ABSTRACT
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a private, nongovernmental, international standards body based in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 1947, ISO promotes international harmonization and development of manufacturing, product, and communications standards. The ISO publishes a survey periodically showing the number of ISO 14000 certificates that have been awarded, broken down by region, country, and industrial sectors. The level of conceptual challenge this will present to ISO 9000 firms, where the corporate culture will already be changing, will be less than for non-ISO 9000 firms, but there will be some new areas that require attention. The core sections of the EMS consist primarily of the five topics highlighted below: Organizations that meet the ISO 14001 requirements can seek registration in a process similar to ISO 9000 registration. The standard is divided into six requirement categories within Section 4 of the document: general requirements, environmental policy, planning, implementation and operation, checking and corrective action, and management.
