Aim of an environmental management system

The purpose of this International Standard is to provide organizations with a framework to protect the environment and respond to changing environmental conditions in balance with socio-economic needs. It specifies requirements that enable an organization to achieve the intended outcomes it sets for its environmental management system.

A systematic approach to environmental management can provide top management with information to build success over the long term and create options for contributing to sustainable development by:

— protecting the environment by preventing or mitigating adverse environmental impacts;

— mitigating the potential adverse effect of environmental conditions on the organization;

— assisting the organization in the fulfilment of compliance obligations;

— enhancing environmental performance;

— controlling or influencing the way the organization’s products and services are designed, manufactured, distributed, consumed and disposed by using a life cycle perspective that can prevent environmental impacts from being unintentionally shifted elsewhere within the life cycle;

— achieving financial and operational benefits that can result from implementing environmentally sound alternatives that strengthen the organization’s market position;

— communicating environmental information to relevant interested parties.