Moving Ahead with ISO 14000 - Improving Environmental Management & Advancing Sustainable Development

Moving Ahead with ISO 14000 addresses environmental quality management standards from the business manager's point of view. It examines the costs and benefits of conformance in terms of competitiveness, market share, and return on investment. Numerous case studies describe how other companies are responding to the new standards and help companies benchmark how close their own operations are to conformance. Moving Ahead with ISO 14000 also helps business managers answer the following questions: How are businesses around the world responding to ISO 14000? Should our firm bother to seek ISO 14000 registration? What are the business benefits of ISO 14000? What does it take to comply with ISO 14000? Does ISO matter to our customers? Will these new standards help improve operations or bog them down in paperwork? Can a company adhere to the new standards and develop a competitive advantage at the same time? Should we self-certify? Can we integrate ISO 14000 with our current environmental management policies and resources? With the release of the final series of international environmental quality management standards, thousands of companies worldwide are poised to jump onto the ISO 14000 bandwagon. But responsible managers need to answer a number of serious questions before investing in and launching such a major undertaking: What does it take to conform with ISO 14000? Will the benefits justify the costs? Does ISO 14000 conformance matter to our customers? Will it help increase our market share? In Moving Ahead with ISO 14000 more than 30 leading environmental management authorities answer these questions and many more with a keen eye on business performance relative to the global goal of sustainability. These experts offer timely insights, case studies of leading-edge companies, and essential guidance to help companies ensure that improvements in environmental performance are accompanied by enhanced trade opportunities. They look at the standards from a management perspective and focus on five major aspects of ISO 14000, including Responding to the new standards from a global business perspective Integrating environmental factors and investment decisions Optimizing resources to make conformance cost-effective Leveraging current resources and systems to maximize return on the ISO 14000 investment Crafting new tools for business and environmental decisionmaking. A special section on life cycle assessment (LCA) surveys current LCA use in large corporations, compares its use in Japan to that in the United States, demonstrates market applications of LCA, and presents a case study of life cycle management at Chrysler Corporation. For environmental managers, EH&S professionals, senior corporate managers, and government policymakers, this book is not just another introduction to ISO 14000 but the ultimate guide for coping with the critical business issues that must be faced before sustainability can become a global reality.