What is ISO 14001 certification cost?

What is ISO 14001?

ISO 14001 outlines the specifications for an environmental management system.

This standard’s focus is more effective resource utilisation and waste reduction, to aid organisations in improving their environmental performance, giving them a competitive advantage and the confidence of stakeholders.

Any organisation can use ISO 14001 as a non-exclusive management framework standard, regardless of size, scope, or location. ISO 14001 is one of the most popular ISO standards with almost 300,000 businesses in 171 countries having this certification.

This well-established certification provides guidance on how to consider many business activities, such as product creation, manufacturing, storage, and distribution. It also encourages business’ to evaluate how to manage stakeholder expectations and emergency response. Implementing ISO 14001 helps organisations to create a standardised approach to handling their environmental goals.

Getting started with ISO 14001 involves documenting what and how your organisation carries out business operations. Many businesses decide to invest in an integrated management system that incorporates ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.

An integrated management system combines all aspects of an organisation’s systems, processes, and standards. This integration allows for a much more streamlined approach and can be a cost-effective way of becoming certified. If you would like to find out more about an integrated management system and how we can help, contact our team today.

ISO 14001 certification cost and obtaining ISO 14001 certification

Planning assets:

An environmental management system requires resources and time to implement and maintain. The ISO certification procedure typically takes between three and six months, though this depends on the size and complexity of a business.

The ISO 14001 concept emphasises employee investment, keeping in mind people at all organisational levels, especially those in administrative tasks, so you’ll need to plan and distribute time and resources making sure everyone is aware of their responsibilities. It’s important to allocate time to prepare the resources needed for these audits as well, as surveillance audits take place annually.

Engaging audit support:

Using an ISO 14001 certification consultant will help ease the stress of getting started if time and resources are a concern. An ISO 14001 certification consultant will ensure a smooth execution process and can support with procedures when internal misunderstandings hinder progress.

If the costs of obtaining ISO 14001 certification are deterring you, keep in mind that a successful environmental management system will support:

An increase in productivity.
A reduction in waste.
An expansion in business.

As a professional ISO certification consultant, Compliant can help you get started with ISO 14001. We have a proven successful framework with templated documents to support you through the audit process. We can also help you to fully embed the certification across your organisation.

Getting organised for ISO 14001 certification cost

Although it can be challenging to calculate ISO 14001 certification costs, we can anticipate some of them.

The cost of certification is significantly influenced by the size and complexity of a business. Costs are related to:

The number of premises that your business has
The number of employees that your business has
The scope of your business

Limiting the scope is one method of helping to manage the ISO certification cost. The scope and business size have a direct impact on the cost of certification, as more branches and locations mean more audit days. Every audit day is chargeable at an auditor day rate. It is worth weighing the advantages of including all branch offices when considering ISO 14001 certification cost.

Keeping the days required by an external auditor from a certification body to a minimum will keep costs down. Not only will it reduce the number of days that you have to pay a certification body, but it will also reduce the number of days that an ISO consultant is required.

You will also need to consider internal costs. Your employees will require ISO 14001 training and employee time out to take place in audits. Also remember that every third year, a full recertification is required and budgeting is required for yearly surveillance audits.

The ongoing requirements of the management system put in place in accordance with ISO 14001 must be overseen by someone with the time and resources to do so. If your business does not have the time and resources that needs to be dedicated to ISO 14001, Compliant’s ongoing support pack is recommended.

Our ongoing support takes the stress out of ISO management, so you have the time to get on with your day job. Your certifications are maintained and updated in time for your surveillance audits with reliable advice available throughout the year. To discover more about our ongoing support package visit our dedicated webpage here.

The ISO 14001 certification process

Whilst there are ways to reduce the ISO 14001 certification cost it is worth remembering that being open and honest will have the best results. Business’ must consider the cost benefit of engaging a professional ISO certification consultant such as Compliant.

Our proven track record, case studies, recommendations and client reviews speak for themselves. The long-term financial benefits of become ISO 14001 certified include:

Better compliance with environmental regulations.
Increased output, less product loss due to spoilage or error, and decreased transportation and purchasing expenses are all possible outcomes.
Reduced costs through effective management of workflows and procedures while also reducing the number of resources companies use.
Scalable growth as companies are better equipped to deal with the challenges of expanding market share or entering new territories.
Continuous improvement.
A better reputation as a result of growing awareness among governmental agencies, financial institutions, consumers, business owners, and the general public.

In recent years, environmental issues have come to the forefront of businesses minds. The international community is looking at ways to decrease environmental damage in order to ensure that the environment is protected for future generations. By putting in place a formal environmental management system, you elevate your company’s environmental leadership position within your sector and improve worker and stakeholder participation.

The return on investment when implementing ISO 14001

The benefits of implementing ISO 14001 certification far outweigh the expenditures. If you can create a case for the anticipated return on investment, you might find it easier to convince senior management to fund your certification objectives.

