What is Accreditation?

Accreditation is initial evaluation and periodic review of the competence of Certifying Bodies or EMS Auditors or Training Bodies for EMS Auditors.

What is Certification?

Certification is initial evaluation and periodic review of an organisation’s EMS to determine whether it conforms to the ISO 14001 Standard. In general, the terms of certification and EMS audit are used interchangeably.

How does ISO 14001 Certification Scheme Operate?

The accreditation and certification mechanism is illustrated in Figure 2. As shown in Figure 2, a Government agency designates or recognises an Accreditation Body. There may be a single Accreditation Body for both certifying agencies and auditors or two different bodies for each of them. The Accreditation Body thus established, accredits the certifying bodies as per the standard norms and these certifying bodies, in turn, audit and grant ISO 14001 certification to the enterprises.

How the Scheme is functioning in India?

In India, so far no Accreditation Body has been established and the scheme is operating with bottom half as shown in Figure 3.

How does an Enterprise get an ISO 14001 Certification?

To get ISO 14001 certification, an enterprise has to establish and maintain EMS as per ISO 14001 standard. Once, EMS is established and is in operation for sometime say six months, then the enterprise can approach to a certifying agency for audit and certification. After auditing, the certifying agency grants the certificate, if it is satisfied that the enterprise is conforming to the requirements of ISO 14001 standard. The enterprises, which do not have expertise to establish EMS, seek the services of a consultant to establish and maintain EMS including conducting of awareness programmes, training, documentation etc. Therefore, the steps needed by an enterprise to get ISO 14001 certification is illustrated by a flow diagram in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Steps needed by an Enterprise to get ISO 14001

Is it necessary for an organisation to get ISO 14001 certification through a certifying agency?

Not necessarily. As per ISO 14001 standard, an organisation is free to either self certify it or get it certified from a certifying body. To give credibility to ISO 14001 certification, the organisations prefers to get it from independent certifying agency. Which are the Certifying Agencies Operating in India? A number of certification bodies accredited from other countries are operating in India. A list of certifying bodies operating in India is given in Table 3. The only exception is Bureau of India Standard (BIS), which is operating under BIS Act, 1986 by amending it suitably in 1997.

Table 3: EMS Certifying Agencies Operating in India _____________________________________  > Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)  > Det Norske (DNV)  > Korea Management Association Quality Assurance (KMAQA)  > Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance (LRQA)  > International Certifications Limited (ICL)  > KPMG Quality Registrar  > Bureau Veritas Quality International (BVQI)  > TUV India Private Limited  > Quality Assurance Services (BSI)  > AJAEQS Certification  services Pvt. Ltd.  > Standardisation, Testing & Quality Certification(STQC)

Whether the Certificate issued in one country is recognised in other countries?

Yes, because the Accreditation Bodies of different countries mutually recognise the Certifying Bodies accredited by each other. Moreover, to have uniform accreditation criteria for both Accreditation procedures, ISO has developed Criteria for both Accreditation Bodies as well as Certifying Bodies.