The history of the ISO 14001 Standard?

The ISO 14001 series emerged primarily as a result of the Uruguay round of the GATT negotiations and the Rio Summit on the Environment held in 1992. While GATT concentrates on the need to reduce non-tariff barriers to trade, the Rio Summit generated a commitment to protection of the environment across the world.
After the rapid acceptance of ISO 9000, and the increase of environmental standards around the world, the International Standards Organisation (ISO) assessed the need for international environmental management standards. They formed the Strategic Advisory Group on the Environment (SAGE) in 1991, to consider whether such standards could serve to:

• Promote a common approach to environmental management similar to quality management;
• Enhance organizations' ability to attain and measure improvements in environmental performance; and
• Facilitate trade and remove trade barriers.

In 1992, SAGE's recommendations created a new committee, TC 207, for international environmental management standards. This committee and its sub-committees included representatives from industry, standards organizations, government and environmental organizations from many countries. What developed was a series of ISO14000 standards designed to cover:

• environmental management systems
• environmental auditing
• environmental performance evaluation
• environmental labelling
• life-cycle assessment
• environmental aspects in product standards