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1.

Scope

1.1

General This Guide provides assistance to owners and managers of office buildings for the development and implementation of an environmental system (EMS) based on ISO 14001.

The scope of this Guide is limited to buildings or facilities used for commercial or institutional purposes.



An organization may choose to extend the scope of its EMS beyond that of this guide.

For an office sector organization, the most practical unit of consideration for an EMS is a single office building, along with any associated buildings, such as a parking garage, that serve the main building.

Alternately, some multi-site organizations have an EMS at the corporate level that applies to all sites, with site-specific detailed management practices and procedures for each location that address and describe the requirements of the corporate-level EMS.



Although this Guide attempts to be as comprehensive as possible, ISO Standards 14001 and 14004 should also be consulted.

1.2

Structure of Guide:

Investigate, Define, Plan, Do, Check, Act Each clause in the Guide covers one of the above headings.

For ease of use, the ""plan"" component of the implementation has been divided into three sections:

""investigate"", ""define"", and ""plan"".

By the end of this Guide, you will have covered all of the elements required by ISO 14001.



Appendices and explanatory materials (set in text boxes) are intended to supply detailed information and add to the Guide's usability.

The worksheets included in Appendix B are intended to be used by office building owners and managers while developing their EMS.

The worksheets should act as outlines for completing the various activities described in the Guide; they are not intended to provide comprehensive methodologies.

For buildings in general, the most significant environmental impact is emissions resulting from energy use.

For a complete listing of all the ISO 14001 elements, refer to Appendix C.

See too the ISO 14001 text boxes throughout the Guide.