An Update on ISO 14,000 series related activities

For many years, industry and environmentalists have been at odds over the issue of environmental protection, specifically from the focus of the firm, as the movements of environmental conservation and protection have shifted to control at the point sources of pollution. Conceptually, long term sustainable conservation efforts can be positively affected by changing the daily operations at hundreds of thousands of production, storage and distribution facilities around the world.

The ISO 14,000 series has been a follow up to the quality oriented ISO 9,000 series of standards and is designed to enable business and organizational entities to measure, monitor and manage their environmental impacts that result from day to day activities. The mostly industry led initiative is changing the way businesses operate and perform both qualitatively and environmentally on a day to day basis. The theory is that environmental performance can be achieved by increasing environmental management effectiveness.

This paper provides a ‘millennium update’ on the recent events surrounding the development of the ISO 14,000 standards and particularly how their developments will affect Pakistan and developing nations as a whole. It also places emphasis on the way in which environmental standards are being applied to the public sector, in the form of the Sustainable Forestry Management (SFM) standards.

This working paper examines the standard setting process with particular focus on the ISO 14,000 Series which includes ISO 14,001, ISO 14,004, ISO 14,01, ISO 14,011, ISO 14,012, ISO 14,020, ISO 14,040, ISO 14,050, ISO 14,061 and their associated standards. The paper also highlights other standards in progress in Pakistan. It asserts that these standards have attracted global recognition.

The paper concludes by highlighting some concerns like the link between certification and environmental performance, public participation and transparency, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBTs), need for guidance in the standard, considering international agreements and makes the following recommendations:

• Needs for ISO 14,001 to be developed by a representative group to give it legitimacy
• Application of elements of ISO 14,000 in policy-making at the national level and the way that government is run.
• Lobby for existing country specific performance standards, levels, targets and
• objectives and policies to be included in the environmental performance aspect of the standard
• Monitor the activities of TC 207 with great care
• encourage cooperation between SMEs and larger firms to ensure inclusion of  the smaller, informal sectors in the certification process
• best available practices approach specific to Pakistani environmental and ecological make up
• Transnational corporations (TNCs) could establish supportive co-operation with their Pakistani suppliers in the area of EMS implementation
• Make general reference to the guidance within international environmental management standard