Quality management
ISO 14001 Environmental Management and Internal Auditing
Build and audit an ISO 14001:2026 environmental management system, from aspects and legal register to internal audit.
- Free
- Beginner
- 12.1 hours
- Self-paced
- Certificate optional
No card, no trial. The course is free for good. Certificate US$23.99, optional.
After this course you can
By the end you will be able to:
- Score environmental aspects and name the significant ones
- Build a legal register of compliance obligations
- Set measurable objectives and calculate monitoring indicators
- Plan an emergency response and run a spill drill
- Plan and carry out an internal audit
Who it is for, and what you need first
Who it is for
Environmental, health and safety, quality and operations staff, engineers and graduates who will help run or audit an environmental management system.
Level: Beginner. Beginner to intermediate. For environmental, health and safety, quality, maintenance and operations staff, engineers and graduates who will help an organisation run or audit an environmental management system. No previous management system experience is needed.
What you need
Software: A spreadsheet (LibreOffice Calc or Google Sheets is free) for the aspects register, legal register and indicators, and a document editor for the policy and audit records. You do not need to buy the standard to follow the course, but anyone implementing it for real should hold a licensed copy of ISO 14001:2026 and read the national environmental law that applies to the site..
Hardware: None.. What to download, and how.
How this course works
Watch the lessons
Short video lessons, one module at a time, at your own pace.
Read the notes
Open the Reading tab for the written notes and diagrams of the module.
Check yourself
Answer the questions to see what stuck before you move on.
Final assessment
Pass the final once you have been through the modules.
Certificate, if you want oneOptional
Optional, with a page anyone can use to verify it.
What you learn
15 modules in order, at your own pace. 12.1 hours of video lessons, with written notes and a practice task in each module.
- 1ISO 14001 and the EMS: what it is and why organisations certify32m
- 2Context, interested parties and EMS scope49m
- 3Leadership, environmental policy and roles33m
- 4Environmental aspects, impacts and significance39m
- 5The life-cycle perspective31m
- 6Compliance obligations and the legal register18m
- 7Risks, opportunities, objectives and planning action52m
- 8Support: competence, awareness, communication and documented information34m
Show the other 7 modules
- 9Operational control and emergency preparedness and response40m
- 10Monitoring, measurement, analysis and evaluation of compliance59m
- 11Internal audit with ISO 19011: programme, principles and plan57m
- 12Internal audit in practice: checklist, sampling, evidence and findings58m
- 13Management review, nonconformity, corrective action and improvement46m
- 14The certification audit journey40m
- 15Final Assessment
Software you need
What to download, where from, what it costs and how to install it. Every link goes to the maker's own site, never a mirror.
Nothing is required to read the lessons
A spreadsheet such as LibreOffice Calc helps for the aspects register, legal register and indicator calculations. The standard ISO 14001:2026 is sold by ISO and national standards bodies; the notes paraphrase it.
Show what to download (1 tool)
Optional
Useful, not needed to finish the course.
- 01Free
LibreOffice
The Document Foundation
- Runs on
- Windows 10 or 11, macOS 11 or newer (Intel or Apple silicon), Linux
- Account
- None needed
- Size
- up to 1.5 GB of disk space on Windows
LibreOffice is free, open-source software under the Mozilla Public License 2.0, for any use including business. Calc is its spreadsheet.
Steps
- 1.Open the LibreOffice download page.
- 2.Check the page has picked your operating system, then select Download.
- 3.Run the installer (administrator rights are needed on Windows).
- 4.Start LibreOffice Calc for spreadsheet work.
- 5.Save as .xlsx if you need to share files with Excel users.
- Choose the latest main version unless your organisation asks for the older, more conservative release.
Official download pagelibreoffice.org
Checked against each maker's own page on 27 September 2026. Trial lengths and editions change; the maker's page is the final word.
What you practise
Course project, about 8 hours
Build the core EMS records for a bottling plant and audit one area: aspects, legal register, indicators, nonconformities, corrective action
Act as the environmental manager of a bottling plant. Score its aspects, build a legal register, set an objective, calculate monthly indicators and read a control chart, then audit the wastewater area and write the findings and a corrective action. The sample pack shows each record filled in.
- 6documents in the pack
- 7steps to follow
- 6things to hand in
- 8 hof work, at your pace
- PlanEMS scope, context and policy: Maasdelta Rotterdam plant
- RegisterAspects and impacts register
- RegisterLegal register
- RegisterMonthly indicators, objective and control limits
- ReportInternal audit report: wastewater and chemical store, 16 March 2027
- ProcedureCorrective action record: December waste excursion
The project is optional practice. The certificate needs only the modules and the final assessment.
