ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the evolution of environmental and sustainability principles and looks briefly at the international experience of a single Canadian environmental nongovernmental organization in relation to the International Organization for Standardization 14000 series of environmental management standards. The emergence of the environmental movement in North America, and its role in the debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement, is reflected in a brief historical perspective of Pollution Probe. Pollution Probe was formed in 1969 as a student movement on the campus of the University of Toronto. The environmental movement grew rapidly throughout the 1970s, especially following the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment - the first conference at which world leaders gathered to talk about environmental issues. The legislative base and government institutional capacity also grew and there was some international movement in this direction. However, the global movement picked up in the mid 1980s.
