Quality System Standard ISO 14001: 2004

Quality System Standard ISO 14001: 2004

• The purpose of ISO is to promote the development of standardization and related world activities in order to facilitate the international exchange of goods and services and to develop co-operation in intellectual, scientific technological and economic activities.

• The ISO 14000 family addresses various aspects of environmental management. The very first two standards, ISO 14001:2004 and IS014004:2004 deal with environmental management systems (EMS).

• ISO 14001:2004 provides the requirements for an EMS and ISO 14004:2004 gives general EMS guidelines.

1. ISO 14000 Series Standards

1. ISO 14001 Environmental management systems-Requirements with guidance for use.

2. ISO 14004 Environmental management systems-General guidelines on principles, systems and support techniques.

3. ISO 14015 Environmental assessment of sites and organizations.

4. ISO 14020 series (14020 to 14025) Environmental labels and declarations.

5. ISO 14030 discusses post production environmental assessment.

6. ISO 14031 Environmental performance evaluation-Guidelines.

7. ISO 14040 series (14040 to 14049), Life Cycle Assessment, LCA, discusses pre- production planning and environment goal setting.

8. ISO 14050 terms and definitions.

9. ISO 14062 discusses making improvements to environmental impact goals.

10. ISO 14063 Environmental Communication-Guidelines and examples.

11. ISO 14064 Measuring, quantifying and reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions.

2. Uses of ISO 14004:2004

• ISO 14004:2004 provides guidance on the establishment, implementation, maintenance and improvement of an environmental management system and its coordination with other management systems.

• An EMS (Environmental Management Systems) meeting the requirements of ISO 14001:2004 is a management tool enabling any organization to :

1. Identify and control the environmental impact of its activities, products or services.

2. Improve its environmental performance continually.

3. Implement a systematic approach to setting environmental objectives and targets, to achieving these and to demonstrating that they have been achieved.