ISO 14001
What Is ISO 14001?
ISO 14001 is a set of standards put forward by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Its purpose is to explain the best practices for organizations that wish to reduce their environmental footprint by embracing an effective environmental management system (EMS).
EMS systems are designed to monitor and report upon the environmental sustainability of a firm, for both internal and outside partners. They are utilized by firms both for compliance purposes — permitting them to stay away from fines or public relations (PR) embarrassments — and to increase business effectiveness, for example, by lessening waste through the manufacturing or distribution cycle.
How ISO 14001 Works
ISO 14001 is just one of the north of 23,000 standards that have been put forward by the ISO since its formation in 1947. They are part of a family of standards designed for organizations that wish to diminish pollution and waste by introducing an environmental management system. Similarly as with all ISO standards, the ISO 14001 is definitely not a specific set of directions to be barely executed by the participating firm. Rather, a set of rules and standards must be tailored to the specific requirements and conditions of the organization being referred to.
Of course, not all applications of ISO 14001 are similarly robust. To keep up with the integrity of the standards, companies can acquire certification by third-party organizations that will evaluate their specific implementation of the ISO 14001 standards and decide if that application meets the international best practices set out in the standard. Companies that get certification thusly will frequently display this reality as a method for proving and publicize their commitment to environmental sustainability.
Real World Example of ISO 14001
Initially sent off in September 1996, ISO 14001 has since been adopted by north of 300,000 organizations worldwide. The core concept of ISO 14001 is that organizations must foster a reasonable set of environmental policies, utilize a set of best practices to proactively monitor whether those policies are being stuck to, and continuously improve the system in light of continuous feedback and results.
By design, the standards are planned to be flexible and applicable to organizations going from small businesses to multinational corporations. Via model, the popular Hilton inn chain acquired certification in ISO 14001 and was highlighted by ISO for the impressive environmental improvements that it accomplished through this process. As per the company's representative, the company accomplished more than $1 billion in energy savings somewhere in the range of 2008 and 2018, due to changes executed as part of the ISO 14001 process.
Notwithstanding cost savings, there are numerous different motivations behind why companies could wish to embrace the ISO 14001 standards. These incorporate benefits to their brand awareness, reduced risk of violating environmental regulations, improvements to employee relations and assurance, and increased operational efficiencies, among others.
Features
- Since its presentation in 1996, ISO 14001 has been adopted by north of 300,000 organizations, going from small businesses to a portion of the world's biggest firms.
- It is put forward by ISO, a leading international standard-setting organization.
- ISO 14001 is a set of standards designed to assist organizations with expanding their environmental sustainability.
