ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management
ISO 14001 for service companies
Consultancies, agencies, IT providers, cleaning and facility firms are increasingly asked for proof of environmental management in tenders and supplier questionnaires. ISO 14001:2015 provides that proof. With Zertify you answer a self-assessment online and receive a verifiable certificate within 4 hours after passing and payment.
01: Demand
Why do customers and tenders ask service companies for ISO 14001?
A service company has no chimney and no production hall, so environmental management can look like someone else's topic. Purchasing departments do not see it that way. Supplier questionnaires from larger customers ask for an environmental policy, a named person responsible and evidence that the system is checked. A certificate answers all three in one line.
Some tenders award points for environmental management, and an ISO 14001 certificate is the quickest document to attach. Partners who must report on their own supply chain need the same from you, because their customer audit will ask how suppliers manage their impact.
Read the wording of the tender or questionnaire before you order. If it explicitly demands an on-site audit by a certification body, an online certificate will not satisfy that line. If it asks for a valid ISO 14001 certificate that can be verified, it will.
02: Scope
Which environmental aspects does a service company have?
ISO 14001:2015 asks you to identify where your activities touch the environment. In a service business the list is shorter than in a factory, but it is not empty.
- Business travel and vehicles
- Client visits by car, flights to meetings, service vans for technicians. Fuel use and emissions are environmental aspects you can limit with travel rules or video meetings.
- Office energy and heating
- Electricity for lighting, cooling and equipment, plus heating of the premises. Rented space counts too, as far as you can influence use.
- IT hardware and electronic waste
- Laptops, phones, printers and servers: how they are bought, how long they are used, and where old devices go.
- Paper, printing and consumables
- Print runs for client reports, packaging of mailings, toner and office supplies.
- Cleaning agents and waste
- For cleaning and facility firms: chemicals, dosing, wastewater and sorting of waste collected on client sites.
- Subcontractors and suppliers
- Freelancers, couriers, hosting providers and caterers. You cannot control them fully, but you can ask and choose.
03: Requirements
How does a service company meet the key requirements?
The requirements are the same in every industry. What differs is the evidence you show for each one.
| Requirement | Example in a service company |
|---|---|
| Identify environmental aspects and impacts | A register of travel, office energy, IT equipment, paper and cleaning agents, each rated by the size of its impact. |
| Record compliance obligations | A list of the rules on waste disposal, chemicals or building use that apply to your premises, with the person who checks them. |
| Set an environmental policy | One page signed by management: fewer unnecessary trips, efficient equipment, waste sorted at every site. |
| Plan objectives and actions | Replace old printers, set a travel rule for internal meetings, switch the supplier of office paper. Each with an owner and a date. |
| Emergency preparedness | A spilled cleaning agent, a fire in the server room, water damage in the archive: who does what, and where the instructions are kept. |
| Monitor and report performance | A yearly look at energy bills, kilometres driven and paper orders, discussed at a management meeting and noted in the minutes. |
04: Preparation
How do you prepare in a small service company?
Environmental management belongs to management, not to a side office. In a small firm that means the owner or a managing director takes the lead, and the work fits into a few weeks of part-time effort.
Name one responsible person
Someone with authority to ask for figures and to decide on small changes.
Walk through premises and processes
Write down where energy, materials and water are used and where waste arises, from the reception desk to the vehicle yard.
List the rules that apply to you
Permits, waste rules and lease conditions. Note who checks each one and when.
Write the policy and set objectives
A short policy with a commitment to improve, and a few objectives you can actually reach this year.
Test one emergency case
Run through a spill or a fire alarm once and keep a note of what you learned.
Collect your figures
Energy bills, fuel receipts and paper orders give you a baseline to measure against.
With these points ready, the self-assessment takes little time to answer.
05: Zertify
How do you get ISO 14001 certified with Zertify?
The self-assessment for ISO 14001 has 34 yes/no questions. 14 of them are mandatory requirements of the standard and must all be answered yes. Among the other 20 questions you need at least 14 yes answers. The assessment is free and needs no registration. No account is needed to buy either.
Every assessment is reviewed by SICE, the Swiss Institute of Certification and Education. The certificate is issued by G6 Agency AG under licence from SICE, within 4 hours after you have passed and paid. There is no on-site audit. Each year a short online re-audit confirms that your system is still in place.
The price is CHF 699 (€699) in the first year, then CHF 469 (€469) per year including the online re-audit. The certificate is valid for 3 years. Billing is an automatic yearly subscription that you can cancel at any time in your customer account, effective at the end of the current year. If you cancel, the certificate ends with the paid year. If you certify a second standard, 20% is deducted, 30% from three standards, also on the yearly fee. Swiss and Liechtenstein customers pay prices that include 8.1% VAT.
06: Using it
Where do you use the certificate once you have it?
Attach the PDF to your tender documents and quote it in supplier questionnaires. Each certificate carries a number and a QR code. A purchasing department or an auditor scans the code and lands on the public verification page, so nobody needs to phone you to check it.
If a customer wants to know how the certificate was obtained, point them to the guide on certification without an on-site audit. If they ask about cost, the cost guide sets the online route next to the classic route with an on-site audit by a certification body.
07: FAQ
Questions about ISO 14001 for service companies
08: Guide
Related pages
Find out whether your company passes
Answer the 34 questions for ISO 14001 and see at once which requirements are already in place.
Free and without registration.