About the Expert
I work for Toyota’s North American Manufacturing headquarters in Erlanger, KY. With a degree in Biochemistry, I began in the automotive manufacturing industry working with hazardous waste management and soon moved into compliance and management system auditing.
In addition to being involved in the development of the ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management Systems standard, I work to develop and implement company environmental standards based on ISO 14001 while incorporating key principles of the Toyota Production System.
I audit Toyota’s North American manufacturing facilities annually and work to continually improve their systems. I manage Toyota Manufacturing’s treatment, storage and disposal facility due diligence audit program, which combines compliance with systems auditing. I also train North American facilities’ staff and suppliers on Environmental Management Systems and internal auditing.
I am a member of U.S TAG to ISO/TC 207 and the ASC Z1 Subcommittee on Environmental Management. Currently, I am working as a U.S expert on the TC 207 Working Group 5, which is revising ISO 14001:2004 and participating in TC 207 Working Group 6 for the revision of ISO 14004:2004.
ISO 14001 establishes the framework for making the environment a top priority for management, which allows an organization as a whole to minimize risk to the environment on several levels. Management can establish a culture within an organization, by demonstrating the importance of environmental performance and increasing awareness at the individual level.
I believe standards are important because they provide consistent reference points for understanding. Standards allow for a baseline to continually improve upon. Standards are also important to allow for problem resolution in a timely manner.
If you are new to standards, I encourage you to gain an understanding of the fundamentals. Observing systems that are established and learning from best practices are great ways to get started.