Iso 14000

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, develops international standards for products, services, processes, materials, and systems. These standards carry the ISO logo—the name derived from the Greek word isos, meaning “equal.” Currently, there are 162 member organizations, generally representing countries, involved in the standard-setting process. This organization does not carry out certification of conformity to its own standards.

ISO 14000 is a series of international standards designed to meet the needs of business, industry, governments, and consumers in the environmental field. These standards are developed by ISO Technical Committee 207. They have produced consensus work products such as the basic standard for environmental management systems—ISO 14001. There are a number of other environmental standards in the ISO 14000 family, including ISO 14015 (environmental assessment of sites and organizations), ISO 14020 (environmental labels and declarations), ISO 14040–14049 (life cycle assessment), and ISO 14063 (environmental communication). A complete listing of accepted standards and developing standards can be found on the ISO website.

The United States participates in the development and review of these standards with a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) that reports to TC 207. The TAG is an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) committee with the American Society for Quality (ASQ) serving as the secretariat. Other countries have similar arrangements through their own organizations.

The first two standards in the ISO 14000 series are ISO14001:2004 and ISO 14004:2004. (Please note that the date of the most recent version is provided following the colon after the standard's number.) ISO 14001:2004 provides the requirements of the management system and ISO 14004:2004 provides some guidelines for organizations seeking to plan and to implement an environmental management system. There is another standard, ISO 19011, that specifies how this conformance should be conducted and the competencies required by the environmental management system auditors.

An organization begins the ISO 14001 process by determining the scope of coverage. Then it must create an environmental policy that meets a number of important criteria including three commitments:

• Compliance with legal requirements and with other requirements to which the organization subscribes
• Dedication to the prevention of pollution (e.g., pollution prevention or cleaner production)
• Dedication to the demonstration of continual improvement

The rest of the ISO 14001 management system standard is based on the well-accepted methodology known as “plan-do-check-act” (PDCA).

The planning involves the creation of an environmental footprint for the organization's activities, products, and services. Included are the environmental aspects (i.e., how each activity can interact with the environment) and the environmental impacts (i.e., any changes, adverse or beneficial, to the environment resulting from the environmental aspects). The organization must use risk management to determine the significant environmental aspects. Part of the determination of significance includes the legal and other requirements related to the activity associated with the environmental aspect. The organization then establishes [Page 340]objectives and targets, taking the significant aspects and legal and other requirements into account. An environmental management program is established to guide the projects designed to achieve the objectives and targets. All the projects have definitive action plans.

The establishment, implementation, and maintenance of the environmental management system include provisions for each of the following

...