What is the difference between QMS & EMS

A Quality Management System (QMS) and an Environmental Management System (EMS) are both management systems designed to help organisations achieve their objectives and goals but under different focuses.

Blogs 11 January, 2024

What is the difference between QMS & EMS

A Quality Management System (QMS) and an Environmental Management System (EMS) serve as essential tools to help organisations achieve their objectives, with distinct focuses. QMS ensures high product quality and customer satisfaction, while EMS addresses environmental concerns in production and consumption processes, minimising environmental harm.

To comprehend the difference, let’s first explore the two integrated ISO standards. ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. ISO 9001:2015 concentrates on quality management, while ISO 14001 addresses environmental aspects. ISO 9001 entails customer-driven processes, more documented procedures, defined standards, and a quality manual. On the other hand, ISO 14001 is environmentally driven, featuring fewer documented procedures, no defined standards, and no quality manual.

QMS vs. EMS at a glance

Category	Quality Management System (QMS)	Environmental Management System (EMS)
Primary focus	Ensures consistent product and service quality to meet customer expectations and enhance satisfaction.	Manages environmental impact by reducing waste, pollution, and resource consumption.
Key standard	ISO 9001:2015	ISO 14001:2015
Approach	Customer-driven approach that focuses on process efficiency, continual improvement, and meeting quality objectives.	Environmentally driven approach that focuses on sustainability, regulatory compliance, and reducing environmental risks.
Documentation requirements	Requires a defined quality policy, objectives, documented processes, procedures, and records for traceability.	Requires documentation of environmental aspects, legal obligations, operational controls, and monitoring of environmental performance.
Goals	Improve quality, enhance customer satisfaction, increase efficiency, and promote continual improvement.	Reduce environmental impact, comply with regulations, improve resource management, and support sustainable practices.
Best practices	Customer focus, leadership commitment, employee involvement, process optimisation, and evidence-based decision-making.	Pollution prevention, waste reduction, sustainable resource use, compliance management, and environmental awareness training.

What is a Quality Management System (QMS)?

A QMS is a structured framework of policies, processes and procedures that helps an organisation consistently meet customer and regulatory requirements. ISO 9001 focuses on ensuring the quality of production processes, products, or services. It provides a framework to meet customer expectations, enhance satisfaction, reduce waste, and continually improve processes.

What is an Environmental Management System (EMS)?

An EMS is a framework that helps an organisation manage its environmental responsibilities in a systematic and sustainable way. ISO 14001 certification manages environmental impacts like waste, pollution, and hazardous materials. It aims to identify areas that reduce environmental impact, enhance environmental performance, and ensure compliance with regulations.

Key differences between QMS and EMS

Approach

ISO 9001 follows a customer-driven approach, optimising procedures to meet customer requirements. Conversely, ISO 14001 is environmentally driven, optimising resources and operations to mitigate environmental harm.

Best Practices

QMS focuses on achieving quality by emphasising customer focus, leadership engagement, process approach, employee involvement, evidence-based decision-making, continual improvement, and stakeholder relationship management.

EMS focuses on reducing environmental footprints, promoting sustainability, operational improvements for efficiency and environmental benefits, ensuring compliance with legal requirements, and reducing environmental risks.