ISO 14001 Step by Step - A Practical Guide

CHAPTER 1: PDCA, ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, OBJECTIVES AND PROGRAMMES (CLAUSES 5.1, 5.2 AND 6.2)

First principles: the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) model

The PDCA model provides the iterative process organisations use to ensure continual improvement takes place. As ISO 14001 puts it, PDCA forms the “basis for the approach underlying an environmental management system”.

The idea is that you first establish exactly what it is you intend to do (Plan) – what are the environmental objectives and processes necessary to stay in line with environmental policy? After that, you implement planned processes (Do). Next, you monitor and measure these processes against the environmental policy (Check) and report the results. Finally, you take corrective action based ...