ABSTRACT
In 1997, a grant from the government of Taiwan administered through the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada was secured to undertake research in Taiwan on business decision criteria with respect to waste management. The Taiwan case studies suggest several lessons for proponents and practitioners of ISO 14001. One is that integrating measurable environmental performance targets in establishing ISO 14001 is desirable and technically feasible. The extraordinary success of the government in promoting performance-based ISO 14001 is an outcome of the ability of government institutions to recognise the profitability enhancement potential of Cleaner Production (CP) approaches and to link CP firmly and systematically to the process of ISO certification. In all cases the ISO 14001 certification drive was based on demonstrating continuing improvement on the basis of measurable performance targets. The process of setting the performance targets and documenting the process changes required to achieve the targets facilitates the task of establishing a feasible and credible Environmental Management System.
