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The next step is to identify, evaluate, and prioritize the significant environmental impacts associated with the environmental aspects of the activities, products, or services. The standard, in Clause 4.2.1, emphasizes that it is aspects associated with significant impacts that "are considered in setting its environmental objectives." Impacts are defined in ISO 14001 as "any change to the environment, whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from an organization's activities, products, and services." Aspects are activities that interact with the environment; impacts are the change in the environment resulting from that interaction. According to ISO 14004, the relationship is cause and effect. The aspect is the cause, such as an air emission; the effect is the environmental impact, such as the level of the emission in the environment of the plant.
The guidance document suggests a four-step procedure for identifying aspects and impacts:
Annex A to ISO 14001 points out that the process of identifying environmental impacts should consider normal Operating conditions as well as foreseeable emergency situations. The ISO 14004 guidance document also indicates that business concerns play a role in evaluating the significance of impacts and the extent to which they can be controlled.
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