Does a company or organization have to implement all standards in the ISO 14000 series?
ISO 14000 is a series of voluntary standards. Companies and organizations are not required to comply with or implement any of these standards. However, they become necessary to do business if they become the basis for regulations in countries or regions, or if they become de-facto requirements in customer-supplier relationships. ISO 14001 is considered the foundation document of the entire series, and most other documents in the series are proposed as guidelines that will support a company or organization’s environmental management system. With the exception of one of the Eco-labeling documents under development, ISO 14001 is currently expected to be the only document developed by ISO/TC 207 to which companies or organizations may become registered or certified.
