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THE ISO 14000 STANDARDS

The INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ORGANISATION (ISO), founded in Amsterdam in 1947, sets standards for a wide range of products and management activities. Following the success encountered by the ISO 9000 quality standard, ISO has developed the 14000 series dedicated to environmental management.

The series is divided in five main areas

• ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems
• ISO 14031 Environmental Performance Evaluations
• ISO 14010 Environmental Auditing
• ISO 14040 Products Life Cycle Assessment
• ISO 14020 Products Environmental Labelling

At the end of 2001, 37,000 ISO 14000 certifications were granted in 112 countries with a 60% growth compared to the previous year, setting in such a way the biggest leap forward since the end of 1995, when the ISO 14000 series started to be promoted.

The ISO Technical Committee (TC 207) is in charge of developing and managing the ISO 14000 series. The aim is to promote a common approach in environmental management and to improve the ability of organisations to achieve and assess their improvements with respect to environmental performance. These norms are recognised at the international level and have been set-up to be applied to organisations of all kinds and sizes.