The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has a number of standards that work towards monitoring climate change, quantifying greenhouse gas emissions and promoting good practices in environmental management.

One such guide is ISO/DGuide 84, which sets guidelines for addressing climate change in standards. You can learn more about the guide here. ISO has also set goals for their contribution to the UN’s initiatives for sustainable development “By supporting our members to maximize the benefits of international standardization and ensure the uptake of ISO standards, we’re helping to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).” – Source

In this article, we will focus on ISO’s goal of “Climate Action – Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”, and on the ISO 14000 family of standards, which focus on environmental management systems (EMS).

First, to understand the need for standards, we should investigate the effects we have on the environment, and what we can do to change. Every one of us has an impact on the environment, but arguably, organizations have a larger, more reaching effect on the environment. Consider the footprint of each item you manufacture; where it came before you, where it will go after it leaves you, and the ripple effect that follows. Therefore, companies have a duty to consider each stage of their product or services journey, and its effect on the environment. This is also applicable to your suppliers and the processes they use to provide you with a product or service.

One major impact to consider from your organization, and the world-leading cause of climate change is greenhouse gases.

Greenhouse Gases

The United States Environmental Protection Agency defines Greenhouse Gases as “gases that trap heat in the atmosphere”. The name ‘greenhouse gases’ references the greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gases allow the sun’s light to shine onto Earth’s surface, and then the gases, such as ozone, trap the heat that reflects back from the surface inside the Earth’s atmosphere. The gases act like the glass walls of a greenhouse—thus the name, greenhouse gas. The more GHG’s present, the less heat that can leave the atmosphere, thereby increasing the overall temperature of the Earth and shifting the balance of the weather cycle, and global environmental patterns. –Source

Types of Greenhouse Gases

Carbon dioxide: Created by the burning of fossil fuels like coal, natural gas, oil, and biological materials like trees; the reaction of certain chemicals like the manufacture of cement.

Methane: Emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas and oil; the result of livestock and agricultural practices; decay of organic materials in landfills.

Nitrous oxide: Emitted during agricultural and industrial activities; combustion of fossil fuels and solid waste; during treatment of wastewater.

Fluorinated gases: Hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and nitrogen trifluoride are synthetic, powerful greenhouse gases that are emitted from a variety of industrial processes. Fluorinated gases are sometimes used as substitutes for stratospheric ozone-depleting substances (e.g., chlorofluorocarbons, hydrochlorofluorocarbons, and halons). These gases are typically emitted in smaller quantities, but because they are potent greenhouse gases, they are sometimes referred to as High Global Warming Potential gases (“High GWP gases”).

Learn more from the United States Environmental Protection Agency about GHG Greenhouse Gases

Depending on your industry, you may not have a direct reaction to these gases, nor how they relate to how you change. However, relating back to your environmental footprint, consider how you receive the raw goods you utilize to create your end product, how are they manufactured? Do you ship products across the globe – how are you ensuring the organization you hire to ship these goods is not dumping their garbage in the ocean or polluting the air with toxic chemicals?

ISO Solutions

This is where utilizing industry best practices and international standards is essential. By putting in the work to comply with an international standard, you can be sure your management system will not allow you to hire a supplier who harms the environment. While this is just a small example, it illustrates just how ISO Standards and proper utilization can help.

ISO 14001 is the standard for environmental management systems (EMS) which you as an organization can become certified to. This standard was developed as a guideline for organizations to follow to ensure their business processes are conducted in a way that is sustainable and environmentally conscious.

ISO 14001 was developed as guidance for organizations to better their processes from the inside out with their environmental impact at the core of each decision made. Compliance with ISO 14001 provides a systematic and strategic approach to dealing with your company’s effect on the environment and its solutions to decrease your impact.

Organizations with certification to ISO 14001 benefit from industry best practices for sustainability, internal and external audits and validation, constant feedback and improvement measures, and confidence in your measurements of effectiveness. Because of the lifecycle of ISO Certification, your processes will be evaluated internally and externally over a three-year cycle, with certain major and critical processes being evaluated yearly. With this cycle, you can be assured that your organization is operating at its best potential with regards to environmental management systems, and processes that are not effective will be evaluated, altered, and monitored on a consistent basis to ensure their improvement and success.

With the new revision to the standard, ISO 14001:2015, like ISO 9001:2015, an emphasis has been placed on Leadership commitment. In previous versions of the standards, management commitment was not a requirement. With the new revision, there is no such thing as a management representative, now everyone is required to commit to the promotion of the EMS. Also, in previous versions of the standard, ISO 14001 required a commitment to reducing negative environmental impacts. Now, organizations much also commit to having a positive impact and improving environmental conditions.

If all organizations and corporations utilized these ISO requirements and best practices, imagine the positive effect on the environment!

