ISO 14063:2020 pdf download – Environmental management – Environmental communication – Guidelines and examples
1 Scope
This document gives guidelines to organizations for general principles, policy, strategy and activities relating to both internal and external environmental communication. It uses proven and well-established approaches for communication, adapted to the specific conditions that exist in environmental communication. It is applicable to all organizations regardless of their size, type, location, structure, activities, products and services, and whether or not they have an environmental management system in place. It can be used in combination with any of the ISO 14000 family of standards, or on its own. NOTE 1 A reference table to the ISO 14000 family is provided in Annex A. NOTE 2 ISO 14020, ISO 14021, ISO 14024, ISO 14025 and ISO 14026 provide specific environmental communication tools and guidance relating to product labels and declarations.
3.1 environmental communication
process that an organization (3.4) conducts to provide and obtain information, and to engage in dialogue with internal and external interested parties (3.5) to encourage a shared understanding on environmental issues, aspects and performance
3.2 environmental communication policy
overall intentions and directions of an organization (3.4) related to its environmental communication (3.1) as formally expressed by top management Note 1 to entry: The environmental communication policy can be a separate policy or part of other policies within the organization.
3.3 environmental communication strategy
organization’s (3.4) framework for implementing its environmental communication policy (3.2) and for the setting of environmental communication objectives (3.7)
3.4 organization
person or group of people that has its own functions with responsibilities, authorities and relationships to achieve its objectives Note 1 to entry: The concept of organization includes, but is not limited to, sole-trader, company, corporation, firm, enterprise, authority, partnership, charity or institution, or part or combination thereof, whether incorporated or not, public or private. [SOURCE: ISO 14001:2015, 3.1.4]
5.2 Developing the policy
In developing the policy, those responsible for environmental management within the organization should interact and engage with those responsible for communication to ensure that the policy is coherent and consistent with other principles, policies and the values of the organization. Subsequently, all levels of management should implement the policy and provide input for the formulation and modification of the policy. An environmental communication policy does not need to be detailed but should convey to interested parties the importance that the organization places on communication about environmental issues, environmental aspects and their associated impacts, and environmental performance. An organization’s vision, mission, values and culture can play a fundamental role in developing an environmental communication policy. The organization should make a commitment in the policy to reflect local, regional and/or national cultural characteristics in its environmental communication activities, where applicable.
6.1 General considerations
The organization’s management should develop a strategy to implement its environmental communication policy. The strategy can include environmental communication objectives, identification of interested parties, an indication of when and what it plans to communicate, and a management commitment to allocate adequate resources. An organization should clarify what is possible, taking into account its resources so that it can best and most realistically meet the expectations of interested parties. Consideration should be given to the fact that environmental communication is part of the organization’s environmental activities in general and can be aligned with other elements of management systems, policies, strategies or relevant activities.