Third party audits or external audits are undertaken for organisations seeking certification/registration to ISO 14001/EMAS. The certification process is split into several phases as shown below.

- Scope and size of operation and system - Identify if system development is in right direction - Site tour	- Site tour - Documentation - Legislative and other requirements - Significant impacts - Internal audits and Identify trails for Phase III	- Follow audit trails - Assess system in reality

The Pre-assessment is optional and discussed later, but the Phase I, II and III audits are mandatory if your company is seeking certification. The certification process can take three to five days depending on the size and complexity of the organisation. The auditor(s) will check that the management system is in accordance with the requirements of ISO 14001/EMAS and that the reality of the company's day to day operation matches what the system requires. For instance, the external auditor will want to check if there is:

• an environmental policy,
• a EMS manual,
• a register of relevant legislation,
• a register of effects and the criteria for evaluating significance,
• objectives and targets.
• procedures where there should be procedures
• a system for management review
• internal auditing of the system

If a company fails to meet the requirements of the ISO 14001/EMAS, the certification body will raise either an observation or non-conformance. Non-conformances are raised if a requirement of ISO 14001/EMAS has not been met. These non-conformances have to be rectified before the organisation can achieve certification. The certification body background=/envENVMAN5/course/images/back/back.jpg can give companies a period of grace in which to rectify any non-conformancies. An example of a non-conformance would be if a company had failed to prepare training plans (clause 4.4.2 of ISO 14001). Observations are not as serious as non-conformances and so would not prevent the company from successful certification. An example of an observation would be if new employees had not received any environmental awareness training.

Most companies find that they have a few non-conformancies to deal with. Companies achieving certification/registration will need to maintain their internal audit programmes on an ongoing basis to remain certified to ISO 14001 or registered to EMAS. The certification body will also need to undertake regular surveillance visits to check that the EMS is still conforming to the requirements of the standard.

There are a series of international standards that provide guidance and procedures for environmental auditing:

BS EN ISO 14010 : 1996	Guidelines for environmental auditing - General Principles
BS EN ISO 14011 : 1996	Guidelines for environmental auditing - Audit procedures - Auditing of environmental management systems
BS EN ISO 14012 : 1996	Guidelines for environmental auditing - Qualification criteria for environmental auditors