Depot is registered with ISO 14001:2004

By Richard Pfeiffer
NAVAIR Depot North Island EMS Manager

NAVAIR Depot (NADEP) North Island has attained registration to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for Environmental Management Systems (EMS) known as ISO 14001:2004. The ISO registration certifies the Depot as good stewards of the environment.
The Depot – the largest tenant command at Naval Base Coronado which includes North Island Naval Air Station and Naval Amphibious Base – employs more than 3,200 civilian and military employees who use hundreds of industrial processes necessary to maintain military readiness. The command is the Navy’s Tactical Air Depot and the lead facility worldwide for performing overhaul, repair, modification, and center barrel replacement on the F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet and heavy maintenance on a large variety of other operational U.S. Navy aircraft.
The Depot Environmental Planning and Compliance Office started working on ISO implementation 10 years ago and became the first Federal Government facility to be registered to the previous version of ISO 14001:1996, for four sub-organizations of the Depot.
“Today, after defining and measuring hundreds of the remaining production processes, the Depot has completed its long journey to become Depot-wide registered to the new ISO 14001: 2004 standard,” said Jose Jimenez, Depot Industrial Operations Compliance Director.
ISO 14000 is a series of environmental standards that are issued by the International Organization for Standardization. ISO 14001 is a standard specification for an Environmental Management System. Organizations worldwide pursue ISO 14001 registration to document their commitment to environmental quality.
NAVAIR Depot North Island’s EMS takes a proactive approach to managing environmental affairs. A set of procedures and work instructions support the organization and provide a key element to the framework of the organization’s business strategy.
The advantages to ISO 14001 registration include improved environmental compliance, greater environmental awareness among employees, improved identification and execution of pollution prevention opportunities, a positive and constructive relationship with stakeholders (employees, regulators, customers, and neighboring communities), and reduced environmental and operating costs. All of these factors help enable the Depot to develop and maintain a competitive edge on a par with other major commercial aerospace and manufacturing firms.
Now that the Depot-wide registration is complete, the ISO focus of EMS will shift from growing the system to improving the system thereby helping to improve operations and continuing our relentless and ongoing pursuit of reducing environmental impacts.