Origins and ISO/TC 207

This section describes the origins of the ISO 14000 family and introduces the ISO technical committee responsible for these standards

Sustainable development

The ISO 14000 family grew out of ISO's commitment to support the objective of sustainable development discussed at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, in Rio de Janeiro, in 1992.

ISO/TC 207

ISO launched the new technical committee, ISO/TC 207, Environmental management, in 1993. However, this was preceded by an intensive consultation process, carried out within the framework of the ISO/IEC Strategic Advisory Group on Environment (SAGE), set up in 1991, in which 20 countries, 11 international organizations and more than 100 environmental experts participated in defining the basic requirements of a new approach to environment-related standards.

Today, delegations of business and government experts from 75 countries participate actively within TC 207, with another 26 as observers, along with 41 international or regional organizations, including UNCTAD, UNEP, WHO and WTO. The delegations are chosen by the national standards institute concerned and they are required to bring to TC 207 a national consensus on issues being addressed by the committee. This national consensus is derived from a process of stakeholder consultation.