ISO 14000 FAMILY OF FAMILY OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT STANDARDS (EMSS)

 

Overview

 

ISO 14000 is a family of standards related to environmental management that was developed to help organizations:

• Minimize how their operations negatively affect the environment i.e., cause adverse changes to air, water, or land

• Comply with applicable laws, regulations, and other environmentally oriented requirements

• Continually improve in the above areas.

 

The ISO 14000 series for environmental management is similar to the ISO 9000 series for quality management in that both pertain to the process of how a product is produced, rather than to the product itself.

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The ISO 14000 standards:

• Provide generic requirements for maintaining a sustainable environment management system (EMS) at any organization

• Do not define specific levels of environmental performance

• Do require that organizations conform to all environmental legislation, applicable to their activities, and commit to striving for “continual improvement.”

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Adherence to ISO 14000 assures customers, regulators, and the general public that a company has sound environmental protection policies and processes.

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ISO 14001: 2015

 

The ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management Systems – Requirements:

• Was published in September 2015.

• Addresses both, the environmental aspects of an organization’s processes, and those of its products and services.

 

The requirements of ISO 14001 are an integral part of the European Union's Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). The structure and material requirements of EMAS are more demanding, mainly concerning performance improvement, legal compliance, and reporting duties.

 

Certification

 

As with ISO 9001, auditing and certification of environmental management systems (EMS):

• Is performed by independent third-party organizations (Registrars)

• Is not performed by the ISO organisation directly.

 

The ISO 19011 and ISO 17021 audit standards apply when 1st-party (internal audits), 2nd-party (external supplier audits), or 3rd-party (external certification audits) are being performed.

 

Other Standards of the ISO 14000 Family (Series) of EMSS

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ISO/TC 207 has developed additional tools to assist in addressing environmental aspects. For example, the Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool for identifying and evaluating the environmental aspects of products and services from “cradle to the grave”, i.e. from the extraction of resource inputs, to the eventual disposal of the product or its waste.

 

The ISO 14020 series of EMSS: addresses a range of different approaches to environmental labels and declarations, including:

• Eco-labels (seals of approval)

• Self-declared environmental claims

• Quantified environmental information about products and services.

 

The ISO 14040 series: provides guidelines on the principles and conduct of LCA studies, that provide an organization with information on how to reduce the overall environmental impact of its products and services.

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ISO 14063:

• Provides environmental communication guidelines and examples

• Helps companies to make the important link to external stakeholders.

 

ISO 14064 Parts 1, 2 and 3: are international greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting and verification standards, which provide a set of clear and verifiable requirements to support organizations and proponents of GHG emission reduction projects.

 

ISO 14065: complements ISO 14064 by specifying requirements to accredit or recognize organizational bodies that undertake GHG validation or verification using the ISO 14064 or other relevant standards or specifications.

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ISO Guide 64: provides guidance for addressing environmental aspects in product standards. Although primarily aimed at standards developers, its guidance is also useful for designers and manufacturers.

 

ISO 14000 - The Facts

 

Applies to any organization regardless of size or industry.

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ISO 14001:2015 is the most popular standard of the ISO 14000 Family, which also includes standards such as the following (list not exhaustive):

• ISO 14004            General Guidelines on Principles, Systems and Support Techniques

• ISO 14006            Guidelines for Incorporating Eco-Design

• ISO 14015            Environmental Assessment of Sites and Organizations (EASO)

• ISO 14020            Environmental Labels and Declarations

• ISO 14031            Environmental Performance Evaluation

• ISO 14040            Life Cycle Assessment

• ISO 14050            Vocabulary

• ISO 14063            Environmental Communication

• ISO 14064            Greenhouse Gases

• ISO 19011            Guidelines for Auditing Management Systems

 

For more information about the ISO 14000 series we recommend the free download of the following document (in PDF format).

 

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