ISO 14000

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The International Organization for Standardization ISO (International Organization for Standardization) began in 1993 a world-wide standardization process of the environmental area (Environmental Management Systems and Tools). ISO 14000 series currently consists of six different standards and can be viewed as a toolbox with all the essential tools for the ongoing environmental efforts.

Illustration: Environmental Management

• Environmental Management System - How the overall environmental part is organized (ISO14001, and 4).
• Environmental auditing - how environmental work is checked and revised (ISO 14010-12).
• Environmental performance - how environmental work is assessed and how it is reported and presented (ISO 14 031).

• Life cycle assessment - how environmental considerations are taken into account in product development (ISO 14041-43).
• Eco-labeling - how the environmental characteristics of the products are described (ISO 14020-24).
• Environmental terminology - how different concepts are defined. (ISO 14050)

Of these six standards there are currently only the first two who are finished. Other standards are not yet determined. The state and ongoing work as to how far different standards have been reported is regularly reported on the SIS Forum AB website.

ISO 14000 standards strong points is that they cover the entire company's environmental efforts. Furthermore connecting the standards to the corresponding quality assurance of ISO 9000 series. This is very important since quality and environment are intimately related. Below are the six different standards described separately.

Environmental management is a tool to assist companies and organizations to conduct effective environmental activities. Environmental management is based on a stepwise iterative procedure, which includes to set the objective of the business. This is done in order to establish a commitment to environmental work, ensuring that the skills and knowledge and evaluation and continuously improvements of the performance of the companies environmental work. The core elements of the work on environmental management standards are:

• Environmental Policy
• Planning the EMS
• Implementation of the EMS
• Control of the EMS
• Management audit of the EMS operation and effectiveness

The audit is intended to provide a systematic, documented and objective description of how the organization, management practices and equipment for environmental protection works. The standards for environmental auditing deals with the principles that should apply. Furthermore are the minimum qualification standards to be imposed on an environmental auditor. In Sweden there are already several certified environmental auditors.

Evaluation of environmental performance is a tool for monitoring environmental management systems, aims and objectives. The idea is that this standard also will make it possible to assess the level of a company's overall environmental efforts, and facilitate comparisons of environmental work in different companies within an industry. Evaluation of environmental performance can be made in three areas: enterprise management, operational and external environmental conditions. The evaluation work is done by a number of environmental indicators (Environmental Performance Indicators - EPI). An important issue for the proposed standard is how companies should report on the results of environmental activities. Target groups for this information are of course different environmental groups, financial actors on the stock exchange, banks, insurance companies and others.

Some forms of life cycle analysis has been applied in the textile industry. Among other things, extensive work has been devoted to comparing cloth diapers to disposable diapers. The life cycle means a whole environmental audit of a product, ie. Environmental impacts from resource extraction through processing, manufacturing, transport and distribution, use phase, recycling, recovery, to final disposal. Despite the obvious problems of implementing a comprehensive LCA of a life cycle analysis the LCA is perhaps the most important tool for companies who wish to gain an overview of the environmental impact of what product provides in that matter. The analysis is also an important tool for the company when it comes to prioritizing measures such as change of commodities, changes in processes or product concepts. The upcoming standards for life cycle assessments includes general principles and approach on the implementation of an LCA, an inventory of background information, environmental impact assessment and improvement analysis.

Today there are in Sweden, three types of official environmental labels; SIS Svanen (the Swan) and Nature Conservation's (Naturskyddsföreningens bra miljöval) Good Environmental Choice and the EU's labeling, the EU Flower. The ISO is also a standard for eco-labeling, ISO 14020 Environmental labels and environmental declarations - General principles. More on eco-labeling is reported in the chapter Ecolabelling.

In the context of environmental management in a business and communication of how environmental standards work, it is very important to have clearly defined terms. Therefore, ISO has also begun work on the standardization of environmental terminology.

SIS - Swedish Standards Institute

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