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ISO 14000

The best known common framework for EMS is the ISO 14000 series, which was prepared by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). ISO is a private sector, international standards organization based in Geneva, Switzerland and made up of national standards institutes from over 120 member countries.

Since 1947, ISO has set voluntary technical standards for a wide variety of products (such as the size of paper, film speed, and date formats) with the goal of making the development, manufacturing and supply of products and services more efficient, safer, and cleaner, as well as making trade between countries easier. With ISO 9000, ISO moved into a new area of setting standards for management systems. ISO 9000 is a standard for the quality of products in general, not for a specific technical aspect of a specific product, thus setting a more general standard than their previous work. Management system standards like these are validated by an audit, rather than by laboratory checks and the focus is set on management, not on product performance. Like more traditional ISO standards, the goal is still to facilitate international trade.

ISO 14000 covers:

14001 Environmental Management Systems - External certification, integrating EMS with management policies and procedures, etc. (covered in more detail below).
14010 Environmental Auditing - Requirements for principles for auditing, auditing EMS and qualifications for auditors, for both certification and internal self-auditing.
14020 Eco-Labeling - Requirements for labelling products as environmentally responsible. There are three kinds of labels: seal of approval for products that meet specified requirements for products within a product class; single claim labels for recycled content, energy efficiency, etc.; and an environmental report card for life-cycle and comparison of manufacturing and use of products.
14030 Environmental Performance Evaluation - Methods to measure, analyse, assess, and describe an organization's environmental performance against certain criteria.
14040 Life cycle Assessment - Tool to evaluate environmental attributes associated with a product, process, or service. This tool will look at a product from raw material extraction through manufacturing, distribution, use, recycle, and final disposal. The results may be used on the eco-labels.
14050 Terms and Definitions - ISO Guide 64: Environmental Aspects in Product Standards: Tool to encourage considering the environment in product design and development and to encourage the use of life-cycle and other methods in developing standards. This Guide will influence other parts of ISO and other standards organizations.

ISO 14001 is the most applicable to industry. Compliance with ISO 14000 requires:

Set an environmental policy.
Define goals and objectives.
Commit to achieving and maintaining compliance with local environmental laws.
Commit to the prevention of pollution.
Plan and enact continuous review and improvement.

The goal of ISO 14001 is to promote a common approach to environmental management, enhance a company's ability to attain and measure environmental performance, and facilitate trade.