ISO 14000--Environmental Management Is Coming

How can we be confident that a particular manufacturer or company is committed to environmental improvements? There are certification systems for specific environmental claims, or for particular products, but as the best management practices and environmental goals evolve, how do we know that the companies are keeping up? To address these questions, the International Standards Organization (ISO) and its environment committee (TC 207) are moving towards final approval of a series of standards, known collectively as ISO 14000. These standards do not attempt to certify that a company meets any specific environmental criteria, only that it has in place a comprehensive environmental management system.

Formal corporate environmental management systems have an established track record in Western Europe, most notably in the European Union’s Ecomanagement and Audit Scheme (EMAS). Many individual European countries have their own environmental management standards as well. With ISO 14000, management systems are moving towards a common global standard.