ISO 14001's 15th birthday

Environmental update 02/09/2011

Fifteen years after its initial introduction, ISO 14001 continues to grow, The Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment state that over 230,000 organisations worldwide have now achieved the standard.

Since its introduction in 1996, the acceptance of ISO 14001 as a business standard has been widely acknowledged. ISO, the international standard organisation recently stated that it feels that "14001 has achieved a truly global status and is thoroughly integrated with the world economy". This is evidence by the accelerated uptake of the standard; the total number of certificates awarded rose from 150,000 at the start of 2007 to 225,000 in spring 2010, claims IEMA.

Other environmental standards have not been as successful, with just 8,000 sites certified to EMAS (the European standard) by the end of March 2011 and only 640 companies have subscribed to the British Standard BS8555 (with only 160 currently on the register).

One of the major benefits of ISO 14001 is that during its 15 years it that it has only been revised once, which gives businesses a consistent platform in which to structure their environmental management arrangements.

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