Tim's Blog

Interested parties - a practical checklist

Written by Tim Hamilton

In an earlier blog, I discussed the requirements related to “interested parties” from ISO 14001:2015. In this blog, I’ll give some practical help with implementing requirements related to your interested parties.

Let’s start with the document in your EMS that lists your interested parties – I call it a “Register of Interested Parties”. The Register might have the following columns:

Interested party name
Brief summary of their connection with your company
Their needs and expectations
Whether you have adopted these needs/expectations as “compliance obligations” (link to article)

So, who are your interested parties?

Here is a checklist that might be useful.

Click here to download this checklist as a PDF to share with your managers and team members.

Click here to download a checklist of interested parties and examples of their needs and expectations.

	Interested parties	Examples of needs/expectations
Government	ARPANSA	Radiation protection Licensing Disposal of isotopes
	Clean Energy Regulator	Greenhouse emission reporting
	Environmental authority	EPA licence conditions Notices
	Local council	Waste management Pest control Condition of land
	Road authority	DG transport Management of other loads
Your organisation	Employees	Recycling targets Sourcing raw materials Green energy
	Head office/Parent company	Global standards Renewable energy targets
	PR Deparment	Environmental “good news” stories Incident response
	Shareholders	Resource usage targets Greenhouse response Environmental performance
Other	Banks and other credit providers	Risk management Communication of risks
	Customers	“Green” credentials EMS certification Sourcing of raw materials
	Electricity provider	Foreseeable power demand fluctuations
	Insurer	Pollution controls & mitigation Risk management Incident management
	Landlord	Soil contamination prevention Underground tanks Amenity
	Neighbours	Noise Odour Light pollution abatement Fire risks and response
	Other contractors and suppliers	Contract conditions Communication of plant changes
	Trade Unions	Environmental risk minimisation Emergency response
	Waste Contractor	Waste composition changes Packaging and labelling of waste

ISO 14001 requirements for interested parties

Finally, while Clause 4.2 of the standard deals with interested parties, there are also requirements related to interested parties in the following 14001 clauses:

Clause 4.3 – communicating the EMS scope to interested parties
Clause 5.1 – evidence of communication with interested parties
Clause 5.2 – communicating the Environmental Policy to interested parties
Clause 6.1.3 – compliance obligations (as discussed above)
Clause 7.4 – communication requirements
Clause 8.2 – communicating emergency arrangements to interested parties
Clause 9.3 – management review