ABSTRACT
A strong consensus does exist that significant value is added value when an organization establishes a comprehensive and systematic environmental management system with adequate monitoring and measuring sub-systems, a program of checks and balances including third-party audits and periodic review by committed top-level executives, and mechanisms for continuous improvement. Concern then focuses on the willingness of the private-sector organizations to make good the promise of the ISO 14000. Developers of ISO 14001 and private-sector organizations committed to that development, are keeping a wary eye on government interest in the standard. EPA’s strategy to reinvent itself by partnering with regulated organizations are often frustrated because they are based on the erroneous belief that true partnership can exist when one partner holds all the authority. Independent of EPA’s efforts, the International Organization for Standardization, responding to a request from the Earth Summit Committee in Rio de Janeiro, set about developing international standards for environmental management.
