ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the history and current status of ISO 14001 adoption in Chinese enterprises and compares these figures to certification rates in other industrializing Asian countries and globally. It outlines the role of government agencies, such as the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and the China National Accreditation Board for Certifiers (CNAB). Environmental Management Systems (EMSs) procedure-based tools for systematically identifying, monitoring, and strategically managing all of enterprise's environmental impacts are viewed as an important new way of promoting pollution control and cleaner production in China. In 2002 China ranked fifth in the total number of ISO 14001 certifications. Clearly, the EMS activity in China is increasing rapidly and shows no signs of abating. However, very little is known about how much ISO 14001 certification does to quantitatively improve an organization's environmental performance. The ISO 14001 EMS standard, the world's most common EMS framework, is comprised of following iterative parts: policies, planning, management programs, internal auditing, and operations control.
