ABSTRACT
The publication of International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) 14001, the international standard specification for an environmental management system, is the latest imprimatur of business acceptance of this fledgling discipline. ISO 14001 may share common principles with ISO 9000, the international standard for quality management standards, but the relationship between ISO 14001, legislation and public policy-making is much closer than between ISO 9000 and similar social expressions of acceptability. International standards are normally associated with anodyne expressions of what has already become recognised as commercial and industrial common sense. Certification of standardised environmental management systems walks the thin line between socially-policed regulation and privately-policed self-regulation. For many, taking up environmental management is embarking on a journey to an unexplored region. Issues such as accelerated environmental change are no longer a matter of private belief, nor are industry's contributions to the speed of such change the starting point for an interesting philosophical discourse.
