ISO 14000

The ISO 14000 standards exist to assist organizations with minimizing how their operations adversely affect the environment and comply with applicable regulations. Certification is performed by third-party organizations rather than being awarded by ISO directly. One of the the major parts of the ISO 14000 specification is ISO 14001. ISO 14001 is the standard against which organizations are assessed. ISO 14000 is based on the ISO 9000 family of specifications, so if you're familiar with the terms of ISO 9000, then you should be able to grasp ISO 14000 specifications quickly. The main points of ISO 14000 are that it is:

  • Flexible
  • Emphasizes continual improvement
  • Encourages cost savings
  • Voluntary
  • Can use existing environmental programs
  • Can provide a market advantage

The ISO 14000 covers environmental management systems, environmental auditing, eco labeling, lifecycle assessment, environmental aspects in product standards, and environmental performance evaluation. It is used be thousands of companies world-wide and continues to be adopted by more companies every day. A growing number of governments refer to ISO 14000 for their environmental regulations.

ISO 14000
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