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A group of European environmental and consumer organizations released a consensus review of ISO's environmental management standards (ISO 14000 series). The paper reviewed key standards in the series including environmental management systems, environmental labels and declarations, environmental performance evaluation, life cycle assessment, and environmental communication. The analysis highlights major problems with the standards, and suggests an outline of necessary changes and additions from a public interest perspective.

Proposals to Develop New Standards on Eco-efficiency and Desert Management [5/20/07]

In February 2007, Sweden submitted a proposal - formally named a New Work Item Proposal (NWIP) in ISO terminology - to develop a new international standard on eco-efficiency. The prospective standard would be entitled "Methodological framework for eco-efficiency - with practical guidance for open, comprehensive and understandable presentation of eco-efficiency measures." The purpose of the proposed standard is to harmonize eco-efficiency measurement methods by creating consistent frameworks and definitions pertaining to eco-efficiency-related calculations and communication. The proposal was circulated in February to the members of the TC 207 for a three-month ballot.

Meanwhile, Egypt, China, and Spain are in the process of developing an NWIP to develop a standard on desertification management and mitigation. Egypt first proposed such a standard at TC 207's 2005 plenary meeting in Lisbon. Since then, a brainstorming session was held in at the most recent TC 207 Chair's Advisory Group (CAG) meeting, with the advisory body recommending the proponents of the desertification standard organize a workshop at the Beijing plenary meeting to gather more feedback on the project's scope.

Revision of the TC 207 Strategic Plan [5/20/07]

TC 207 has recently been undertaking strategic planning activities, building upon its first strategic plan developed in 2003, as well as its 2005 TC 207 Business Plan. The most recent strategic planning session was held in conjunction with the TC 207 CAG meeting in Berlin in February 2007. The general conclusion from the Berlin session was that the goals and activities in the original strategic plan are still valid but need some updating. Further, the CAG decided to develop implementation proposals to update the existing strategic plan. A draft strategic plan update was circulated to CAG members in early May, and will be presented to and discussed by the full TC 207 membership at the Beijing plenary meeting.

Of note is a proposal put forward at the Berlin strategic session to revise TC 207's scope from "Standardization in the field of environmental management systems and tools in support of sustainable development" to "Standardization in the field of sustainability management, including tools, systems and performance." The purpose of such a change would be to reorient (and likely expand) the committee's work around sustainability issues. A number of countries do not support such a change in scope, and the proposal will certainly be the focus of spirited discussions at the Beijing plenary. Regardless of any conclusions reached at the TC 207 plenary, because there are a number of ISO bodies that develop standards related to sustainability, such as the Working Group on Social Responsibility and TC 176, which recently released a draft standard entitled "Managing for sustainability - a quality management approach," such a change in scope for the TC 207 would require coordination and consultation with other ISO committees as well as approval of ISO's senior management.

NGO-CAG Task Force Submits to TC 207 Its First Deliverables to Improve Balanced Participation [5/20/07]

An eight-person group consisting of NGOs and representatives of TC 207's CAG prepared and circulated a number of documents, which collectively represent the first phase of the group's effort to increase the effectiveness of NGO participation in TC 207.

Recommendations for an improved balance of stakeholder participation in ISO TC 207 - a review of the ISO Directives to determine where additional operational guidance can improve stakeholder-based decision making.
Stakeholder involvement efforts at the national level: summary and analysis of the NSB survey results
Update report by the TC 207 Secretary of the governance structure of the TC with the focus on how it undertakes long-term strategic planning, and sets and implements policy decisions.
Letter from the TC 207 Chair encouraging stakeholder balance in delegation - a formal letter from the Chair of TC 207 to National Standards Bodies (NSBs) communicating his desire that NSBs make an effort to have balanced stakeholder representation at international meetings, particularly at the WG level. In addition, the TC 207 Secretariat has also tentatively established four stakeholder categories to review and track the stakeholder balance at TC 207 meetings. The provisional categories are

a) Government (bodies with policy or regulatory authority);
b) Producer Interest (those who have or represent an industrial/manufacturing interest);
c) Service/Professional (those providing advice or services, including those representing standards development organizations); and
d) General/Public Interest (those who are not primarily associated with commercial interests).

