In 1996, ISO's Technical Committee (TC) 207 published two of the five ISO 14000 series of standards focused on environmental management.

ISO 14001 and ISO 14004 are management tools that provide organizations, of any size and type, the guidance to control the environmental impact of their products, services and activities.

ISO 14001 is a structured approach of an effective environmental management system (EMS) to aid organizations in setting, achieving, and demonstrating environment objectives and goals. The standard encourages environmental accountability.

ISO 14000 is voluntary and not legally mandated; yet, it is market-driven and allows companies to establish environmental management through a universal set of standards to monitor their impact on the environment.

The following are guidance documents that are in the process of development, to provide additional support to companies establishing an EMS:

ISO 14020: Environmental Labeling - Guidance Principles - provides guidance for the development of environmental labeling claims.
ISO 14031: Evaluation of Environmental Performance - designed to define the process of environmental performance evaluation (EPE)
ISO 14040: Environmental Management - Life-Cycle Assessment - Principles and Guidelines - provides guidance on the systematic assessment of environmental impact in broader terms.

The implementation of ISO 14000 assists companies to achieve their environmental and economic goals, control their processes to minimize the negative impact on the environment, and give them a great advantage over their competition.