ISO 14000 is a series of international standards on environmental management.

ISO 14000 series provides a framework for the development of an environmental management system and the supporting audit program. The main thrust for its development came as a result of the Rio Summit on the Environment held in 1992.

ISO 14000
As a number of national standards emerged (BS 7750 being the first), the International Organization for Standardisation (ISO) created a group to investigate how such standards might benefit business and industry. As a result this group recommended that an ISO committee be created to create an international standard.

ISO 14001 is the corner stone standard of the ISO 14000 series. It specifies a framework of control for an Environmental Management System against which an organization can be certified by a third party.