Part of the ISO 14000 family of standards includes guides and requirement documents that help organizations with proper protocol and standard best practices for audits, communications, labelling and life cycle analysis, as well as environmental challenges such as climate change. ISO 14064 is one guide with a specific focus on quantification and reporting of greenhouses emissions and their removal. ISO has a full list of standards created to help with the climate crisis, you can learn more about the ISO 14000 Family here.

Written by: My Audit Spot

Over the past year, My Audit Spot has been uploading a variety of templates covering all aspects of the audit process. The templates are a way to share audit knowledge, skills, and templates; whilst also providing an opportunity to help other auditors become more diligent and efficient while meeting the requirements of the IIA’s International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing (Standards).

It is important to note, that without an independent assessment, My Audit Spot cannot say that these templates conform to the Standards. Similarly, anyone using these templates in a review cannot state in their final report that the audit has been conducted in accordance with the Standards without an independent assessment. However, the templates have been built off best practice from across the industry, with particular attention paid to requirements of both the Internal Audit standards and Auditing Standard – ASA 230 – Audit Documentation.

The My Audit Spot audit overview shows how each template can be linked to the audit standards. Snippets of our audit process and how it links to the audit standards are included below.

The Standards

The Global Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) has put together standards aimed at guiding adherence with the mandatory components of the International Professional Practices Framework (IPPF) for performing audits, establishing a basis for evaluation and, encouraging improved business processes and operations.

As the IIA states, “The Standards are a set of principles-based mandatory requirements…”. These should form the minimum of all your workpapers.

Planning

Your audit will only be as good as your planning. Failure to appropriately plan and scope the review could result in risks not appropriately reviewed, or business improvement opportunities not identified.

The Standards reflect how important the planning phase is, with the Standards considering everything from current risks and governance processes, through to current control frameworks within the business, and even the objectives of the review. The templates My Audit Spot has developed will help guide you throughout the planning process and help your organization consider parts of the Standards.

Be sure to consult the Standards yourself to ensure you’ve considered all the minimum components.

My Audit Spot planning templates can be accessed here.

Fieldwork

This is the guts of it. By now, you have done all the planning, worked out what your risk areas are, and now built a Work Program around how you are going to test and address each of the identified risks.

Throughout the fieldwork phase, it’s important to ensure your work is appropriately documented. If it’s not documented, it’s not done. At a minimum, each workpaper should include:

• Scope area being addressed
• Purpose/objective of the workpaper
• Methodology – how we have performed the work
• Tests
• Outcome / conclusion

My Audit Spot fieldwork templates can be accessed here.

Reporting

Not only is the audit report phase one major output of your work, but it is also a direct reflection of the effort and attention to detail which has been undertaken during the audit.

An audit report also has the potential to value add by identifying opportunities or future considerations which may not have otherwise been surfaced.

It is important that reports are communicated to the relevant stakeholders and appropriate management. Additionally, reports should be clear and concise as they will be constantly referred to for the action tracking/audit follow up process.

My Audit Spot reporting templates can be accessed here.

About My Audit Spot

My Audit Spot is a space to share audit tools, knowledge and resources. Our mission is to encourage collaboration across internal auditors through the sharing of tools, knowledge and resources; ensuring audit remains a trusted and respected profession.

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Ethics and Integrity is the choice between what’s convenient and what’s right. Reinforcing good execution and behavior of any organization relies on an auditor to confront poor execution and behavior and endorse proper and conforming behavior, and not simply “look the other way” when pressured from above or by budget. If you wish to perform a value-added service with your audits and report, you have a duty to utilize ethical practices in your audits, for the good of your own reputation, and the good of the company paying you to audit their work.

Ethics is a personal choice, it’s a personal compass that dictates right from wrong but unfortunately, it’s not always common sense. Being an auditor, you may face scenarios where you can’t always tell which choice is right, which choice is easy, and which choice will let you keep your clients happy. The issue stems from a bias in the industry that is hard to avoid. The people you audit are paying you, and therefore hold power over you as an auditor or a Certification Body to produce favorable results or they will jump ship to another provider. While this is an industry norm, it still produces scenarios where the potential for “letting something slide” is easily allowed. This, however, is not ethical and tarnishes the whole perceived image of certified entities.

Auditors can understand different business needs, the requirements of the standard, and the best possible person to rely on to ensure a company is running an effective business according to the standard. To fill these criteria, an auditor must be honest and have integrity. They must be fair and trustworthy, and willing to be “the bad guy”. They must have the ability to push through difficult situations and then work with people in a constructive manner.

Qualities of an Ethical Auditor

Honesty:

Being honest should be any professional’s main building block. Being honest is the foundation of any working professional that will help foster trust between you and a client, supplier, or in any relationship, professional, or not. Consider the consumer pipeline, and you as an auditor are the “product” to be sold to a customer. A customer must first learn of you and an option to “purchase”, they have a need of an auditor. Perhaps they learn about you from an online directory like ISOUpdate, or from a Google search and find your website or referral. They must first trust that what you say is true, i.e., your experience level, your industry codes, etc. This is where your honesty as a business professional will shine. What is said about you in customer referrals, testimonials, and word of mouth statements is often out of your control. But honesty is in your control. By providing a service that is honest – from what you charge, to what you provide, and if you follow through on the claims you make – you will cause customers to be delighted by your services and offer your praises to others.

