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Facts about the ISO 14001 environmental standard

ISO 14001 is an internationally recognised standard for environmental management. The standard is administered by the International Organization for Standardization, which is a network of national standardisation bodies from 162 countries, including Denmark.

The purpose of the standard is to help companies to take charge of their environmental impact as a whole and to actively work to improve the environment by introducing environmental improvements into the company’s production and processes. One of the requirements set by the standard is that the company must carry out a survey of its environmental impact as a whole and assess, which opportunities there are for improvements. It is, of course, also a requirement that the company complies with all current laws and regulations concerning the environment. And they must continually work to improve the company’s performance with regard to the environment.

The ISO 14001 standard describes the requirements for establishing an environmental management system based on the given company and its processes. The components of ISO 14001 deal with how work ought to be conducted in relation to the company’s environmental policies, planning, operations, control and management and improvements. The standard also provides guidelines for how environmental management should function within the organisation.

When a company is certified in accordance with ISO 14001, it commits itself to reduce its environmental impact as much as possible. This can, for example, include effecting savings on electricity, water and heating and working to phase out hazardous chemicals from production processes. Perhaps there is the possibility of carrying out an improved cleansing of waste water, and the company commits itself to sorting its refuse in the relevant fractions to ensure that as much as possible can be recycled.