ISO 14001
ISO 14001 is the international standard for environmental management systems. It sets the requirements an organization must meet to manage its environmental impacts, comply with its legal obligations and improve its performance, and it can be certified by an accredited body.
The standard follows the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle: analyze the context and environmental aspects, set objectives, put controls in place, measure, audit and review. It shares the harmonized structure of other ISO management system standards, such as ISO 9001 for quality and ISO 45001 for health and safety, so companies often run them as one integrated system.
Certification runs on a three-year cycle: an initial audit, then annual surveillance audits and a recertification audit. An ISO 14001 certificate is accepted as strong evidence in EcoVadis and in many tenders.