ISO 14001 - The Environmental Management System Standard
With rising public awareness of the need to protect our environment, governments and businesses are under increasing pressure to minimize their environmental footprint and promote sustainable development.
The Environmental Management Systems (EMS) Standard has been developed to help organizations identify, manage and control those activities that have an environmental impact.
Reducing your environmental footprint
Through a combination of analysis and action most organizations can transform the way they interact with the environment by, for example:
- Cutting down on waste
- Lowering energy use
- Using renewable resources
- Avoiding risk
- Designing for the complete product lifecycle.
By moving towards a cleaner, greener way of working, an organization can become a model of good citizenship, enhancing its public image in the process.
This in turn can lead to:
- Strengthened stakeholder confidence
- Greater competitive advantage
- More secure long-term viability.
ISO 14001
In 1996, the International Standards Organization (ISO) published the Environmental Management Standard, ISO 14001. This was revised in 2004.
The Standard is designed to be compatible with other management standards, particularly the widely used
ISO 9001 Quality Management Standard.
Who is it for?
Every organization, whether it's involved in manufacturing, services or trade, has an impact on the environment and can therefore benefit from ISO 14001.
In over 150 countries around the world, industrial companies, service organizations, utilities and public bodies have embraced ISO 14001 as their preferred model for environmental management.
They range from giant multinational corporations to the not-for-profit sector, from national governments to small family businesses.
What it does
ISO 14001 recognizes that there is no one-size-fits-all way of tackling environmental challenges. Every organization is different. The Standard is flexible and does not seek to dictate the detail of your environmental policy.
Instead, ISO 14001 sets out broad principles which can help you to:
- Establish good environmental performance as a strategic objective
- Sustain continual improvement of environmental performance
- Look at your products from ‘cradle to grave’
- Reduce waste and pollution
- Analyse, plan, control and monitor all activities that may have an environmental impact
- Comply with legislative and regulatory requirements
- Demonstrate to regulators, stakeholders and other interested third parties that you have an efficient environmental management system.
Find out more
To get more information about ISO 14001, fill in our
online enquiry form.
To apply for ISO 14001, download an
application form.
You can also watch a video on
ISO 14001 from ISO which verbally explains the Standard.
You can also contact NSAI directly:
Richard Hadfield
Manager, Technical Services
T: +353 1 807 3859
F: +353 1 807 3844
E:
Richard.Hadfield@nsai.ie
RH Rev. 1.0