ISO 14001 regulatory watch, our tips for optimizing it

This article explains the ISO 14001 regulatory watch, a process for identifying and updating legal and other obligations that are essential to a company's compliance and long-term viability.

Marie Faucon
EHS Consultant
Update : 
12.09.2025
Publication: 
09.10.2020
Contents
Example H2
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ISO 14001 calls on companies to identify the requirements applicable to their activities, and to update this information regularly. This updating process is commonly referred to as ISO 14001 Regulatory Watch. The ISO 14001 regulatory watch obligation is also included in the ISO 45001, ISO 50001 and MASE standards.

ISO 14001 requirements explained

ISO 14001 requires organizations (companies, local authorities, etc.) to identify the requirements applicable to their environmental aspects. In concrete terms, for a company, this means listing the environmental texts applicable to its activities in the broadest sense, and extracting the requirements that concern it. By "requirement", we mean the parts of the text (chapters, articles, sentence of an article, etc.) which constitute an obligation to be complied with.

ISO 14001 even recommends using the term "conformity obligations" instead of the notion of requirements and other requirements found in ISO 45001.

These compliance obligations may derive from legal requirements, such as the French Environmental Code, or from voluntary requirements, such as environmental performance commitments to local residents, associations or customers.

ISO 14001 regulatory watch: implementation

In line with the scope of the environmental management system, the following procedure should be followed:

Step 1: draw up a list of applicable texts and identify the requirements to be met

To carry out this work, it is necessary to list the applicable texts with regard to activities, equipment and products. Precise knowledge of the site is essential for quality work. For establishments subject to ICPE legislation, particular attention must be paid to identifying the legal texts. Once the applicable texts have been collected, a detailed analysis must be carried out to extract/identify the really applicable requirements.

Step 2: ISO 14001 regulatory watch

Monitoring consists of updating the information gathered in step 1, in line with regulatory changes, voluntary commitments and the company's activities. To carry out this operation, it is necessary to access a significant number of monitoring sources. For example, Legifrance, the Bulletins officiels of the French Ministry of Ecological Transition and their websites should be exploited. Generally speaking, in the field of environmental protection and preservation (water, air, soil, waste, noise, ICPE, biodiversity, etc.), it is necessary to consult around twenty monitoring sources.

We advise you to check daily, or at least weekly, watch sources such as the Journal Officiel to select applicable texts. This action should enable you to identify the major texts that are immediately applicable. The next phase, which consists of an in-depth analysis of the texts and their detailed impact on your site, can be carried out on a monthly or even quarterly basis.

Given the sheer volume of data to be handled, more and more companies are turning to tools and/or services to make the process more efficient and reliable. They provide permanent access to up-to-date information, commented on by specialists.

Regulatory watch: key points for effective implementation

  • Identifying sources of intelligence: this preliminary work is essential and must be carried out rigorously, otherwise the company may fail to identify a high-stakes compliance obligation. The consequences in terms of image or financial impact can be significant.
  • Knowledge of the company's activities, products and services: monitoring must be adapted to the company's context and specificities. It is important to identify which requirements apply immediately, and which legal obligations apply at a later date.
  • Data access: given the number of applicable requirements to be identified and kept up to date. On average, in the field of ISO14001, there are around 1,000 requirements (compliance obligations) that a company must meet, and almost 20% of these requirements change every year. Reliable, robust tools are needed to manage this data effectively.
  • Organization: regulatory monitoring requires legal and technical skills. It must be carried out rigorously and at regular intervals. Identifying "draft" texts, whether at European or national level, is also a factor that companies should not overlook.
  • Text analysis: this phase is essential, and must be carried out with care. This analysis must make it possible to :
      • understand the meaning of regulations in the case of legislative texts,
      • identify concrete impacts for the company,
      • identify immediate actions to be taken to achieve compliance, or strategic orientations to be considered.
  • The choice of external solutions: when using software and/or external service providers, it is essential to have direct access to the sources (texts), and thus to be able to consult the original legal obligation in order to avoid certain inaccuracies, or perfectible interpretations.

To find out more about ISO 14001 / ISO 45001 / ISO 50001 regulatory monitoring, we invite you to consult our white paper " How to carry out your EHS regulatory monitoring properly?"

ISO 45001: standard for health and safety management systems
MASE: Manuel d'Amélioration Sécurité Entreprise (Company Safety Improvement Manual)
ICPE: Installations Classées pour la Protection de l'Environnement (Classified Installations for Environmental Protection)

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