History and Evolution of ISO 14000

The ISO 14000 series emerged primarily as a result of the Uruguay round of the GATT negotiations and the Rio Summit on the Environment held in 1992. While GATT concentrated on the need to reduce non-tariff barriers to trade, the Rio Summit generated a commitment to protection of the environment across the world. The environmental field had seen a steady growth of national and regional standards. The British Standards Institution had BS 7750, the Canadian Standards Association had environmental management, auditing, eco-labeling and other standards, the European Union had all of these plus the eco-management and audit regulations, and many other countries (e.g. USA, Germany and Japan) had introduced eco-labeling programmes.
 
After the rapid acceptance of ISO 9000, and the increase of environmental standards around the world, the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) assessed the need for international environmental management standards. They formed the Strategic Advisory Group on the Environment (SAGE) in 1991, to consider whether such standards could serve to:
Promote a common approach to environmental management similar to quality management
Enhance organizations' ability to attain and measure improvements in environmental performance
Facilitate trade and remove trade barriers

In 1992, SAGE's recommendations created a new ISO technical committee, TC 207, for international environmental management standards. The committee, and its sub-committees included representatives from industry, standards organizations, government and environmental organizations from many countries. The ISO 14000 series of standards were first published in 1996. They were designed to cover:
 
• environmental management systems
• environmental auditing
• environmental performance evaluation
• environmental labeling
• life-cycle assessment
• environmental aspects in product standards
 
ISO 14000 Year 2004 Revision

In 2004, the revised ISO 14001:2004 and ISO 14004:2004 standards were published, bringing a great improvement from the 1996 version, with ease of understanding, clearer requirement intent, an emphasis on compliance, and compatibility with ISO 9000:2000.
 
The ISO 14001:2004 revision includes clarification of the requirements, alignment with ISO 9000:2000, more emphasis on certain requirements and the folding in of additional requirements. The alignment with ISO 9000:2000 allows companies that are interested in combining an Environmental Management System (EMS) and Quality Management System (QMS), an ease of transition to the revision. The combining of the management systems can be a natural progression for companies with joint organizational resources.

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