The abovementioned documents represent the Phase 1 deliverables laid out in the Task Force's January 2005 workplan, which itself represents a first step to implement the recommendations identified in the foundational report, Increasing the Effectiveness of NGO Participation in ISO TC207. The CAG will discuss these draft documents at its two Beijing meetings, as well as any recommendations that will be made to the TC 207 membership regarding how to move forward. The full committee will make a final decision on the CAG's recommendation(s) at the closing plenary session on June 29th.

Proposal to Create a new ISO/TC 207 Subcommittee on Climate Change [5/20/2007]

TC 207's two Working Groups that developed international standards on Greenhouse Gas Emissions (ISO 14064 and 14065) - Working Group 5 on Climate Change and Working Group 6 on Greenhouse Gas Validation and Verification Bodies - are proposing to merge and establish an umbrella subcommittee responsible for the maintenance of these standards, and perhaps also the development of other climate change-related standards. TC 207 will decide whether to create such a Subcommittee on Climate Change at its Beijing plenary meeting.

European Public Interest Groups Release a Position Statement on the Future of EMS-Based Environmental Policy [5/20/2007]

A group of European environmental and consumer organizations released a position statement on the European Commission's Environmental Management Systems-based Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). The position paper questions the value and usefulness of the EMAS scheme in its present form, and calls for substantive reform. In particular, the paper identifies a lack of performance requirements and absence of mandatory set of comparable performance indicators as major shortcomings of the voluntary leadership program. The group proposes to establish general and sector specific minimum performance requirements going beyond legal compliance, making EMAS the equivalent of an eco-label for companies. The position statement builds upon the findings of relevant studies, including the report "Going Beyond EMS" published by Force Technology in May 2006.

NGO task group within ISO's environmental committee develops operational guidance to improve stakeholder involvement [3/7/06]

A task group consisting of NGOs and representatives of the leadership within ISO's environmental management committee (TC 207) released draft recommendations for operational guidance to improve balance of stakeholder participation in the committee's work. The recommendations were based on the joint group's analysis of the relevant parts of ISO's official rules (ISO/IEC Directives Part 1 - Procedures for technical work) pertaining to participation and decision making in standards development. The task group chair will present the draft document at the TC 207 leadership's midyear meeting in Trinidad in early March. The task group intends to revise and recirculate the piece based on input received at the meeting.

Report from the ISO/TC 207 2005 Plenary Meeting [10/17/05]

ISO Technical Committee (TC) 207 - Environmental Management held its 13th annual plenary meeting in Madrid, Spain, September 12-16, 2005. Progress was made on several draft standards (discussed in more detail below), with four environmental standards nearly finalized. In addition to the actual standards development work, the committee took decisions on a number of policy-related topics including:

- As part of its ongoing effort to improve developing country participation, TC 207 resolved to work with ISO/DEVT (ISO Development and Training Programmes) to investigate the reestablishment of funding support to delegates from developing countries,
- TC 207 established a new Task Group to identify and secure funding support for developing country Sub-Committee Vice-Chairs, who have recently been appointed in accordance with ISO's new leadership "twinning" policy, and
- The NGO-CAG Task Force continued work on its plan to improve the balance of stakeholders involved in TC 207's activities. Phase 1 of the workplan, which consists of five elements, was approved overwhelmingly by the TC 207 Participating membership by letter ballot ending in December 2004.

For a more detailed summary of the TC 207 annual meeting click here.

International Accreditation Forum Suspends Its Work to Examine Relationship Between Regulatory Compliance and ISO 14001 [10/17/05]

The International Accreditation Forum (IAF), an association of standards conformity assessment accreditation bodies worldwide, decided to suspend its examination of the relationship between ISO 14001 certification and compliance with environmental regulations. The first draft of the w hite paper was released in September 2004 and aimed to clarify how certification bodies should evaluate an environmental management system with respect to legal compliance. The drafting group tasked with producing the white paper had been experiencing difficulty moving forward due to the diversity of positions among its members, as well as the negative industry feedback the group received on its second draft. In particular, the group could not reach consensus on how to reconcile the significant differences in practice with regard to how accreditation bodies, certification/registration bodies, and the regulatory community in various parts of the world audit the requirements of the standard that relate to regulatory compliance. The IAF decided to withdraw the work in this area at its September 2005 meeting, however, it kept this topic on its agenda, and asked its members to pay attention to the related publications and research by other organizations and public/industry reaction to them.

