ISO 14001 Standards

The ISO 14000 family addresses various aspects of environmental management. The very first two standards, ISO 14001:2004 and ISO 14004:2004 deal with environmental management systems (EMS). The other standards and guidelines in the family address specific environmental aspects, including: labelling, performance evaluation, life cycle analysis, communication and auditing. A brief summary of the key standards appears below.

An Environmental Management System (EMS) meeting the requirements of ISO 14001:2004 is a management tool enabling an organization of any size or type to:

• identify and control the environmental impact of its activities, products or services, and to
• improve its environmental performance continually, and to
• implement a systematic approach to setting environmental objectives and targets, to achieving these and to demonstrating that they have been achieved.

The intention of ISO 14001:2004 is to provide a framework for a holistic, strategic approach to the organization's environmental policy, plans and actions. It does not specify levels of environmental performance but is instead generic, so that whatever the organization's activity, the requirements of an effective EMS are the same.

Environmental labels and declarations - General principles, labelling priciples and procedures (including self-declared claims)

Environmental Performance Evaluation (EPE)

Lifecycle assessment

Integrating environmental aspects into product design and development

Greenhouse gases - Quantification, monitoring and reporting. ISO 14064 Part 1 deals with organisation level, part 2 with project level and part 3 with validation and verification of assertions. ISO 14065 deals with accreditation and recognition.