ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems

What is ISO 14001?

The ISO 14001 standard serves as a framework to facilitate the development of environmental management systems by organizations, allowing them to meet and reconcile their economic and environmental objectives. Like other standards in the ISO 14000 family, ISO 14001 is voluntary, and while its overall goal is the improvement of environmental performance by organizations, these organization are free to set their own parameters regarding its implementation. This means different organizations can develop independent environmental performance measures and standards and all be in compliance with ISO 14001. Using this standard, organizations can not only improve their environmental performance, but also reap a variety of economic benefits, including, but not limited to, the reduction of liability fines by regulatory bodies, and improvement in efficiency by lowering waste and consumption.

Benefits of implementation

• Reduction/elimination of costly regulatory fines
• Improvement of organizational efficiency
• Organizations may operate in disparate areas of the world without need for multiple certifications
• Enhancement of public posture with growing number of environmentally-aware consumers, providing distinct future competitive advantages
• Reduction of trade barriers between businesses

Why seek ISO 14001 certification?

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, certification to ISO 14001 is essential for the sake of businesses and other organizations, as well as communities as a whole. The more organizations in a given community that meet the standard, the more efficiently the community can operate while reducing their damage to the environment. ISO 14001 allows for the promotion of predictability and consistency in management of environmental obligations, and overall improvement in environmental performance and compliance.