Practical Guidance for ISO 50001 Implementation

With helpful information to prepare you for certification

Energy comes in many forms including electricity, gas,
oil and steam and is a resource used by organizations
worldwide. Although energy is becoming increasingly
more expensive as the Earths non-renewable resources
are used up, the good news is that reducing your
energy consumption will not only reduce your costs,
itll also reduce your carbon footprint and help reduce
your environmental impacts. It also reduces your
reliance on others to provide the energy you need to
operate, hence reducing the risk to your organization.
Energy management is, therefore, quickly becoming one of the
most fundamental areas of focus across all business sectors
worldwide.
The new international energy management standard, ISO 50001
was issued on 15 June 2011, and as with other ISO standards,
its based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle, which allows easy
integration with your existing systems.
But, how do you know if ISO 50001 is
right for your business?
This article provides practical advice and guidance for those
intending to implement an energy management system (EnMS)
and those considering ISO 50001 certification.
This article was written by Lead Assessor, Carolyn Campbell. She
has worked for LRQA for nine years, assessing a wide variety of
companies against ISO 14001, and has more recently been
involved with the development of LRQAs assessment procedures
and services for ISO 50001.
Why is ISO 50001 good for you?
Implementing an energy management system certified to ISO
50001 aids in the reduction of your energy consumption through
a structured approach to monitoring your energy use, identifying
areas for improvement and then implementing action plans to
improve your energy performance. Stakeholder and employee
engagement are a key part of the system requirements to ensure
ongoing effectiveness. And, certification to ISO 50001 enables
you to demonstrate your commitment to your stakeholders for
improving your energy performance and minimizing your impact
on the environment.
Why consider ISO 50001 when ISO 14001
already exists?
ISO 50001 has been designed solely for the management of
energy and includes a number of requirements not covered by
ISO 14001. Although energy is included as an aspect in the
majority of organizations ISO 14001 environmental management
systems, no particular emphasis is shown to energy within ISO
14001, and it is often overlooked with organizations
concentrating on the more obvious environmental aspects, such
as chemicals and waste.
Implementing an energy management system certified to ISO
50001 includes the need to establish baseline(s) of energy usage
and energy performance indicators as well as the usual objectives
and targets which exist within an environmental management
system. There are also specific clauses relating to design
(covering facilities and production lines, etc) and procurement,
including specifying energy purchasing requirements.
By Carolyn Campbell, Lead Assessor and ISO 50001 Expert at LRQA

By actively considering energy specifications, organizations are
encouraged to not only consider where their current energy is
from, and any impacts or risks associated with that, but also
where their energy could come from, such as renewable and on-
site sources.
Although organizations generally recognize that energy is a
significant cost and an area where improvements could be made,
it is often neglected during the purchasing and design decisions.
So, opportunities for ongoing energy efficiency improvements
and financial savings are often missed. ISO 50001 specifically
highlights these areas, so your energy management system will
ensure that these opportunities are investigated and
improvements realized.
Before you start implementing
Prior to establishing an energy management system you will
need to gather background data on your energy usage and
consumption so that you can determine your energy baseline(s).
Without this information, you wont be able to complete the
requirements of the energy planning section of ISO 50001.
Some energy baselines can be obtained online from your
suppliers, such as electricity for those with half hourly meters.
Where installed, automatic meter readings are also available,
with larger organizations often installing these due to their
Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) requirements. For other
baselines, the data can be logged using manual readings for
electricity and gas usage, usually taking readings weekly or
monthly depending on the usage level. Please note, the use of
utility bills can cause problems for baseline data due to estimated
readings and varying numbers of days covered in each bill period.
Baselines can also be established for other forms of energy by
using invoices from suppliers or fuel card data if measuring diesel
usage.
4.1 General requirements
As the starting point of the standard, this clause requires your
organization to establish, implement, maintain and improve an
energy management system (EnMS). You must ensure your
system is documented where it is a requirement within ISO
50001.
One of the first things you need to decide as an organization is
the extent of your system, i.e. its scope and boundaries.
