Environmental management and the ISO 14000 family of standards
What are the ISO 14000 family standards?
The international environmental management standards of the ISO 14000 family are relatively new in comparison with other standards on sampling, testing and analytical methods for monitoring special environmental aspects. The environmental management standards are applicable to all organizations, and should provide them with elements of effective environmental management. With an environmental management system in place, organizations will be able to: establish order and consistency in solving environmental issues; properly distribute the resources; determine responsibility; and continually assess their management, procedures and processes.
The international technical committee ISO/TC 207 Environmental Management
The ISO 14000 standards are developed and maintained by the international technical committee ISO/TC 207 Environmental Management, which was established in 1993. It is composed of six technical sub-committees and four working groups, two of which have already been dissolved:
|
ISO/TC 207/SC 1 |
Sistemi ravnanja z okoljem (Environmental Management Systems - EMS) |
|
ISO/TC 207/SC 2 |
Presojanje okolja in preiskave, povezane z okoljem (Environmental Auditing and Related Environmental Investigation - EA&RI) |
|
ISO/TC 207/SC 3 |
Okoljsko označevanje (Environmental Labeling - EL) |
|
ISO/TC 207/SC 4 |
Vrednotenje učinkov ravnanja z okoljem (Environmental Performance Evaluation - EPE) |
|
ISO/TC 207/SC 5 |
Ocenjevanje življenjskega cikla (Life Cycle Assessment - LCA) |
|
ISO/TC 207/SC 6 |
Izrazi in definicije (Terms and Definitions - T&D) |
|
ISO/TC 207/WG 1 |
Okoljski vidiki v standardih za proizvode (Environmental Aspects of Product Standards) - dissolved |
|
ISO/TC 207/WG 2 |
Gozdarstvo (Forestry ) - dissolved |
|
ISO/TC 207/SC 3 |
Načrtovanje za okolje (Design for the Environment - DFE) |
|
ISO/TC 207/SC 4 |
Okoljsko komuniciranje (Environmental Communication) |
The international TC does not develop standards for the following areas:
- Test methods for pollution measurement, which are developed by other TCs (ISO/TC 146 Kakovost zraka [Air Quality], ISO/TC 147 Kakovost vode [Water Quality], ISO/TC 190 Kakovost tal [Soil Quality] and ISO/TC 43 Akustika [Acoustics]);
- Does not set limit values for environmental polluters;
- Does not set the levels for environmental performance;
- Does not develop product standards.
Since the very beginning, ISO/TC 207 has been closely cooperating with ISO/TC 176 Quality Management and Quality Assurance, which develops the ISO 9000 family of standards. They are now intensely cooperating in the preparation of new editions of ISO 9000, with both TCs endeavoring to ensure the compatibility of both standard families in the area of management and auditing systems.
See http://www.tc207.org for more details on ISO/TC 207.
The Slovenian technical committee SIST/TC UZO Upravljanje z okoljem (Environmental Management)
The Slovenian technical committee USM/TC UZO Upravljanje z okoljem (Environmental Management) was set up in 1995 upon the initiative of the Slovenian Institute for Quality and Metrology. Its area of work includes standards for quality management system tools. The TC, however, does not prepare standards on pollution measurement test methods, which are prepared by other Slovenian technical committees, such as: SIST/TC KAV Kakovost vode (Water Quality), SIST/TC KAZ Kakovost zraka (Air Quality), SIST/TC KAT Kakovost tal (Soil Quality) and SIST/TC GFI Gradbena fizika (akustika) (Building Physics – Acoustics).
The TC prepares, adopts and issues the Slovenian National Standards on environmental management by adopting the International and European standards. Being an O-member of the ISO/TC 27, the TC actively follows the development and changes of the ISO 14000 standards.
The Kids' ISO 14000 Programme - www.iso.org/iso/en/kidsiso14000/index.html
|
|
Develops environmental awareness among children and young people |
|
|
|
Teaches them to implement environmental management based on the ISO 14000 approach in their homes and communities, and |
|
|
|
Opens them to the value of networking with young people in other schools, communities and countries in order to bring the force of collective action to global environmental issues. |
|
|
|
The Kids' ISO 14000 Programme is a powerful learning tool. Here and now, it helps children to achieve measurable environmental results on their own doorsteps. For tomorrow, it forms responsible, environmentally mature citizens with a global perspective. |
|
Applicable Slovenian National Standards (SIST) on Quality Management Systems
Other international standards and draft standards
