Pass the PECB ISO 14001 ISO-14001-Lead-Auditor Questions and answers with Dumpstech

Wash-it-up is an organisation that provides window cleaning services for the industrial sector. It has been certified to ISO 14001 for some time and has appointed a new EMS Manager. The audit plan during a surveillance audit includes the improvement actions and the auditor asks to see the most recent management review meeting minutes.

Which two statements would represent an input to the management review process?

A multi-level shopping centre is open every day to the public from 09:00–21:00 hours. During an external audit of the centre to ISO 14001, you establish that there are 40 vending machines that are permanently switched on. Thirty of them do not sell perishable foodstuffs. You also note that there are eight escalators in the complex that run constantly during public access. When asked about environmental performance improvement objectives, the Centre Manager says that there are plans to increase the natural daylight by installing more skylights thus saving on lighting costs, but the estimated budget for this has not yet been approved by the board.

You: I note that energy consumption is a significant environmental aspect in the centre. How do you mitigate the impacts of this?

EMS Manager: We try to reduce our energy costs by negotiating a better deal from the energy company. We are considering changing to one that only supplies electricity from renewable sources.

You: What steps have you taken to reduce overall consumption?

EMS Manager: We conducted awareness training for staff. For example, turning off lights in staff areas not being used.

You: I see that the escalators account for the highest usage of energy. Are there any objectives to try and reduce this?

EMS Manager: No, it would be too costly to change them.

You: How do you measure electricity consumption?

EMS Manager: We have meters installed in each floor of the centre. We take readings every hour and we plot the consumption graph for every staff shift.

You continue the interview and find that energy consumption has increased steadily over the past five years. Select the two statements that are true.

An oil organisation has a natural gas treatment plant on land crossed by several small rivers. On one particular day, after heavy rainfall for 48 hours, some of those rivers burst their banks and flooded the water treatment facilities of the plant. The oil-contaminated water reached some scarcely populated areas nearby.

Soon after, an internal audit was carried out to particularly analyse this event that was considered a nonconformity. There were no records of such heavy rainfall in the past 200 years.

Which three of the following actions are ' corrections ' ?

A large chemical organisation, CrackerPRO, has a plant located in a rural area surrounded by livestock farms. When cleaning several vessels 4–5 times per day, it releases water vapor with a strong acidic smell lasting for 10 minutes each time.

You are conducting a second-stage initial certification audit at the plant. When auditing the processes of assessing impacts and identifying environmental aspects with the Environmental Supervisor, you find that the emission of that acidic vapor has not been evaluated as a significant aspect. During further auditing, you learn that neighbouring farmers have made repeated complaints in the last 6 months about the acid smells and reported an increase in animals becoming sick as a result.

The Environmental Supervisor states that the farmers are looking for financial compensation from the company which their lawyers are resisting. She insists that no legal requirements have been broken and that all complaints have been rejected.

You raise a nonconformity against ISO 14001. Based on the scenario, select one of the options which would constitute an acceptable nonconformity.

You are leading a recertification audit of XM, a manufacturer of cosmetics products. After the initial certification, XM moved to another site.

After the opening meeting, you are visiting the new site with the production manager (PM). The dialogue is as follows:

You: It seems that you are doing some work in the right-hand corner of the site.

PM: Yes, when we moved to this site, there was a very old, three-stories high building; it was almost empty, and we decided to demolish it and to build a new office for the administrative personnel. DEMO services are doing the job, which is almost over.

You: Do you know what the old building was used for?

PM: I was told that it was a warehouse for chemical storage, including a laboratory and toilets for the personnel. It had also a chimney, I do not know what for.

You: Did you consider it necessary to refer to some parts of the EMS for this work?

PM: No, we were busy moving all equipment and materials to the new site, we did not have time to care about something that was going to disappear.

Which four audit trail issues would you follow?

Showitoff is an organisation specialising in the design and production of wall decorating materials for the domestic market. During an ISO 14001 certification audit of the site, the auditor comes across an open, walled area just outside the maintenance department. It contains various scraps of wood and metal as well as several rusty components. They are lying on an oily floor. When asked about it, the EMS Manager states that he presumes that the materials come from maintenance work.

The auditor interviews the Maintenance Manager in his department. He notes that shelves containing various spares are well labelled and neatly stacked. He asked about the " dump " outside and is told that it contains some excess materials that the Manager likes to keep in case they come in handy at some stage. The auditor points out that the " dump " might be classed under regulations as a landfill site, which requires an operating licence. The Maintenance Manager is not aware of such a licence.

Which three statements represent good audit practice?

Whistlekleen is a national dry cleaning and laundry organisation with 50 shops. You are conducting an EMS surveillance audit of Head Office and are sampling environmental performance measurement. You find that 80 per cent of failures to meet performance criteria originate from five shops in the same region. Most of these failures relate to the release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that exceeded regulations. The Environmental Manager tells you that these are the oldest shops in the organisation. The cleaning equipment needs replacing but the organisation cannot afford it at the moment.

On raising the matter with senior management, you are told that there are plans to replace the equipment in these shops over the next five years.

When reviewing the nonconformity report files, you find that the organisation is facing a legal dispute with the environmental authority over multiple breaches of environmental legislation.

Select the three best options for how this dispute should be handled by the organisation through its EMS.

Which two audit characteristics are features of a Stage 1 initial certification audit?

The following statements are related to audit methods. Review each one and select the two that are true: