As the world's first widely adopted international standard for environmental management systems, ISO14001 has helped more than 300,000 organizations around the world improve their environmental performance. At present, the standard has undergone the first major revision since its official release in 1996. The new version of the standard was officially released on September 15, 2015.

The new version of the standard ensures that it can continue to help organizations improve business processes, save costs and meet future environmental challenges. Environmental experts from more than 70 countries have contributed to the revision, which incorporates a series of updates designed to help organizations deal with changing business conditions - from climate change to supply chain management.

ISO14001 provides a framework for organizations to reduce their environmental impact, reduce waste and conserve energy while their business continues to grow. ISO14001 can also help companies be more innovative, improve management system processes, meet relevant regulatory requirements, and enhance their credibility with investors, customers and the public. Ultimately, this new standard will help businesses keep pace with changes in the environment, ensuring they stay ahead of the curve.

Organizations can easily overlook factors that are critical to successful environmental management. ISO14001 helps companies put their most pressing issues at the forefront, helping them meet environmental requirements, improve efficiency and environmental performance. Standards are designed to help organizations remain commercially successful without giving up their environmental responsibilities.

Changes to ISO 14001 include:

The new High-Level Structure (HLS) uses terms, definitions, headings and text that are common to all management system standards to allow for easy integration when implementing multiple management systems

For senior management, new opportunities to further ensure that environmental management is integrated into core business processes and objectives Refocusing on the risks the organization faces (eg: price volatility of raw materials) and the opportunities these risks present (higher resource energy efficiency )

New thinking on the organizational environment to help them understand their environment and the impact on the environment, as well as the impact of environmental issues (eg climate change) on the business itself.

Existing certified customers will have three years to transition from the 2004 version to the new version of the standard from the date of publication of the new version of the standard.