The ISO14001:1996 standard can be used by any organisation wishing to develop an environmental management system and shares common principles with the ISO9000 Quality standard series.

In order to establish an effective system a large amount of preparatory work needs to be done before an environmental policy can be produced.

The preparatory work should include analysis of all relevant legislation and importantly a review of the environmental 'aspects' of an organisation's activities and their 'impacts'. The standard addresses the needs of a wide number of different parties including the requirement of society for environmental protection.