1. Introduction of ISO14001 Environmental Management System Standard

ISO14001 is the general term for a series of international environmental management standards formulated by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 207th Technical Committee (TC207) since 1993. It is different from the previous environmental emission standards and product technical standards set by various countries. It is an international standard. It has the function of a unified standard for all organizations such as industry, commerce, and government in the world to improve environmental management behavior.

  It consists of 7 parts including Environmental Management System (EMS) Environmental Behavior Evaluation (EPE), Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Environmental Management (EM), and Environmental Aspects in Product Standards (EAPS).

   Its standard numbers range from 14001 to 14100, a total of 100.

On April 1, 1997, the five international standards ISO14001, ISO14004, ISO14010, ISO14011 and ISO14012 that had been announced by the State Bureau of Technical Supervision were identified as national standards GB/T24001, GB/T24004, GB/T24010, GB/T24011 and GBT24012 is officially released.

   These five standards and their brief introductions are as follows:

1. ISO14001 (GB/T24001-1996) Environmental Management System - Specification and Guidelines for Use This standard specifies the requirements for an environmental management system and describes the certification/registration and/or self-declaration of an organization's environmental management system The requirement for an objective review. By implementing this standard, the relevant organizations are convinced that a sound environmental management system has been established.

2. ISO14004 (GB/T24004--1996) Environmental Management System-General Guidelines for Principles, Systems and Supporting Technologies This standard describes the elements of an environmental management system and provides organizations with suggestions for establishing, improving or maintaining an effective environmental management system. It is a tool and textbook for guiding enterprises to establish and improve the environmental management system.

  3. ISO14010 (GB/T24010--1996) Environmental Audit Guidelines - General Principles This standard specifies the general principles of environmental audits, including related environmental audits and related terms and definitions. Environmental auditing activities undertaken by any organization, auditor and client to verify and help improve environmental performance should meet the practices recommended in this guide.

4. This standard specifies the procedures for planning and implementing the environmental management system audit to determine whether it conforms to the audit criteria of the environmental management system, including the purpose, role and responsibilities of the environmental management system audit, the steps of the audit and the preparation of the audit report, etc. .

ISO14012 (GB/T24012--1996) Environmental Management Audit Guidelines - Qualification Requirements for Environmental Management Auditors This standard proposes the qualification requirements for the audit team leader of environmental auditors, applicable to internal and external auditors, including their Education, work experience, training, qualities and competencies, and how to maintain competencies and ethics are all specified.

   This series of standards is ISO14001 at the core, and is gradually developed for the organization's product and service activities to form a comprehensive and complete evaluation method. It can be said that these series of standards provide a complete set of scientific management systems for the environmental management departments of countries and organizations, reflecting the ideas and methods of environmental management under market conditions.

   2. ISO14001--Why is the international environmental management standard necessary?

The    standard was originally intended to be good for the environment as well as for the economy and of course social issues.

   There is no doubt that the development of the world economy in recent years has brought numerous benefits and social progress. As far as economic development is concerned, there are naturally clear differences around the world. The industrialized countries of the West, the United States and the European Union, are among the economic leaders, and in many ways they are role models.

  China is developing into an industrial country at an alarming rate. The strong economic growth, especially manifested by the economic development zones, clearly demonstrates this progress. Industrial nations have also had a bitter experience to some extent, with unbridled economic growth accompanied by huge environmental problems.

   These environmental issues have been ignored for a long time. The century just ended was a century of plundering nature. In this new millennium, conservation of nature will be at the center of social activity. Environmental protection and economic development are two important aspects of social development.

   Compliance with internationally recognized standards, especially environmental standards, is an issue that affects international competitiveness. Especially for exporting countries such as China, compliance with international standards is an important issue. The economic development zone is like the engine of China's economic development. It is not a secondary task to seek urgent and necessary environmental protection measures in a timely manner, which has become the top priority at present.

   Although ISO14001 is a voluntary standard and this cannot be changed, the Chinese government has declared the implementation of ISO14001 as a goal of national environmental policy. Therefore, we signed a cooperation project between the Chinese and German governments to promote and support the implementation of ISO14001 in Chinese enterprises.

   We should always realize that even in Europe, environmental protection is not something that came out of thin air, but has gone through a process of development. At that time, there was pressure from consumers and related parties, legislative pressure, and increased waste treatment costs, especially for industrial waste, that is, special waste treatment prices. In particular, the latter illustrates that, given the ever-increasing costs of waste disposal, companies can indeed save money if they can reduce waste production. Designing solutions to reduce corporate waste generation means "environmental stewardship".

   In the coming years, the cost of waste disposal in China will also rise, and measures of "environmental management" will also help save money here.

  3. Under what background did the ISO14001 series of standards come about?

   In 1972, the United Nations convened a conference on the human environment in Stockholm, Sweden.

   The General Assembly established an independent committee, the "World Commission on Environment and Development". The Commission undertook the investigation task of re-evaluating the relationship between environment and development. After several years, after examining a large number of materials, it published the report "Our Common Future" in 1987. This report introduced the concept of "sustainable development" for the first time, urging The industry establishes an effective environmental management system. As soon as the report was released, it was supported by leaders of more than 50 countries, who jointly called for a world conference to discuss the topic and formulate a programme of action.

   Since the 1980s, some companies in the United States and Western Europe have begun to establish their own environmental management methods in order to respond to the call for sustainable development, reduce pollution, improve their image in the public, and obtain commodity business support. This is the embryonic form of the environmental management system. In 1985, the Netherlands took the lead in proposing the concept of establishing an enterprise environmental management system, which was implemented on a trial basis in 1988. In 1990, it entered the environmental roundtable meeting to discuss the issue of environmental auditing. The United Kingdom also formulated the BS7750 environmental management system on the basis of the quality system standard (BS5750).

   After the implementation of BS7750 in the United Kingdom and the environmental audit in the European Union, many countries in Europe have carried out certification activities, and a third party will certify the environmental performance of enterprises. These practical activities have laid the foundation for the production of the ISO14001 series of standards.

  The "Environment and Development" conference was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. 183 countries and more than 70 international organizations attended the conference and adopted documents such as "Agenda 21". The convening of this conference marks the beginning of the era of global pursuit of sustainable development. Government leaders, scientists and the public realize that in order to achieve the goal of sustainable development, it is necessary to change the strategy of industrial pollution control, start with strengthening environmental management, and establish a new concept of pollution prevention (cleaner production). Through the enterprise's "self-decision, self-control, self-management" approach, environmental management is integrated into the overall management of the enterprise.

To this end, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) established the ISO/TC3207 Environmental Management Technical Committee in June 1993 to formally formulate a series of environmental management standards to plan the environment for the activities, products and services of all organizations such as enterprises and social groups. act in support of global environmental protection efforts.