Clause 6 of ISO 14001 is about planning the Environmental Management System. In plain English, it asks the organisation to understand its environmental aspects, compliance obligations, risks and opportunities, then plan actions, objectives and changes in a controlled way.
Clause 6 is where the organisation moves from understanding its context to deciding what it needs to do.
It asks the organisation to plan how it will address:
The purpose is not planning for the sake of paperwork. The purpose is to ensure the organisation makes sensible decisions before environmental problems occur, obligations are missed, opportunities are wasted or changes create unintended consequences.
A weak EMS often fails at the planning stage.
If an organisation does not properly identify its environmental aspects, understand its compliance obligations, evaluate risks and opportunities, or set meaningful objectives, the rest of the EMS becomes shaky.
Clause 6 helps the organisation answer practical questions such as:
Clause 6 sits in the “Plan” part of Plan–Do–Check–Act.
It takes information from:
It then feeds into:
Auditors should see Clause 6 as the planning engine of the EMS.
Clause 6.1 asks the organisation to identify matters that need to be addressed so the EMS can achieve its intended outcomes, prevent or reduce undesired effects, and support continual improvement.
These matters include:
In simple terms, the organisation should not merely identify environmental issues. It should decide what needs to be done about them.
Clause 6.1.1 sets the foundation for EMS planning.
The organisation should consider the issues and requirements identified in Clause 4 and determine the risks and opportunities that need to be addressed.
This helps ensure the EMS can:
Auditors should check whether planning is connected to real context and real EMS priorities, not just a generic risk register.
Clause 6.1.2 requires the organisation to identify the environmental aspects of its activities, products and services, and determine which aspects can have significant environmental impacts.
This includes considering:
This is one of the most important parts of ISO 14001. If the organisation gets aspects and impacts wrong, its controls, objectives, monitoring and audit programme may also be misdirected.
Read the detailed SQMC guide to environmental aspects and impacts.
Clause 6.1.3 requires the organisation to determine its compliance obligations and understand how they apply to its environmental aspects.
Compliance obligations may include:
The key point is that the organisation must understand what it has to do, what it has agreed to do, and how those obligations affect the EMS.
Read the detailed SQMC guide to compliance obligations.
Clause 6.1.4 focuses attention on risks and opportunities that need to be addressed within the EMS.
These may arise from:
Risks are not only negative. Opportunities can include better environmental performance, improved efficiency, reduced waste, stronger compliance, better supplier control or improved reputation.
Read the detailed SQMC guide to risks and opportunities.
Clause 6.1.5 asks the organisation to plan actions to address significant environmental aspects, compliance obligations, and risks and opportunities.
This is where planning becomes practical. The organisation should decide:
Good planning actions are not vague wishes. They should be clear enough to implement and check.
Clause 6.2 requires the organisation to set environmental objectives at relevant functions and levels.
Environmental objectives should be consistent with the environmental policy, measurable where practicable, monitored, communicated and updated as appropriate.
When planning how to achieve objectives, the organisation should determine:
Strong objectives help turn the environmental policy into action.
Read the detailed SQMC guide to environmental objectives.
Clause 6.3 asks the organisation to plan changes that could affect the EMS.
Changes may include:
Planning changes helps prevent unintended environmental impacts, compliance failures or weakened controls.
Read the detailed SQMC guide to planning of changes.
Auditors look for evidence that the organisation has planned the EMS based on real environmental issues, obligations and risks.
Evidence may include:
Clause 6 should create a clear trail. Auditors should be able to follow the logic from aspect or obligation, to risk or opportunity, to planned action, to control, to monitoring, to evaluation and improvement.
“The organisation has an environmental risk register and an objective to reduce waste.”
This is weak if there is no clear link between aspects, impacts, compliance obligations, risks, opportunities, controls, actions and evaluation.
“The organisation has identified significant environmental aspects, linked them to compliance obligations and risks, planned controls and actions, set relevant objectives, monitored performance indicators, and reviewed whether the actions have improved environmental performance.”
This is stronger because it shows planning working as part of a connected EMS.
A warehouse and distribution company identifies several environmental aspects, including fuel use, packaging waste, electricity consumption, spill risks during loading, and waste segregation failures.
It then determines:
An auditor could test Clause 6 by following one aspect, such as packaging waste, through planning, controls, communication, monitoring, objectives and improvement.
An office-based organisation identifies environmental aspects such as electricity use, business travel, paper consumption, IT equipment disposal, procurement decisions and home-working arrangements.
Its planning may include:
This shows that Clause 6 should be proportionate to the organisation’s environmental context.
This page is part of SQMC’s ISO 14001:2026 guidance library for auditors, managers and QHSE professionals.
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