International Accreditation Forum Launches Project to Examine Relationship Between Regulatory Compliance and ISO 14001 Certification [8/19/04]

The International Accreditation Forum (IAF), an association of conformity assessment accreditation bodies worldwide, will develop a white paper that examines what ISO 14001 certification achieves in terms of regulatory compliance with environmental regulations. A group of experts were appointed to carry out the task, including environmental regulators, environmental professionals, auditing experts and members of ISO/TC 207 and ISO's Committee on Conformity Assessment (CASCO). The result of the analysis will inform the current development of International Standards on management systems certification, and serve as the basis for enhancing IAF's ISO/IEC Guide 66, which sets the requirements for certification and auditing bodies for ISO 14001. Click here for the IAF Communique.

The Schedule for ISO 14001 and 14004 Publication Delayed [8/19/04]

The Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) ballots were expected to be circulated to the member countries in late May or June, 2004, but there was some delay in the ISO central Secretariat-led editing process. The new expected release for the FDIS ballot is August 26. The final International Standard is expected to be published by the end of year 2004, once the FDIS is approved by ISO member bodies, which is all but certain given broad-based support for the existing documents.

Revised Versions of ISO 14001 and 14004 Nearing Final Approval [3/26/04]

ISO's Environmental Management System (EMS) standards ISO 14001 and ISO 14004, which were originally published in 1996, are approaching completion of their first revision process. The two major objectives of the revision were to clarity key concepts and language in the standards, and to increase their compatibility with the ISO 9000 quality management standards. In January 2004, ISO Technical Committee 207 approved elevating the revised standards to the "Final Draft International Standard" stage. The vote passed by a large margin (51 out of 54), with the US, Canada, and Finland the only countries casting negative votes. The new standards will go through a final round of fine-tuning and voting later this year and are scheduled for publication by the end of 2004.

Analysis
The revised standards are noteworthy for their move toward more specific requirements and emphasis on regulatory compliance. The new standards will have a stronger correlation between an organization's legal requirements (compliance) and the requirements of the ISO 14001 EMS standard (conformity). These two concepts were separated in the prior iteration of the standards, but are now being merged, meaning that organizations that are out of legal compliance will now be deemed non-conforming vis-à-vis the standard. This shift is seen favorably by countries and stakeholders that consider EMS a possible supplemental tool for command and control-based regulatory systems, but was opposed by groups that see the potential for EMS to become yet another regulatory hurdle. In fact, a main reason for the US' disapproval vote on the revised ISO 14001 standard comes largely from the concern among some in industry that this trend might create increased legal liability and burden of proof for the companies certifying their ISO 14001 EMSs with third-party registrars.

New Guidance on Using Environmenal Management Systems to Communicate with Stakeholders [3/26/04]

In an effort to make EMSs more useful to businesses, environmentalists, decision makers, and the public, the Multi-State Working Group on Environmental Performance (MSWG) released "The External Value Environmental Management System Voluntary Guidance: Gaining Value by Addressing Stakeholder Needs." This new Guidance document offers advice to those organizations that want to develop a management system that goes beyond the minimum requirements of the ISO 14001 EMS standard and that delivers measurable and reliable value to external audiences, such as government authorities, local communities, customers and suppliers, environmental groups, investors and the financial community, among others.

The Guidance document focuses on three key elements of successful EMS:
* Achievement and demonstration of legal compliance;
* Involvement of external stakeholders;
* External communications, transparency and reporting.

The Guidance document describes why including such elements in an EMS will build credibility with external stakeholders, and provides practical advice on how these particular elements can be designed and implemented to deliver the desired outcomes. This Guidance is intended for any organization that is putting an EMS into place that seeks to address the expectations of, and secure the confidence of, external audiences.

Resources and Links

ISO Documents
Draft International Standard ISO 14001 (2004)

Draft International Standard ISO 14004 (2004)

UK's Accreditation Organization Developing Procedures to Measure the Effectiveness of EMS (2004)

Proceedings:"Joint workshop to examine connections between environmental management systems and permitting, inspection and enforcement in regulation" (2003)

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