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.
In the case of ISO 14001 EMS audits that follow the recommendations of ISO 19011, which two of the following statements are true?
A group of 22 Italian restaurants in downtown San Francisco (US) established an EMS following the requirements of ISO 14001. You are performing an internal audit before the fourth certification cycle. The audit plan included an audit of the General Manager (GM) as the last interview before the closing meeting. During the interview with the GM, you audit clause 10.3 (Continual improvement). The dialogue is as follows.
You: Could you please tell me how did you improve the EMS to enhance environmental performance (Clause 10.3)?
GM: One way to improve the EMS is to improve one or several of its processes. We decided to improve the water-consuming processes in all our branches. We use water in many of our processes (e.g. to wash our kitchens, our cutlery, plates, and glasses, to keep our floors clean). The idea was to review these processes in detail to reduce the amount of water used per customer. Each of the 22 branches sent us their results, we analysed the data and found out that the average water consumption per customer was reduced by 13%; therefore, we improved our environmental performance. We are happy about that.
You: What about the results in each branch?
GM: Have a look at this table:
Analysing this table, what would be your decision related to raising nonconformities to clause 10.3? Select two.
A multi-level shopping centre is open every day to the public from 09:00-21:00. 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 board has not yet approved the estimated budget for this.
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 to 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 on each floor of the centre. We take readings every hour, and we plot the consumption graph for every staff shift.
Select three options that would provide evidence of conformance with clause 9.1.1 of ISO 14001.
Which one of the following conclusions in the audit report is not required by the certification body when deciding to grant certification?
A management system meeting ISO 14001:2015 requirements is based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle.
Which two elements of the management system are part of the ' Check ' stage of the PDCA cycle?
ABC is a large lubricant oils manufacturer located in country A. Due to tax exemption and other economic issues, they decided to move the whole plant to a neighbouring country B. They moved every single piece of the plant (equipment, systems); the new plant has the same layout, the same dimensions, the same suppliers of raw materials and the same customers. Even more, most personnel accepted to move to country B.
They operate a third-party certified EMS; the certificate was transferred to the new plant after a half-day audit from the certification body. You are auditing ABC ' s EMS in the new location, representing ABC ' s largest customer. When interviewing the Environmental Manager (EM), you ask:
You: Can I see the plan you developed to keep under control the impact of the EMS due to the change of site?
EM: We listed all elements and processes of the EMS that might need to be changed and selected those that we considered needed a careful review and probably a revision.
Below you will find that list; select six that you consider will need to be revised.
A chain of 10 paint shops in a city has established an EMS following the requirements of ISO 14001, which was third-party certified 10 years ago. You are performing a second-party audit. The audit plan included an interview with the General Manager (GM). The dialogue was as follows:
You: Hi, good evening, I have seen a well-developed environmental risk assessment process. However, I did not find the identification of emergency situations included in the results of this process. The Environmental Manager (EM) could not provide me with an acceptable answer to this question.
GM: The EM joined us 2 months ago, and he may not know some decisions we made some time ago, when we first certified our EMS. During those days, I met with all 10 supervisors and asked them what the emergencies were that they feared most. They unanimously said: fire. That was it. This is the only emergency we care of. As far as I remember we do not test the plan very often because the supervisors of all our 10 shops know it very well. The auditors of our certification body accepted this. We did not have a fire in the last 10 years.
What evidence would you need to review to determine conformity with ISO 14001 in this scenario? Select six.
You are conducting a Stage 2 certification audit of VitalSpark, a pharmaceutical organisation manufacturing vitamins and other healthcare medicines.
In a separate area in the centre of their large site, a supplier produces oxygen supplies piped directly into the manufacturing processes of VitalSpark. They also deliver oxygen in bulk tankers to other customers. When you review the environmental aspects register, you find that the only environmental aspect recorded for this arrangement relates to the heavy goods vehicles of the supplier transiting the site.
You ask the EMS Manager about the environmental consequences to VitalSpark of this arrangement and are told that they are not significant since the supplier has its own services for water, sewage, waste and energy. The EMS Manager tried unsuccessfully to communicate with the supplier who is located inside the VitalSpark site and outside the scope of the EMS.
After gathering more evidence, you note down findings against several clauses of ISO 14001. Determine which three of the findings stated are non-conformities.
Just before the closing meeting of a third-party audit, the audit team leader is invited to a meeting with the EMS Manager.
He tells the audit team leader that a member of the audit team was seen taking videos on the factory floor using his mobile phone and wants him suspended from the closing meeting with any nonconformities raised by him rescinded.
When asked about this, the auditor said that he had obtained permission from the Production Manager who was escorting him around.
Select three options of how the audit team leader might respond to the EMS Manager.
XM, a chain of 25 petrol stations, established an EMS following the requirements of ISO 14001, which was third-party certified 10 years ago. You are performing an internal audit before the fourth certification cycle.
During the audit to the EMS Manager (EM), the following dialogue takes place:
You: Could you please give me some details on the inspection of underground tanks in each station?
EM: It ' s very simple. There is a regulation that requires an annual leak inspection.
You: Who performs these inspections?
EM: I personally contract the inspectors and submit the results to the local authority. These are the certificates submitted last year.
You: I see only 22 certificates. There are three missing.
EM: The tanks of those three stations will be removed next year and replaced by new ones. I phoned the local authority and they told me that I do not need to send any report of the tanks that will be changed.
Which one of the following would be your next question?
You are the audit team leader of a third-party initial certification audit to ISO 14001 for two days of audit. This is the first time you lead an audit, and a second member of the team is a qualified audit team leader who will evaluate your performance as the audit team leader.
During lunch on the second day, you are informed that the second member of the audit team will have to leave the audit due to personal problems but could return the following day.
What would you do? Select the best two options.
Which two of the following do not participate in a second-party audit to ISO 14001?
Sparkle is an organisation that provides mobile car cleaning services at customers ' premises. It has been certified to ISO 14001 for some time and has appointed a full-time Environmental Management System Manager. The audit plan during a surveillance audit includes continual improvement and the auditor asks to see the most recent management review meeting minutes.
The minutes indicate that the Environmental Management System Manager reported that the last review of the organisation ' s environmental legislation register was made three years ago instead of annually as planned in the Environmental Management System. At that time, he asked for finances to employ a legislation expert to update the register but was denied the request by top management on the basis that it was unlikely that many changes to legislation had occurred. No related improvement actions were documented in the minutes.
Based on the scenario, select the two options which best describe the evidence for raising such a non-conformity.
Which one of the following is not part of the required knowledge of a technical expert appointed to an audit team?
Technical experts should know:
Which one of the following options best describes the main purpose of a Stage 2 third-party audit?
TESTED 06 Jul 2026
