ISO Standards Development
In preparation for the UNCED conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, business representatives highlighted the need for international standards for environmental management to provide a base for trade relationships. In 1991, the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), a worldwide federation of national standards bodies from some 90 countries, established the Strategic Advisory Group on Environment (SAGE) to investigate the need for standards on environmental topics. The ISO Technical Committee on Environmental Management was set up in 1993. It has now established six subcommittees which are currently developing a series of international standards and guidelines on:
- environmental management systems (EMS) - including specifications for certifying that an organisation has the management systems in place to meet its stated environmental goals;
- environmental auditing - including general principles, and procedures for the auditing of an environmental management system;
- environmental labelling - covering principles and practices, terms and definitions;
- environmental performance evaluation - for use by organisations to measure, assess, and communicate their environmental performance; and
- life cycle assessment - dealing with the environmental impacts of products and services across their entire life cycle, from source to manufacture, use, recycling and disposal.
A further group is dealing with terms and definitions in this area, with the objective of producing a guide on terminology.
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