A compliance obligation is the combination of the legal requirements an organization is required to meet in its environmental management system and the other requirements it voluntarily commits to meet.
Two sources
- Legal requirements: Legislation, permits, licences, administrative decisions
- Other requirements: Customer contracts, industry agreements, voluntary commitments, corporate policies, agreements with interested parties
The second group is voluntary, but once adopted it becomes binding and is evaluated the same way in an audit.
Compliance evaluation
The organization must evaluate at planned intervals whether it is meeting its compliance obligations and keep records of the results. This evaluation is the evidence of the responsibility to know one’s compliance status and is one of the inputs to management review.
The difficulty in practice
Legislation changes frequently. A defined process is needed to keep the compliance obligation inventory up to date, track changes and reflect their effects in the system.
The most common finding in audits is an inventory that was prepared once and never updated, leaving the latest legislative changes out.
Related training: ISO 14001:2026 transition training — building and monitoring the compliance obligation inventory and conducting the compliance evaluation are covered.