ISO 14001 Environmental Management System Manual

ISO 14001 is the Environmental Management System Specification developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) of Geneva, Switzerland as a part of the ISO 14000 series of environmental management documents. It was issued as both an International and American National Standard in September 1996. The Second Edition of ISO 14001, ISO 14001:2004, was issued as an International Standard on November 15, 2004 and subsequently as an American National Standard.

ISO 14001 establishes a framework for the conduct of environmental management by requiring the organization to define an Environmental Policy and establish sixteen management procedures that support the policy. Many of the ISO 14001procedures already exist in some form within organizations and only require modification to meet the requirements of ISO 14001. Other procedures have to be added in their entirety. All of the ISO 14001 procedures represent best management practices as defined by a consensus of the representatives of more than 50 national standards bodies and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) who participated in the development of ISO 14001:1996 from early 1993 through July 1, 1995 and in the development of the Second Edition from early 2002 until mid-2004.

ISO 14001 has the potential to reframe the conduct of environmental management. It has proven to be an elegant document that anticipates the needs
of organizations of all sizes and purposes for direction on environmental
management.

As ISO 14001 gains credibility as an effective system for managing and
improving environmental performance, environmental regulators will be
encouraged to accept registration to ISO 14001 in satisfaction of some regulatory
administrative requirements and, thus, reduce the burden of compliance for those
organizations that are managing their environmental exposures.

Ultimately, the greatest strides in environmental performance improvement and
sustainability will come as a consequence of millions of organizations --
municipalities, colleges and universities, governmental departments, and
property owners and operators as well as industrial corporations -- identifying and
managing the environmental impacts of their activities, services, and products.