Remember, the definitions for these are given in the standard
(boundaries are the physical or site limits and/or organizational
limits as defined by the organization whereas the scope is the
extent of activities, facilities and decisions that the organization
addresses through an EnMS, which can include several
boundaries). By setting a clear scope and boundaries, youll
enable everyone to understand the coverage of your system.
The final part of 4.1 requires you to determine how you will
meet the requirements of ISO 50001; in other words, planning
what you are going to do. Organizations plan in different ways,
but typical examples of a system establishment plan include the
use of project management systems, simple flow diagrams or
actions from a meeting.
Reducing your energy consumption
will not only reduce your costs, itll
also reduce your carbon footprint
and help reduce your environment
impacts.
4.2 Management Responsibility
ISO 50001 clearly states the requirements for both top
management (4.2.1) and the management representative (4.2.2).
These two clauses go into much more detail than other standards
such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 to ensure a consistent approach
across organizations and that the necessary commitments are in
place for an effective system.
To meet these requirements, you need to first agree these
commitments (as stated in points a to j in clause 4.2.1) with your
top management and make sure they can be demonstrated once
your system is established.
A management representative will need to be appointed by top
management. This should be a person who has the appropriate
skills and competence to carry out the required tasks. Their role
should be clearly defined to cover points a to h in clause 4.2.2.
Again, your system should be able to demonstrate that these
commitments are in place. Although not specified as
documented requirements within the standard, documents such
as job descriptions, meeting minutes and procedures often form
part of the evidence within a system to demonstrate that these
requirements are being met.
Clause 4.2.1 also includes a requirement for top management to
approve the formation of an energy management team. Clause
4.2.2 then includes the requirement for the management
representative to identify a person(s) to work with them to
support energy management activities. When deciding on your
team, youll need to take into account the size and complexity of
your organization. For smaller organizations, the team may
consist of one person, such as the management representative.
4.3 Energy Policy
As with all the common management system standards, ISO
50001 requires your organization to have an energy policy. This
needs to be defined by your top management and must be
appropriate to the nature and scale of your organizations energy
use and consumption.
There are certain commitments which you need to clearly state
within your energy policy. These are:
A commitment to continual improvement in energy
performance
A commitment to ensure the availability of information and
of necessary resources to achieve objectives and targets
A commitment to comply with applicable legal and other
requirements to which the organization subscribes related to
its energy use, consumption and efficiency
In addition to these commitments, the policy also has to meet
the other requirements as defined in points a to h of clause 4.3.
These include the need to ensure it supports the purchase of
energy efficient products and services, and design for energy
performance improvement. This links well to the later clauses on
design (4.5.6) and procurement (4.5.7).
Your policy will need to be documented and communicated to all
levels within the organization. Unlike other common standards,
you can decide whether or not to make the policy available
externally.
The energy policy is the cornerstone of your system and should
clearly lay out your commitments, aims and expectations for your
energy management system.
The energy policy is the cornerstone
of your system and should clearly
lay out your commitments, aims
and expectations.
4.4 Energy Planning
Now that the basis has been established for your system, we
move onto the main planning part of the standard. You now
need to conduct and document an energy planning process. This
needs to be consistent with your policy requirements and drive
continual improvement in your energy performance. It also needs
to involve a review of your activities that can affect your energy
performance (similar to an environmental aspect assessment in
ISO 14001).
Legal and other requirements applicable to your energy use,
consumption and efficiency need to be identified (clause 4.4.2).
These may well form part of a current EMS as ISO 14001 has a
similar clause to identify applicable environmental legal and other
requirements and as energy is generally treated as an
environmental aspect there is no need to repeat the work. For
the majority of organizations, this is usually demonstrated
through the introduction of a list, or register, of applicable legal
and other requirements. Although the standard does not require
this to be documented, it is often the easiest way to demonstrate
that you have identified all the necessary requirements. Once
identified you need to ensure that your organization has
implemented any necessary requirements to make sure you are
compliant.
The next stage is to conduct your energy review (clause 4.4.3).
This requires your organization to analyze your energy use and
consumption based on measurement and other data, i.e. identify
current energy sources and evaluate past and present energy use
and consumption.