After the course, your next step
Show what you can do, then keep going in the same field.
A certificate you can verify
Finish the modules and pass the final assessment (15 questions, pass mark 60%) and you can add a certificate with a public verification page. One-off, US$23.99 for you. It is not a vendor credential.
Want a free certificate? Do the matching Free internship: 4 weeks, nothing to buy, with a free certificate of completion.
Project work you can show
Weekly briefs and a work record, online. Pick the internship that fits you. Finish the 4 weeks and get a free Internship Completion Certificate, with a QR code anyone can scan to verify it. Training, not employment.
Find an internshipMore free courses
Roles that use this skill
- Quality engineer
- Process improvement analyst
- Quality auditor
- Operations manager
These are the kinds of roles where the skill is used. We make no promise of a job or an interview.
Plain notes
- Free: the whole course, the notes, the practice tasks, the final assessment and support from practising engineers.
- Paid, and optional: the course certificate, and the Premium internship (the Free internship costs nothing).
- No job promise: the course teaches a skill. It does not place you in a job.
- Lessons by: ISO, Carlos Pereira da Cruz, Dyab Abo Salem | QHSSE & ISO, Mango, AGF Consulting Group, EnviroVerge, Auditor Training Online (ATOL), ISO Training Institute, Life Cycle Thinking & Environmental Management, WhitehallTraining, britishsafetycouncil, ISO Xpert, The Sustainable Construction Zone, ISOGuruSG - Your Trusted ISO Consultancy Singapore, Core System Consultant, TNV Akademi. Independent creators; the lessons stream from their own channels. EDWartens wrote the study plan, notes, practice tasks and assessments.
ISO · Carlos Pereira da Cruz · Dyab Abo Salem | QHSSE & ISO · Mango · AGF Consulting Group · EnviroVerge · Auditor Training Online (ATOL) · ISO Training Institute · Life Cycle Thinking & Environmental Management · WhitehallTraining · britishsafetycouncil · ISO Xpert · The Sustainable Construction Zone · ISOGuruSG - Your Trusted ISO Consultancy Singapore · Core System Consultant · TNV Akademi. If you are one of these creators and want a lesson removed or credited differently, write to info@wartens.com.
Why learn with EDWartens
What you get with this course, and what comes after it.
- Free from the first lesson to the final assessment.
- Video lessons with written notes and a project.
- An optional certificate that anyone can verify online.
- Free internships to keep practising afterwards.
Common questions
What is the ISO 14001 Environmental Management and Internal Auditing course?
It is a free-to-learn course on building and auditing an environmental management system to ISO 14001:2026. You learn from curated lessons, EDWartens notes, worked problems, a project and a question bank, and earn a verifiable certificate of completion.
Who is this ISO 14001 course for?
It is for environmental, health and safety, quality, maintenance and operations staff, engineers and graduates who will help run or audit an EMS. No management system experience is needed, and the worked case is a bottling plant.
Which edition of ISO 14001 does the course teach?
It teaches the fourth edition, ISO 14001:2026, published in April 2026, and says where the 2015 edition differs. Certificates to the 2015 edition have a three-year transition that certification bodies set to end on 14 April 2029.
Do I need to buy the standard?
You can follow the course without it, because the notes paraphrase the requirements and never copy the text. Anyone implementing an EMS for real should hold a licensed copy of ISO 14001:2026 and read the environmental law that applies to the site.
Does the course make me an ISO 14001 lead auditor?
No. It teaches internal auditor knowledge with ISO 19011 and a worked audit. Lead auditor and IRCA or CQI qualifications come from recognised training schemes with their own exams and audit experience. EDWartens is not affiliated with ISO, IRCA or CQI.
What certificate does the ISO 14001 Environmental Management and Internal Auditing course give?
You get a verifiable certificate of completion from EDWartens, issued when you finish the modules and pass the 15-question final at 60 per cent. It has a unique number, a QR code and a public page showing the course, modules and final score.
How long does the ISO 14001 Environmental Management and Internal Auditing course take?
About 10 hours of video and around 12 hours in total with the notes, worked problems and practice, at your own pace. There are 14 study modules and a final. The first module is about 30 minutes of video.
Does it cover national environmental law?
It teaches how to build a legal register by law family, with owners, evidence and review dates. It does not teach any one country's law. You add your national environmental law and local permits to the register for your own site.
Start free today
ISO 14001 Environmental Management and Internal Auditing, at your own pace. Add the certificate only if you want one.