Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
ISO 14001
In September 1996 the International Standards Organization (ISO) published
ISO
14001: 1996, Environmental Management Systems - Specification with Guidance for
Use
. This standard offers the advantage of being applicable to any business sector or
activity and is recognized across the world. ISO 14001 registration can also apply to
a whole organization or an individual site, so it has greater flexibility than EMAS in
this respect. These and the other notable differences between EMAS and ISO 14001
are summarized in Table 7.1. Key criticisms of ISO 14001 are the lax requirements
for external reporting, compliance with regulations and demonstrations of continu-
ous environmental improvement (ENDS, 2000).
Ta b l e 7 . 1
Main differences between EMAS and ISO 14001
Elements where
differences occur
EMAS
ISO 14001
Geographical area of
recognition
EU
Worldwide
Applicable sectors
Industrial
Local authorities (UK only)
All
Organization level to which
registration applies
Site basis
Whole organization or site
Initial environmental review
An explicit requirement
An 'initial' review is not speci-
fied but is likely to be done as
information required for the
environmental policy
Frequency of EMS audit
Three years maximum
Not specified
Environmental statement
An externally verified environ-
mental statement is required
detailing environmental effects
identified by the review, environ-
mental policy and programme
Environmental statement not
a requirement, though envi-
ronmental policy should be
publicly available
Table 7.1 implies that ISO 14001 offers more flexibility than EMAS on a number of
issues. By May 2001, the number of companies registered under EMAS was 77 in
the UK and 3120 within Europe. By comparison, the number of companies accred-
ited to ISO 14001 was around 2000 in the UK and over 10,000 in Europe (ENDS,
2001b). Table 7.2 shows that the airport sector demonstrates a similar propensity
for ISO 14001, with 32 of the 38 airports either certified to, or progressing towards,
the international standard.
EMAS-2
In order to encourage more companies to opt for EMAS, the scheme has recently
been relaunched. EMAS Regulation 761/2001 came into force on 27 April 2001, and
with it came the opening up of the standard to all types of organization and the lift-
ing of the restriction to site-based registrations. Annual validation of environmental
