It is common that in recent years you have heard about ISO 14001 certification in the catering context. These certifications have a big impact on hospitality and catering businesses, so you need to learn about them and start looking for certification for your business.
Find out what ISO 14001 certification is, what the other ISO certificates are, what their usefulness is and how to get ISO 14001 certification to prove that your establishment successfully complies with environmental management.
Table of Contents
What is ISO 14001 certification?
ISO certificates are a guarantee that your business complies with one of its standards.
In other words, these certificates certify that you carry out each of the activities and comply with the standards that make up the ISO regulations.
In the case of ISO 14001 certification, this refers to the documents that affirm that you comply with an adequate environmental management in your business.
In this way, your customers and suppliers will know that you are a business that carries out its activities with the environment in mind.
You also avoid having a negative impact by eliminating behaviours that increase climate change.
Benefits of ISO 14001 certification
ISO 14001 certification has several benefits to your business, starting with the improved image you convey.
As mentioned before, your customers and people in your business notice your commitment to environmental causes and their confidence in your business grows.
It also opens doors for you to sign alliances with companies attracted by your work.
On the other hand, it is easier to make business management decisions, since any action must fit in with the action plan established for environmental management.
ISO 14001 certification in the hotel and catering industry
Hospitality and catering are industries that have an immense consumption of resources, such as water and various raw materials.
Therefore, it is important that all businesses in the sector are encouraged to issue their ISO 14001 certification.
This standard allows you to take the right measures to reduce consumption and thus the impact your business has on the ecosystem.
The benefits of starting the ISO 14001 certification process are visible in the short, medium and long term.
You start to manage your resources wisely, avoiding having to renew stocks of products in short periods oftime.
You will also notice how your bills for business services will become lower and lower, allowing you to reduce your expenses and enjoy the profits.
Also, believe it or not, customers prefer businesses that are ISO 14001 certified over those that are not, as they notice the changes and improvements through environmental management.
Implementing ISO environmental management certification
There are several steps to follow to properly implement ISO 14001, or environmental management certification .
Look at their order and start changing your business to its best version.
Study the requirements of the ISO 14001 certification process
First of all, you need to review what are the requirements to be fulfilled in the ISO 14001 certification process.
Once you have a good grasp of the requirements, analyse which ones you can meet immediately and which ones need to be implemented in a timely manner.
In this way, you can start to implement the management changes and comply with the requirements, without affecting the management and service of your business.
Design an action plan that includes environmental management
In addition to having an idea of the timelines, it is important that you put all the environmental management information into an action plan.
This document will detail each action to be taken, the deadlines, the people in charge of doing it and the supervisors.
Examples of what the action plan should contain are essential business procedures and internal policy reform , as well as instructions and best practices to be followed during the day.
In this way, all staff will have access to the relevant information to comply with the changes in environmental management and facilitate the process.
In addition, this action plan should be supported by strict documentation of the actions that are satisfactorily carried out and their dates, in order to be substantiated when applying for certification.
Consult with a certifier about the quality of your plan
If you are unsure about the effectiveness of your action plan, don’t worry.
You can schedule an audit prior to the certifier’s final review to see how feasible your management is and if any changes are needed.
Once this internal audit has been approved, you can opt for an official audit by ISO members, who will detail and evaluate each step of the management.
These ISO verifications can take some time, as a check is made of documentation and staff practices during the day.
If the audits are passed, they will issue your ISO 14001 certificate, which is valid for three years.
On the other hand, if you do not meet expectations during the review, you must rectify the management shortcomings and reapply for certification.
These audits can also continue once you have ISO 14001 certification. This will ensure that you maintain proper management, appropriate to the needs and shortcomings of your business.
Other types of ISO certification
Hospitality and catering businesses do not only need ISO 14001 certification. There are other certifications oriented towards different areas, beyond environmental issues. Let’s take a look at what they are so that you can consider whether you should obtain any of them.
ISO 39001
ISO 39001 certification corresponds to the safety that must exist in traffic on roads and other land routes.
In this case, signage and measures must be implemented to promote road safety, avoiding any accident that could be caused by a lack of indications.
ISO 5001
On the other hand, ISO 5001 certification is oriented towards energy management.
Any company wishing to obtain this certificate must comply with processes that reduce the excessive use of energy, and move to a state of energy efficiency.
ISO 45001
A common ISO certification for any business or company is 45001.
This certificate relates to health and safety management in the workplace.
Companies must demonstrate that they ensure the health and safety of their staff, at all times and under all circumstances.
ISO 9001
ISO 9001 is a standard that determines what good quality management should look like.
In this way, companies always maintain the same level of quality in all the production processes they carry out.
ISO 22301
Business-oriented, ISO 22301 aims to guarantee a well-implemented business continuity.
In other words, every company must know when it needs to improve its capacity and identify which risks can be taken without affecting the company.
ISO 27001
Finally, ISO 27001 refers to information management.
It is a certificate that can only be held by companies that do not violate security standards concerning the handling of information and data.
