Saving the planet or costing the earth?: are environmental management systems worth the paper they are written on?

Environmental management systems such as ISO14001 and EMAS may be major growth areas for the accredited certification bodies, but do they do anything either for the business performance of an organisation or the environment itself? This article gives a layman´s guide to developing and implementing an environmental management system, and explains how the ISO14001 standard has been written to address many of the criticisms previously levied against the value of certification to ISO9001. Environmental management systems provide a practical tool for turning the rhetoric of a commitment to the environment into reality, but are not for the faint hearted. Engineering, through its keystone contribution to all goods and services that are produced, must recognise and play its part.