To elaborate on a point above, to ensure you are honest is to follow through on the claims you make. Following through on promises is an essential way to prove your honesty. The cliché to consider here is “under-promise, over-deliver”. While we do not encourage using this approach every time, as it can set unreasonable expectations in the long run, we do encourage you to be mindful of your capabilities. Be honest with your clients, and they will have more respect and trust in you.

ACCURACY:

A good auditor will always look thoroughly into the matter before forming any opinion, clearing any biases and not allowing experience to cloud judgment. While all bias cannot be removed due to the transactional relationship between auditor and auditee, it can be neutralized. If you are an internal auditor, that is an auditor who works within the organization and with your peers on a daily basis, consider how you can make the audit process easier and less stressful. Leading up to the audit, inform your peers of the dates that they will be audited, and inform them of what to expect. You are preparing them for the certification audit, which will be conducted by a third-party auditor who won’t be you, so tell them what to expect, and most importantly, not to worry or hide information. By alleviating some of the stress of being audited, and having everyone prepared, you will be able to audit more successfully and without resistance, allowing for an accurate picture of the organization, its shortcomings, and its successes.

This is where companies will truly see the value-add to the audit and certification process. If the organization isn’t showcasing the true nature of their shortcomings, you are not going to be able to get to the root of their system, and they will continue to falter. Here is where it is also helpful to have a relationship built on trust and honesty, allowing you to do your job to the best of your abilities.

OBJECTIVITY:

As an auditor, you have been commissioned to evaluate a company’s systems against a specific standard. You only have a limited time to sample the largest picture possible and evaluate if the organization is successfully following the requirements of the standard, is aware of and working towards improving aspects of their system that aren’t compliant, and is striving towards improvement. You might be a single auditor or part of a team of auditors, but regardless, it is not possible to see the whole system in one day. This is where pre-planning your audit objectives and sticking to those objectives is essential. Each audit will start with the scope of the audit being set and reviewed in the opening meeting. Do not stray from these objectives unless unforeseen circumstances arise. Sticking to your plan will help foster trust and create a much-needed sense of security between you and the organization.

TIMELINESS:

Timeliness also falls within the qualities of honesty and objectivity. Promptness, punctuality, and professionalism are the 3 major ”Ps” that perfectly encapsulate the qualities of a good auditor.  Set your objectives, be mindful of the time you have available, be prompt and punctual with the time you promised, and be professional with every interaction you have. You are being paid to conduct an audit and provide an accurate report; follow through with your objectives and return your report within a reasonable time so the organization can begin to make changes based on it.

CLARITY:

If you bring clarity to a situation, you help people see what really happened by clearing up misunderstandings and providing explanations. You may hear this a lot, but use plain language whenever possible. You may be speaking to veterans in the standards industry or you may be speaking with someone who’s never heard of ISO before, regardless, you should be treating every room with the same expectations. Speak to be understood, not to seem superior or knowledgeable. There is no harm in asking the people you audit their knowledge level if you do it with respect.

Expanding on the above qualities, be clear about your objectives and provide an Audit Plan that is clear and transparent about your audit goals and your expectations. You may also want to start off each new relationship within an organization with a meeting that states your auditing style, reviews the audit process, outlines when they can expect reports and final documents, and how you will present findings. By clearing up any initial questions or concerns a client or auditee may have from the beginning of the process, you can foster a relationship of trust and respect.

Summary

Keep your word…. it takes a strong character to keep your word, even more so when someone treats you poorly.  Do not let biases or circumstances outside of the client’s control affect what you promised. If the need occurs, be honest and ask for their understanding, but deliver what you promised within a reasonable timeframe. Delivering on what you promised shows integrity and trustworthiness. Not delivering on promises showcases a lack of organization, time management skills, and a personal lack of ethics. Keeping your word is one of the smallest yet most impactful things you can do to build trust in your audit. If you want to establish a solid reputation you must deliver on your promises.

Keep Commitments

When you make a commitment you create hope, and when you keep it you create trust. An ethical auditor stays loyal to what they promise to deliver. Nothing in the world says more about your work ethic than your commitment to your work. Stay true to your objectives, your schedule, and your timelines and you will reap the benefits of happy customers.

Pay Attention the Environment

To be at the top of your game you must be vigilant and observant and must have a tight grip on your environment. Sometimes the answer is right there in front of your eyes, all you must do is pay attention and heed what you perceive. As an auditor, this may be second nature within an audit, but this also applies to auditing yourself, your shortcomings, and your ethical practices within your own work. Hold yourself to the same standard you audit against, evaluate your processes, your review processes, and your improvement needs and objectives. You may have been doing this for years, and you may have found the perfect way to do things, but change is the only constant, and there is always room to grow, even within yourself.