Introduction
According to the needs of sustainable development and the environmental protection, ISO promulgated the ISO 14001 environmental management system standard in 1996 formally, and revised in 2004.The basic objective is to guide the organization to establish an environmental management self-restraint mechanism according to PDCA model. All of the leaders and workers deal with the relationship between personal development and environmental protection consciously, improve environmental performance continuously, and prevent pollution effectively, and ultimately achieve the benign development of the organization. The organization should support environmental protection, pollution prevention and continuous improvement through the establishment of environmental management system, and prove its environmental management system compliance and environmental management level to the outside world by obtaining a third party certification.
 
Specification
Voluntary
Fit for any organization
Organization has to manage the environmental aspects which it can control and those which it can influence
Focus on legal compliance
Focus on pollution prevention
Focus on continual improvement
Focus on interested parties
No specific environmental performance indicator be defined, but the legal compliance, pollution prevention and continual improvement are fundamental elements in EMS.
Significance
To improve the environmental behavior, and to avoid legal and environmental risks
To improve the management level of the organization, and to provide the scientific management mechanism for pollution prevention and sustainable development
To promote energy conservation and costs reduction
To enhance the market competitiveness and social reputation
To improve the management level and the environmental awareness of all employees