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As with any management system, the ISO 14001 standard, in Clause 4.3.1, requires the organization to: Define, document, and clearly communicate roles, responsibilities, and authorities to implement the EMS. Provide human, financial, and technical resources essential to doing so. To achieve this, top management must appoint a "specific manage men t representative(s) who, irrespective of other responsibilities" must ensure that the program is being maintained and implemented and is responsible for reporting on the performance of the EMS to top management. A key theme implied in ISO 14001 is that environmental performance is not just the environmental manager's responsibility. Environmental responsibilities can extend beyond the traditional environmental areas of the organization. Managers in every area are responsible for ensuring compliance to the EMS and for assigning responsibilities to employees whose work is relevant to the environmental objectives.
ISO 14001 implementation invites cultural change. For the first time, sales and marketing personnel may be dealing with issues related to product marketing. The research and development department may start taking environmental considerations into account when developing product designs. The purchasing department may take a closer look at their supplier network and at the types of products and services they buy. Just as quality evolved from being solely the inspector's job in an organization, an EMS requires the same shift in attitude to ensure that environmental performance is everyone's responsibility.
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