The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has developed a series of voluntary standards and guidelines in the field of environmental management, which are collectively known as the „ISO 14000 series'.
ISO 14001 is the corner stone standard of the ISO 14000 series. The intention of ISO 14001 is to provide a framework for the organisation's Environmental Management System (EMS). As with other management systems standards (e.g quality management system standard ISO 9001), ISO 14001 is based on the continuous improvement cycle: Plan, Do, Check, Review. It specifies requirements for establishing an environmental policy, determining environmental aspects and impacts of products/activities/services, planning environmental objectives and measurable targets, implementation and operation of programs to meet objectives and targets, checking and corrective action, and management review.
ISO 14001 is applicable to any organization that wishes to implement, maintain and improve an EMS, ensure compliance with environmental laws and regulations as well as to seek certification of its environmental management system by an external, third party organization. ISO 14001 certification has become necessary to do business in many areas. For instance, many companies look for third party certification as a way of demonstrating their environmental performance and use only suppliers who have achieved this criterion. The standard also has at requirement to demonstrate continuous improvement and this keeps business moving forwards in environmental terms.
ISO 14001 can contribute to success under the EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). If an organization is already ISO 14001-certified, it is quite easy to register for EMAS. Only minor actions will need to be made to the core ISO 14001 requirements in order to provide the specific performance statement required by EMAS (reference to EMAS description part).
ISO has many other standards dealing with specific environmental issues, which include those for environmental assessment, environmental labelling, environmental performance evaluation, communication and auditing.
Some of the relevant ISO 14000 series of standards are the following:
ISO 14004 - is a guidance standard that explains the 14001 requirements in more detail. It provides helpful information on the elements of an environmental management system and its implementation and discusses principal issues involved.
ISO 14015 - this standard, entitled Environmental Assessment of Sites and Organizations, provides useful guidance on the steps necessary to compile the environmental assessment of the site or organization for which an EMS is proposed.
ISO 14020 series (14020 to 14025) - these standards set out general principles and requirements for environmental labelling schemes.
ISO 14031 - is a guidance standard providing the methodology for the implementation environmental performance evaluation.
ISO 14063 - is a guidance standard to help an organisation develop its environmental communication. It offers guidance on what should be considered in developing an environmental communication programme and it provides sources of information on how each consideration may be addressed.
For more information see the ISO webpage.