Businesses list savings in costs associated with legal compliance and materials utilisation through the decrease of off-spec items and reduced legal costs.

By implementing ISO 14001, you can also reduce the price of environmental management.

For example, of you develop products having ISO 14001 in place will involve assessing the entire product life cycle, including how natural resources are used by your company. This will provide you with the knowledge you need to lower your energy usage and waste, which will help you save money and increase your profitability.

So how much does ISO 14001 certification cost?

As previously discussed, the complexity and size of an organisation have a significant impact on the cost of ISO 14001 certification.

The number of employees a business has, the complexity of a business’ activities, and the number of locations from which it operates are all taken into account when generating ISO 14001 certification cost.

There may be discrepancies between certification estimates from various certifying bodies. These differences are usually caused by changes in administrative costs and the audit day rate.

Day rates and fees for writing reports and preparing audits may vary among certification organisations. Even though the costs connected with an audit vary depending on the certifying body, they normally include the audit time, administrative fees, and travel expenditures. Compliant has partnerships with all of the major certification bodies and can pass cost savings from these partnerships directly onto clients.

For ISO 14001 certification, you must be able to operate efficiently, apply risk-based thinking, and make continuous improvements. All of these business benefits will contribute to your long-term success.

How long does it take to become ISO 14001 certified?

Compliant can help a business to obtain ISO 14001 certification in just 14 days. However, to allow time for discussions, installation, and customising the management system to each organisation, we advise an initial 6-week timeframe.

Following this, we conduct a stage 1 audit with one of the certification bodies that we work with. We recommend using a certification body that offers UKAS-accredited certifications. Our clients are guaranteed to be completely prepared for stage 2 audits which always take place within three months of the stage 1 audit.

We recommend a 6-month allocation time for becoming ISO certified. If you would like to find out more about our ISO certification timescales and costs book your 15 minute ISO discovery call with our Sales and Marketing Manager now.

Becoming UKAS accredited

An added benefit of partnering with Compliant is that all of the ISO certifications we support with are UKAS accredited. Wondering why you should invest in UKAS accredited certifications rather than non-UKAS? The answer is simple. The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) is the sole national accreditation body for the United Kingdom.

View our ‘Why invest in UKAS accredited certifications rather than non-UKAS’ article for more information.

If you are looking to make the shift from non-UKAS to UKAS we can also help get you started.

ISO 14001 Requirements

Since there are no specific requirements for environmental execution, ISO 14001 can be implemented in any organisation, regardless of size, sector, or level of current implementation.

A summary of the ISO 14001 criteria can be found below:

Define your business: Your company identity, your main service, who thinks of you frequently, and how you will respond in the context of the organisation.
Leadership: Ensure accountability across your organisation and define an environmental plan with roles and responsibilities.
Planning: Identify threats and prepare actions to mitigate those threats and ensure that environmental goals are reached.
Support: Include your resources, correspondence, and supporting documents for your environmental management system.
Operation: Specify the operational controls and your crisis management strategy.
Performance evaluation: Plan how you will examine, quantify, analyse, and evaluate your environmental management system, including internal audits.

The Environment Agency and Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs’ advice

The Environment Agency and Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs have developed advice on how to develop a management system and keep it up to date so that you can carry out activities under an environmental permit. Information found on the gov.uk website explains that:

“Your environmental permit requires you to have a written management system. This is a set of procedures describing what you will do to minimise the risk of pollution from the activities covered by your permit.

If you have a waste permit that was granted before 6 April 2008 that does not require you to have a working plan or management system, you will still need to manage and operate your waste activity in line with a written management system.

If you are applying for:

a standard rules permit, the risks are identified in the generic risk assessment
a bespoke permit, you will have identified the risks by carrying out your risk assessment

Your risk assessment will be part of your management system.”

Why invest in ISO 14001

If you want to show that you and your company are dedicated to lessening the environmental effect of your operations and reap the resulting financial and stakeholder benefits invest in ISO 14001. Compliant has supported a wide range of businesses across varying industries in becoming ISO 14001 certified.

Achieving ISO 14001 certification has advantages for almost all businesses. The certification provides a clear framework for implementing pertinent sustainable practices while being broad enough to help enterprises in any industry or sector.

Getting started with Compliant

An environmental management system is designed to support organisations in identifying, managing, overseeing, and controlling their environmental performance holistically.

We successfully deliver ISO 14001 as well as ISO 9001, ISO 13485, ISO 22301, ISO 27001 and ISO 45001. We can also help businesses to access funding for their certifications.

Compliant will go the extra step in an initial teams meeting to fully understand your business, its requirements, the structure of the management system required, and the organisational context. We will then submit all your information to one of our preferred certification body partners.

If you would like a FREE quotation just fill in our quote calculator here!