ISO 14001

ISO 14001 is a standard for environmental management within a business. It’s aim is to “provide a framework for a holistic, strategic approach to the organization’s environmental policy, plans and actions”. 

“This means what the organization does to:

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency:  “The major requirements of an EMS under ISO 14001 include:

A policy statement which includes commitments to prevention of pollution, continual improvement of the EMS leading to improvements in overall environmental performance, and compliance with all applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.

• Identification of all aspects of the community organization’s activities, products, and services that could have a significant impact on the enviromment [sic], including those that are not regulated
• Setting peformance [sic] objectives and targets for the management system which link back to the three comitments [sic] established in the community or organization’s policy (i.e. prevention of pollution, continual impovement [sic], and compliance)
• Implementing the EMS to meet these objectives. This includes activities like training of employees, establishing work instructions and practices, and establishing the actual metrics by which the objectives and targets will be measured.
• Establishing a program to periodically audit the operation of the EMS
• Checking and taking corrective and preventive actions when deviations from the EMS occur, including periodically evaluating the organization’s compliance with applicable regulatory requirements.
• Undertaking periodic reviews of the EMS by top management to ensure its continuing performance and making adjustements [sic] to it, as necessary.”

Basically, it’s a sign of good environmental stewardship (and that the EPA doesn’t have spell check).