage with top management to drive the EMS forward
- Reassurance that the requirements are fulfilled, long before going through certification audits
- Successful recertification to ISO 14001.
“Whilst Roband has always been environmentally conscious, it became apparent that formal recognition in the form of ISO14001 would be advantageous. Eshcon Ltd was engaged to implement our Environmental Management System. Actively involving staff along the way, Anya developed an EMS that was tailored to suit the company and guided us through the process to successful certification to ISO14001 (both the 2004 & 2015 standards), which has now become a key requirement for our customers. We were very pleased with the service.”
– Andrew Gold, Managing Director at Roband Electronics