ISO 14001 online: certificate without an on-site audit

The whole route runs in a browser. There is no auditor visit and no appointment to arrange. Five steps take you from the first question to a certificate you can send to a customer.

1. 01

   Start the self-assessment

   It is free and needs no registration. You work through 34 yes/no questions on your environmental management.

2. 02

   Answer against your real system

   Every answer should match what your company actually does and can show. Passing needs yes on all 14 mandatory questions and at least 14 yes among the other 20.

3. 03

   Pay online

   Once you have passed, you pay by the online checkout. You do not need an account to buy.

4. 04

   Receive the certificate

   SICE reviews every assessment before the certificate is issued. You receive the PDF within 4 hours of passing and payment.

5. 05

   Share the verification link

   Each certificate has a number and a QR code. Both lead to a public verification page.

• Start the free self-assessment
• How Zertify works

The self-assessment does not build your environmental management system. It confirms one that already exists. If the work behind the questions is done, answering takes little time. If not, do that work first.

Environmental aspects and impacts

A list of where you use energy, materials and water, and where emissions and waste arise at each site.

Compliance obligations

The laws and permits that apply to your operation, with a named person responsible for each.

Environmental policy

A written policy approved by management, with a commitment to improve.

Objectives and actions

Environmental targets, each with an owner, a deadline and a planned action.

Emergency preparedness

A defined response for environmental incidents such as a spill or a fire on site.

Monitoring and reporting

Figures you track, for example consumption and waste volumes, and a regular review by management.

The 34 questions are split into two groups. The first group covers requirements that the standard itself makes mandatory. The second group covers further practice that a working system normally shows.

With the classic route, a certification body quotes for your company, schedules audit days and sends an auditor to your sites. Your staff are tied up for those days, and the date depends on the auditor's calendar. The online route removes the visit and the scheduling.

Check one thing before you choose: whether your customer or tender accepts a certificate based on an online self-assessment. Your purchasing contact can answer that in one email.

• Certification without an on-site audit
• Compare the certification routes
• What certification costs

Zertify issues the ISO 14001:2015 certificate through G6 Agency AG, under licence from SICE. The price is 699 CHF (699 EUR) in the first year, then 469 CHF (469 EUR) per year including the yearly online re-audit. The certificate is valid for 3 years.

The fee is an automatic yearly subscription. You cancel at any time in your customer account, effective at the end of the current year, and the certificate ends with the paid year. Customers in Switzerland and Liechtenstein pay prices that include 8.1% VAT. If you certify against several standards, you get 20% off for two and 30% off for three or more, also on the yearly fee.

• ISO 14001 standard page
• Pricing
• Start the self-assessment

Attach the PDF to a supplier questionnaire, a quote or a tender. A buyer who wants proof scans the QR code or enters the certificate number on the verification page. No phone call to your office is needed.

ISO 14001 is most often requested in manufacturing, logistics and transport, construction, energy supply and waste management, and by any company with high resource consumption. Each year a short online re-audit confirms that the system still runs. Smaller companies find the same logic in our guide for small and medium businesses.

• ISO for small and medium businesses