The Industrial Revolution led to significant environmental problems due to uncontrolled use of natural resources and pollution. This pushed nations to enact environmental legislation in the 1970s to protect the environment. The ISO published the ISO 14001 standard in 1996 to help organizations develop environmental management systems and demonstrate sound environmental performance in compliance with legal requirements. Over 150,000 organizations worldwide have been certified to ISO 14001. PECB offers training and certification services to help professionals and organizations implement ISO 14001 environmental management systems.

1. www.pecb.org
The Role of Legal Requirements in
Environmental Management
System

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Years between late 1700s and the early 1900s, also known as the
Industrial Revolution, have been years with significant changes to society,
economy and environment. During this period, changes and innovations
in technology have brought growth in different industrial sectors such as
agriculture, manufacturing, mining and overall mass production.
As global industrialization continued to grow, its impacts on environment
became more evident. Transition from manual labor to modern
machinery, introduction of steam engines used in different industrial
sectors, uncontrolled use of natural resources, generation of wastes and
emissions have led to many serious environmental problems such as air
and water pollution, greenhouse gases emission, depletion of the ozone
layer, global warming, climatic disasters, water scarcity, deforestation,
etc.
All these changes have pushed nations to enact legislations in order to
protect the environment and mitigate their negative environmental impacts.
Early seventies have been the years when environmental agreements
have been passed into an international level; including establishment of
the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the United
Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the Geneva Convention on long-range
trans-boundary air pollution, the Helsinki Agreement on reduction
of sulfur dioxide emissions; the Montreal Protocol on substances that
deplete the ozone layer, and the Basel Convention on trans-boundary
movements of hazardous wastes.

3. ISO 14001 - World’s most recognized framework for Environmental Management Systems (EMS).
In 1996, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published the first international standard
specifying requirements for environmental management systems, to enable organizations to develop
a policy and objectives taking into account legislative requirements. Since then, in order to demonstrate
sound environmental performance, more than 150 000 organizations worldwide have been certified to this
international standard. Besides many other benefits such as improved overall environmental performance,
reduced environmental impacts, and conservation of natural resources, ISO 14001 help organizations improve
their regulatory compliance. Not surprisingly, in a recent study conducted by Ernst and Young, more than 80
percent of companies participated in the survey have referred to the compliance as their primary motivation
for adopting an environmental management system.
In spite of the fact that laws and regulations do not require companies to implement an environmental
management system, yet adoption and implementation of such a system is seen as an appropriate mechanism
to help them meet applicable legal requirements and comply with requirements to which the company
subscribes.
Professional Evaluation and Certification Board (PECB) is a certification body for persons on a wide
range of professional standards. Among others it also offers ISO 14001 training and certification services
for professionals wanting to gain a comprehensive knowledge of the main processes of an EMS; project
managers or consultants wanting to prepare and to support an organization in the implementation of an EMS;
auditors wanting to perform and lead EMS certification audits, and staff involved in the implementation of the
ISO 14001 standard.
ISO 14001 and Environment Trainings offered by PECB:
• Certified ISO 14001 Lead Implementer (5 days)
• Certified ISO 14001 Lead Auditor (5 days)
• Certified ISO 14001 Foundation (2 days)
• ISO 14001 Introduction (1 day)
Lead Auditor, Lead Implementer and Master are certification schemes accredited by ANSI ISO/IEC 17024.
Narta Voca is the Heath, Safety and Environment (HSE) Product Manager at PECB. She is in charge of
developing and maintaining training courses related to HSE. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate
to contact her at hse@pecb.org.
For further information, please visit www.pecb.org/en/training
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