Environmental Management Systems and Environmental Management Tools
The series is made up of documents related to EMS - environmental management tools (i.e.,all other ISO 14000 series documents). This approach takes the view that establishment and implementation of an organization's EMS is of central importance in determining the organization's environmental policy,objectives,and targets. Environmental management tools exist to assist the organization in realizing its environmental policy, objectives, and targets.
Environmental Aspects
Identifying the environmental aspects of an organization's activities, product and services, and determining their relative signification, are important elements of implementing an EMS or conducting EPE (environmental performance evaluation) inan organization. ISO 14001, ISO 14004 and ISO 14031 provide guidance on identifying significant environmental aspects.
ISO 14040 states in its introduction: "LCA (life cycle assessment) is a techniquefor assessing the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated (with products and services ) ...LCA can assist in identifying opportunities to improve the environmental aspects of (products and services) at various points in their life cycle".
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Reporting and communicating
In general, the management of an organization will decide the content format of any environmental reporting or communicating. However, the organization may find that it has a number of different reporting needs and intended audiences. ISO 14001 and ISO 14004 provide guidance on reporting and communicating information on the environmental aspects and the EMS of an organization. ISO 14010 and ISO 14011 provide guidance on the preparation,content and distributions and claims can be viewed as ways in which the environmental aspects of products and services are reported or communicated, the ISO 14020 standards provide appropriate guidance. ISO 14031 provide appropriate guidance on reporting and communicating performance of an organization. The ISO 14040 standards provide guidance on reporting and communicating the results of an LCA study.
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