The new ISO 14001 in brief

Global industry best practice streamlined into one revised environmental management standard.

Over 300,000 companies worldwide have a management system certified towards the environmental management system standard ISO 14001. The new version of ISO 14001 is developed with input from businesses, public sector, academia and trade associations across the globe.

How it benefits businesses?

Some of the key benefits of the standard are:

  • Reduces risk of environmental issues
  • Minimizes waste
  • Increases stakeholder confidence
  • Reduces costs while improving efficiency
  • Improves reputation
  • Keeps business up-to-date with latest legislative requirements
  • Opens up opportunities to market, segments and customers

Why the update?

Every 3-5 years the standard goes through a revision process. In September 2015 the new revision is launched aligning the standard to the latest industry and consumer demands and trends.

Key changes

Some of the key changes in the standard are:

  • Driven by leadership and require greater commitment from those at the top
  • Better strategic fit – increased alignment with your strategic direction
  • Greater protection for the environment – focus on proactive initiatives to protect the environment from harm and degradation
  • Life cycle thinking – considering each product stage from development to end-of-life

The revised standard will follow a common structure with the same terms and definitions as a number of other management systems, such as ISO 9001. This makes it quicker, cheaper and easier to implement.

For a more comprehensive overview of the changes, please see the presentation "New ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 – Key changes and transition" below.