An Environmental Management System (EMS) provides a framework to manage environmental impacts and help your organization reduce costs and improve efficiency.

ISO 14001 is a management system standard. It is not a performance or product standard, although the framers developed it with the idea that implementing the standard should result in improved industry environmental performance. The standard represents a shift toward holistic, proactive management and total employee involvement. ISO 14001 urges employees to define their roles from the bottom up as they relate to the environmental policy of an organization and requires top management backing, resources, and visibility to support the policy.

Comparable to the ISO 9001, quality system specification standards, ISO 14001 is a comprehensive framework that contains core elements for managing a company's processes and activities to identify significant environmental aspects the organization can control and over which it can be expected to have an influence. The standard can be used by any company, facility, or organization of any size, anywhere in the world. While ISO 14001 is likely to be used in manufacturing or processing industries, it also can be applied to services such as health care, construction, architecture and engineering. This standard essentially requires a company to state what it does in environmental management and do what it states.