ISO14000 SERIES : Environmental Management System

What is ISO 14000?

ISO 14000 is a series of international standards on environmental management. It provides a framework for the development of an environmental management system and the supporting audit programme.

The main thrust for its development came as a result of the Rio Summit on the Environment held in 1992.

The History of ISO 14000
As a number of national standards emerged (BS 7750 being the first), the International Organization for Standardisation (ISO) created a group to investigate how such standards might benefit business and industry. As a result this group recommended that an ISO committee be created to create an international standard.

What is ISO 14001?
ISO 14001 is the corner stone standard of the ISO 14000 series. It specifies a framework of control for an Environmental Management System against which an organization can be certified by a third party.

Other ISO14000 Series Standards
Other standards in the series are actually guidelines, many to help you achieve registration to ISO 14001. These include the following:

• ISO 14004 provides guidance on the development and implementation of environmental management systems
• ISO 14010 provides general principles of environmental auditing (now superseded by ISO 19011)
• ISO 14011 provides specific guidance on audit an environmental management system (now superseded by ISO 19011)
• ISO 14012 provides guidance on qualification criteria for environmental auditors and lead auditors (now superseded by ISO 19011)
• ISO 14013/5 provides audit program review and assessment material.
• ISO 14020+ labeling issues
• ISO 14030+ provides guidance on performance targets and monitoring within an Environmental Management System
• ISO 14040+ covers life cycle issues

Of all these, ISO14001 is not only the most well known, but is the only ISO 14000 standard against which it is currently possible to be certified by an external certification authority.