ISO 14001
Environmental management systems
The purpose of this International Standard is to provide organizations with a framework to protect the environment and respond to changing environmental conditions in balance with socio-economic needs.
It specifies requirements that enable an organization to achieve the intended outcomes it sets for its environmental management system.
A systematic approach to environmental management can provide top management with information to build success over the long term and create options for contributing to sustainable development by:
- protecting the environment by preventing or mitigating adverse environmental impacts;
- mitigating the potential adverse effect of environmental conditions on the organization;
- assisting the organization in the fulfilment of compliance obligations (environmental legislation, licences etc);
- enhancing environmental performance;
- controlling or influencing the way the organization’s products and services are designed, manufactured, distributed, consumed and disposed by using a life cycle perspective that can prevent environmental impacts from being unintentionally shifted elsewhere within the life cycle;
- achieving financial and operational benefits that can result from implementing environmentally sound alternatives that strengthen the organization’s market position;
- communicating environmental information to relevant interested parties.
This International Standard, like other International Standards, is not intended to increase or change an organization’s legal requirements.
The basis for the approach underlying an environmental management system is founded on the concept of Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA).
The PDCA model provides an iterative process used by organizations to achieve continual improvement. It can be applied to an environmental management system and to each of its individual elements.
