ISO 14001, the world's first widely adopted international standard for environmental management systems, 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, and the new version of the standard has been officially released. 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 participated in this revision, which incorporates a series of updates designed to help organizations deal with changing business conditions - from climate change to supply chain management.

  ISO 14001 provides a framework for organizations to reduce their environmental impact, reduce waste and conserve energy while their business continues to grow. ISO 14001 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.

   ISO 14001:2015 changes include:

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

  2. For senior management, a new opportunity to further ensure that environmental management is integrated into core business processes and objectives

  3. Refocus on the risks faced by the organization (e.g. price volatility of raw materials) and the opportunities these risks present (higher resource efficiency)

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

  ISO 14001:2015 Standard Version Timeline:

  1, July 2014 - ISO 14001:2015 DIS released

  2. December 2014 - ISO International Organization for Standardization officially voted to pass the ISO 14001:2015 DIS version, and the new standard entered the FDIS stage

3. April 2015 - The key meeting for the update of ISO 14001:2015 was held in the UK, and the ISO technical committee ISO/TC 207/WG 5 responsible for the revision of ISO 14001 stated that they were at this meeting towards the release of ISO 14001:2015 A significant step has been taken.

  4, May 2015 - ISO 14001:2015 FDIS version voted through

  5, September 2015 - ISO 14001:2015 was officially released on September 15th.