ISO 14001 revision proceeds to final stage

ISO 14001 on environmental management systems has progressed to Final Draft International Standard – the next stage in the ISO standard revision process – following approval of the latest draft by an impressive 92 % at the end of 2014.

Every three to five years, all ISO standards undergo a review to ensure they are relevant and up to date. ISO 14001 is a critical environmental standard. One that pulls together all environmental issues, be they water, air, climate, soil, and requires organizations to think about them all in a holistic manner.

The current revision is an important step in the evolution of the standard and will see some improvements on the previous edition. Some of these changes are based on a user survey conducted by the committee, which received over 5000 responses from 110 countries. As a result, the new version will see greater focus on:
• Strategic environmental management
• Leadership
• Protecting the environment
• Environmental performance
• Life-cycle thinking

ISO 14001 is now at the Final Draft International Standard stage. This means that experts revising the standard will go through all the comments received during the previous public consultation (DIS) at their next meeting in Tokyo on 2-7 February 2015. The outcome will be a final draft, which will be put forward for voting. Once approved, the standard will be published. The new version is expected by the end of 2015.

Article Reference: ISO org