ISO14000 Introduction

After the success of the ISO9000 series

of quality standards, the International
Standards Organization published a
comprehensive set of standards for
environmental management.

The new series of ISO14000

standards are designed to cover:
environmental management systems
environmental auditing
environmental performance evaluation
environmental labeling
life-cycle assessment
environmental aspects in product
standards

Why have these standards ?

A

set of international standards

brings a world-wide focus to the
environment, encouraging a cleaner,
safer, healthier world for us all.
The existence of the standards
allows organizations to focus
environmental efforts against an
internationally accepted criteria

Who do the standards apply to ?

The standards apply to all types and sizes
of organizations and are designed to
encompass diverse geographical, cultural
and social conditions
The standard does not establish absolute
requirements for environmental
performance
Except for committing to continual
improvement and compliance with
applicable legislation and regulations

What do the standards apply to ?

No limit to the coverage of the
environmental management system in
that it can include the organization's
products, services, activities, operations,
facilities, transportation, etc.

for environmental impact resulting from

current practices,
past practices and
future practices

What does the ISO 14000 Series

cover ?

Official Sources of the Standards

THE STANDARDS
The standards themselves are now most
commonly procured in the form of downloads,
usually in PDF format. The major two standards,
ISO 14001 and ISO 14004, along with the audit
standard ISO 19011, can be obtained via the
ISO 14000 Download Page at BSI's Standards
Direct outlet
MANUAL, PROCEDURES, TEMPLATES
There are many commercial offerings of
templates and tools
One of the most straight forward and widely used
of these is the ISO 14000 and ISO 14001 Toolkit
at
http://www.14000-toolkit.com/

The objectives were to:

Implement an EMS based on ISO 14001 to
a core group of dairy farmers and measure
the effectiveness of the EMS
Undertake a supply chain EMS or life cycle
analysis (LCA) study highlighting
environmental impacts, wastes and
inefficiencies along the Bega Cheese
supply chain, from cradle to grave
Establish the Bega Cooperative Factory
EMS, currently in progress, and investigate
the feasibility of accrediting their farms
and factory EMS to ISO 14001 standard or
an alternative accreditation scheme.

Life cycle analysis (LCA)

An LCA was undertaken for a block of Bega
cheese in order to identify environmental
inefficiencies from the paddock to the plate.
The LCA showed that increasing productivity
without necessarily increasing inputs makes
a signifi cant and positive environmental
contribution per unit of product.
For example implementing water efficiency
measures can result in more grass per
megalitre of water used, and ultimately
more milk.

BEMS
A

modifi ed EMS, now known as

BEMS, was developed based on a 4
step process:
hazard analysis
corrective action
monitor
review.

Bega Cheese
Bega

Cheese is developing an ISO

14001 EMS process at factory level to
enhance current management
systems.
The farm BEMS process will be
integrated into the factory ISO 14001
environmental programme to create a
whole-of-chain environmental
system.