ISO 14001 is a global standard for environmental management systems (EMS). The goal of the ISO 14001 standard is to give the top management of any organization a framework for managing environmental impacts.

Because of its generic nature and universal acceptance, ISO 14001 has the potential to affect the environmental management practices of virtually every manufacturing company in the world – its impact even extends beyond the industrial realm. Any company whose products, services or day-to-day activities have an impact on the environment needs to be aware of ISO 14001.

Like ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001 is also International Organization for Standardization for environmental management system. ISO 14001 is the world’s first generic, internationally recognized standard for environmental management. Of the group of ISO 14000 standards, ISO 14001 is the actual standard to which companies get registered. Experts are predicting that the impacts of this dynamic standard will transcend the vast popularity of the world-renowned ISO 9000 quality standard. ISO 14001 measures the conformance of an organization’s EMS to the specified requirements.

Through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), ISO 14001 is expected to become a prerequisite for doing business worldwide. Experts say it is the market forces which will drive acceptance of the new global environmental standards.