Once this analysis is complete, you then need to use the output
to identify the areas of significant energy use (facilities,
equipment, systems, processes and personnel). Any applicable
variables for these significant energy uses should also be
identified, such as temperature or production levels. You then
need to determine the current energy performance for significant
energy uses and estimate your future energy use and
consumption.
Finally, your organization is required to identify, prioritize and
record opportunities for improving energy performance. These
opportunities can include your energy sources, so you may want
to consider potential renewable energy opportunities such as
wind or solar.
An energy baseline(s) needs to be established using the
information from the initial energy review. These should cover a
time period suitable for your organization. The amount of energy
baseline(s) depends upon the size and complexity of your
organization and how far you want to split up your energy use
and consumption for monitoring of your energy performance.
These baselines will be used to determine any improvements in
energy performance as your system develops. Going forward,
they need to be altered as required (i.e., due to major changes to
processes, operational patterns or energy systems).
ISO 50001 requires your organization
to ensure that any person(s) working
with energy usage on its behalf are
competent on the basis of appropriate
education, training, skills or experience.
Energy performance indicators (EnPIs) must then be set which are
appropriate for monitoring and measuring your energy
performance. You will also need to record your methodology for
determining and updating these EnPIs. They will need to be
reviewed and compared against your energy baseline(s) as
appropriate to allow you to demonstrate improvement. Try to set
these as stretching but realistic levels so they are neither too
easily met, nor impractical to achieve.
As with other management systems, the final part of planning
your system, is to set objectives and targets. Within ISO 50001
requirements, there also needs to be documented action plans
established, implemented and maintained to show how they will
be achieved. The action plans should include allocation of
responsibilities, timescales and statements on how any energy
performance improvement will be verified and the method of
verifying the results.
4.5 Implementation and Operation
Moving on to the do part of the standard, ISO 50001 requires
your organization to use the action plans and other outputs form
the planning process to implement and operate your system.
Again, as with other standards, ISO 50001 requires your
organization to ensure that any person(s) working with energy
usage on its behalf (including employees, agency workers and
contractors) are competent on the basis of appropriate
education, training, skills or experience. This clause (4.5.2) has
specific requirements that any person working for or on behalf of
your organization must be aware of, as stated in points a to d
and covering areas such as: importance of conformity with the
energy policy and EnMS requirements, their roles and
responsibilities, the benefits of improved energy performance,
and the impact of their activities. The purpose of these
requirements is to ensure that everyone plays an active part in
energy management and is aware of their role and the potential
benefits of good energy performance. You will also need to
ensure that appropriate records are maintained.
Internal communications should be used to make people aware
of your energy performance and so that everyone working for, or
on your behalf, has the ability to make comments or suggest
improvements to the EnMS. An example of this could be
improvement suggestion cards and boxes, or a section on an
intranet site providing its available to everyone. For external
communications, your organization needs to decide whether to
communicate externally about your energy policy, EnMS and
energy performance. ISO 50001 is different to other
management system standards in that it does not require you to
make your energy policy publicly available. This decision needs to
be documented and a method established and implemented if
the decision is to communicate.
Clause 4.5.4.1 lists the documentation requirements for ISO
50001. These are the minimum that are required. The list
includes part e which simply states other documents determined
by the organization to be necessary, so effectively everything
you think would be beneficial to document on top of the
specified documents.
The clause related to document control (4.5.4.2) is similar to
other management system standards such as ISO 9001, ISO
14001 and OHSAS 18001. This requires you to have a process in
place to ensure that among other requirements, documents are
controlled and changes identified.
Similar to ISO 14001 requirements, ISO 50001 includes a clause
(4.5.5) covering operational control. However, the areas of design
and procurement are covered in separate clauses within ISO
50001, giving them more prominence and detailed requirements
than in ISO 14001. The operational control clause requires your
organization to identify and plan your operations and
maintenance activities which are related to your significant
energy uses to ensure they are carried out under specified
conditions. Examples of maintenance activities would be to
minimize compressed air leaks, maintain steam traps and the set
up and servicing of boilers. There is no separate clause for
emergency preparedness in ISO 50001, but a note within the
operational control clause states organizations may chose to
include energy performance in determining how they will react
to emergency situations.
