ISO 14001: the green standard

ISO 14001 is a comprehensive Environmental Management System (EMS) that, when adopted, enables organizations to formulate corporate objectives in the context of environmentally oriented legislative requirements and general environmental concerns. ISO 14001 helps control the environmental effects of an organization's activities by helping each complying organization clearly define its environmental policies. The ISO 14001 system encompasses the organizational structure, responsibilities, and means of implementing environmental management. But it does not establish pollution control standards; instead, it offers a system to help companies prevent and control pollution in the context of applicable standards. The ISO 14001 system can be tailored to fit each company's particular needs and operational conditions. As a series of recommendations, not a series of requirements, ISO 14001 basically measures a firm's conformance to its own environmental policy, not its environmental impact. Although the ISO 14001 standard is broadly defined and very flexible, its strength as a standard is its requirement that a company strive for constant improvement in environmental effects. As the best formalized standard for environmental friendliness the world has yet seen, ISO 14001 will likely serve to distinguish one company from another in the global marketplace.