Management system guidance
7.4 Communication
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7.4.2 Internal communication
Clause 7.4.2 requires your organization to share information relevant to the environmental management system (EMS) between its different levels and functions, including news of changes to the EMS where appropriate. Its communication process(es) must also allow everyone doing work under the organization’s control – employees, temporary staff and contractors working on site – to contribute to continual improvement.
Internal communication is what turns the EMS from a set of documents into something people understand and use. It supports 7.3 Awareness, makes sure operational controls under 8.1 are known by those who apply them, and gives top management the information it needs to lead the system.
What changed in ISO 14001:2026
Clause 7.4.2 is unchanged in substance from ISO 14001:2015. However, communicating changes is now closely linked to the new requirement in 6.3 Planning of changes, so when the EMS changes (a new process, a revised procedure, a new permit condition) your plan for the change should say who needs to be told and how.
What to communicate internally
Typical topics include:
- The environmental policy and what it means for each department;
- Significant environmental aspects and the operational controls for each area (6.1.2 also requires significant aspects to be communicated across levels and functions);
- Compliance obligations that affect particular jobs, such as permit limits, waste segregation rules or spill reporting duties;
- Environmental objectives, targets and progress against them;
- Changes to processes, procedures, roles or the EMS itself;
- Environmental incidents, near misses, emergency arrangements and lessons learned;
- Results of monitoring, evaluation of compliance, internal audits and management review;
- Feedback from external interested parties, including complaints.
Effective methods
Use a mix of methods suited to your workforce and sites rather than relying on one channel:
- Induction and refresher briefings, toolbox talks and shift handovers;
- Team meetings with a standing environmental agenda item;
- Notice boards, posters and area signage (e.g. waste segregation points, spill kit locations);
- Intranet pages, newsletters and e-mail bulletins;
- Environmental performance dashboards displayed in work areas;
- Environmental champions or representatives in each department.
A short version of the environmental policy – a few key words or a couple of sentences – displayed in each department or printed on ID badges is a quick way of keeping it visible. People do not need to memorize the policy, but they should know it exists, where to find it and how their own work affects it.
Enabling people to contribute to continual improvement
The second part of the clause is about communication flowing upwards. Provide practical routes for people to raise environmental concerns and ideas, for example:
- Suggestion schemes (paper or electronic) with a visible response to each idea;
- Near-miss and environmental observation reporting;
- Improvement workshops, e.g. on energy, water or waste reduction;
- Regular two-way meetings between supervisors and their teams.
Feed the suggestions and their outcomes into 10.1 Continual improvement and report back to the people who raised them – if suggestions disappear without trace, people soon stop making them. Remember contractors and visitors too: site environmental rules can be covered at sign-in and in contractor inductions.
You should seek and record evidence that relevant EMS information, including changes to the EMS, is communicated between the various levels and functions of your organization, and that the communication process gives persons doing work under the organization’s control a way to contribute to continual improvement. Look for briefing records, meeting minutes, notice board content and suggestion logs, and interview people at different levels to confirm that they have received the information relevant to their work and know how to raise improvement ideas. See 7.4.1 for the overall communication process.
More information on PDCA
Planning
Context
Planning
Support
Doing
Support
Operations
Checking
Monitoring, measurement, analysis and evaluation
Acting
Improvement
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