The National Academy of Public Administration's
Center for the Economy and the Environment has just completed
a year-long, independent evaluation of how the third-party
registration system for environmental management systems
(EMSs) is unfolding in the United States under ISO 14001,
the international standard for EMSs. This study was commissioned
by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of
Water; along with other EPA programs, that Office needed
to learn more about how the registration process for EMSs
works in practice.
On Tuesday, May 29th from 3:00 to 5:00
pm, the Academy will host a public briefing on the results
of its study. The briefing will be held in the main conference
room at the Academy's headquarters, located at 1120 G Street
N.W., Suite 850 (above Metro Center) in Washington, D.C.
The study will be of interest to all those
involved in third-party certification in the United States,
as well as worldwide, and to public and private managers
who are contemplating the use of independent auditors to
evaluate their facilities' EMSs. This timely report evaluates
the ISO 14001 registration process in the United States
and the -conflicting expectations of this process on the
part of businesses, government regulators, environmental
groups, and the public. The report also points out some
of the unresolved issues of interpretation of the requirements
of the ISO 14001 standard, and the challenges that surround
its use both as a confidential management audit and as a
public certification of the effectiveness of an organization's
environmental management procedures. The report offers recommendations
for improving EMS registration, auditing, and accrediting
in order to assure adequate and consistent minimum standards
of EMS performance across ISO-certified organizations, and
to increase public confidence in the registration and auditing
system. .
The briefing on May 29th will include
presentations by Professor Richard (Pete) Andrews of the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who is a Fellow
of the Academy and chaired the Academy's panel of experts
for the study, and by Janice V. Mazurek of Novation Policy
Group, who served as Senior Consultant for the study. Other
members of the Academy's panel were Joel Charm, President
of Charm HS&E International Inc., former Chairman of
the US SubTAG 1 and Convener of ISO TC 207 SC1 for ISO 14001;
Hank Habicht, CEO of GETF and former Deputy Administrator
of the US EPA; Thomas Knowlton, former Executive Director
of the Council on Economic Priorities; Myrta Sale, CFO of
the FDIC; and Victoria Tschinkel, Senior Consultant at Landers&
Parson and former Secretary of the Florida DER.
