Growing awareness amongst managers, shareholders, employees and customers of the importance of treating the natural environment with care, including in the workplace, combined with the benefits of financial management and legal considerations, is helping to reduce the negative impact on the natural environment.
There has always been a conflict between the natural environment and human activity. This is particularly evident in the case of industrial enterprises, which consume large amounts of energy and natural resources.
Various measures were then developed to minimise the harmful impact of production processes on the environment. In 1985, the German Association for Environmental Management was founded – the world’s first organisation of industrialists to adopt a code of conduct for environmental management.
International initiatives in the fields of quality management and environmental management, with significant input from the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), led to the development of the ISO 14000 series of standards.
The concept of the environmental management system set out in ISO 14001 is based on the principles of total quality management. However, this standard does not specify any particular requirements. The fundamental objectives of this system are to improve the relationship between the effects of human activity and the natural environment.
This is achieved through waste prevention, reducing the volume of waste and pollution at source, and waste management. The system aims to organise and standardise activities aimed at environmental protection.
Environmental management system certification based on ISO 14001 is aimed at all organisations operating across various sectors. However, its implementation is particularly recommended in the energy sector, for companies involved in waste treatment and recycling, for manufacturing companies, as well as for commercial and service organisations, including those in the medical sector.
At present, companies that do not attach much importance to reducing their negative impact on the environment come across as less credible.
Environmental awareness amongst the public is already very well developed, and environmental protection measures are becoming increasingly well known. Consequently, a lack of involvement in this area may be seen as a sign of ignorance. It is companies that can do more good than individual consumers, and it is companies that can cause greater harm to the environment around us by disregarding this issue in their day-to-day operations and the strategies they adopt.
The ISO 14001 standard is designed to be a universal standard that can be implemented in organisations across various sectors and under different conditions. Its main objective is to minimise negative impacts on the environment.
This standard reflects a company’s environmental policy. As an international standard for environmental management systems (EMS), it helps to identify, assess the significance of, and manage environmental risks.