The design clause (4.5.6) refers to the design of new, modified
and renovated facilities, equipment, systems and processes that
can have a significant impact on your energy performance. It also
looks at how your organization considers energy performance
improvement opportunities when carrying out these design
activities. It does not cover design of your products.
Where appropriate, you need to incorporate the results of an
energy performance evaluation into the specification, design and
procurement activities of the relevant project(s) and keep records
of the design activity.
Your organization has to inform suppliers that procurement is
partly evaluated on the basis of energy performance when
procuring energy services, products and equipment that have, or
can have, an impact on significant energy use. You also need to
establish and implement criteria for assessing energy use,
consumption and efficiency over the planned or expected
operating lifetime when procuring energy using products,
equipment and services which are expected to have a significant
impact on your organizations energy performance. Energy
purchasing specifications need to be defined and documented.
The guidance part of ISO 50001 states that you can use the
specification proposed by an energy supplier for this
requirement. A good example of a specification used includes
organizations choosing to specify the use of renewable sources
only for their electricity supply rather than from any fossil fuel
sources.
Each organization is unique and you
need to find what works well for your
organizations energy management.

4.6 Checking
Progressing onto the checking part of the standard, clause 4.6.1
requires your organization to monitor, measure and analyze the
key characteristics of your operations that determine energy
performance. As a minimum, these key characteristics must
include those listed in parts a to e of this clause, including EnPIs
and effectiveness of action plans. The results must be recorded,
and you will also need to define and implement an energy
measurement plan.
The level of measurement will vary for each organization and
could range from reading utility meters up to complete software
application systems, consolidating data inputs and delivering
automatic analysis. The measurement level should be
appropriate to the size and complexity of your organization. You
also need to make sure that the data you use is accurate and
repeatable, so youll need to calibrate or otherwise verify the
monitoring and measurement equipment used. Any significant
deviations in energy performance (such as unexpected spikes in
usage) should be investigated and responded to, and there is a
need to keep appropriate records.
As with ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 there is a need to evaluate
compliance with legal and other requirements (clause 4.6.2), this
time focusing on energy. As inline with the requirements of other
standards, you will need to plan and carry out internal audits to
ensure that your system remains effective (clause 4.6.3). Also you
are required to manage non-conformities, correction, corrective
actions and preventive actions (clause 4.6.4).
The final clause in this section of the standard covers the control
of records (4.6.5). This is similar to the requirements within other
management system standards as records need to be established
and maintained in a way that they remain legible, identifiable
and traceable to the relevant activity.
4.7 Management Review
This clause is similar to the management review requirements
within other common management system standards such as ISO
9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001. The areas to be included as
inputs to the review are clearly described within the standard,
along with the expected outputs.
Management review is an essential part of an effective system. It
allows top management to step back and take an overall look at
your system, not only reviewing if it meets the requirements of
the standard and legal and other requirements, but also whether
it is suitable for your organization and is delivering what you
want from your EnMS. Although it is not specified what format
management review should take, the majority of organizations
use meetings to review their system to allow discussion and any
necessary actions to be agreed. The frequency of management
reviews varies from company to company, normally ranging from
monthly to annually. When first establishing your system, and
while your system remains immature, you should expect to have
more frequent management reviews, often monthly or quarterly.
As the system matures, the time frames often move out for full
reviews, but more frequent reviews remain necessary for some
elements, such as energy performance, audit results and results
from the evaluation of compliance with legal and other
requirements.
Many organizations use some form of existing management
meetings for these interim management reviews. For your EnMS
your energy team could be used, with reports going to top
management for review if top management isnt part of the
energy team.
Each organization is unique and you need to find what works
well for your organizations energy management.
For questions or information on LRQA ISO 50001 training or certification services, or to discuss your energy
management system, contact us at inquiries-usa@lrqa.com or visit www.lrqausa.com/ISO-50001.
For information on LRQA training, www.lrqausa.com/courses
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