What is ISO 14007 about?
Environmental costs are any costs related to the environment, which can result from, for example, the loss of natural capital that companies are dependent on, impacts on human health and the environment or environmental legislation-related compliance costs.
Environmental benefits are any benefits related to the environment, which can result from, for example, natural resources used within products or the production processes of a given organization, including their value chain.
ISO 14007 gives you guidelines to understand the environmental impact of your business. While helping you to understand these environmental costs and benefits, ISO 14007 guides you on how to share this information with regulatory authorities.
Note: The ways in which the environmental costs and benefits are used after they have been determined are outside the scope of this document.
Who ISO 14007 for?
ISO 14007 applies to any organization regardless of size, type, and nature. ISO 14007 is useful for entities such as:
- Private or listed enterprises
- Public or private service unit organizations
- Large global actors
- Small and medium enterprises
Determining environmental costs and benefits requires inputs from several operational areas across the organization, that will need to provide relevant information. Employees involved include:
- Managers
- Accountants
- Researchers
- Consultants
Why should you use ISO 14007?
Since every organization impacts the environment, ISO 14007 helps you to understand and document these environmental costs and benefits. This, in turn, will help you to make more responsible decisions, while also to managing your risks better. You will be able to assess and present these costs and benefits to the relevant authorities in a transparent and comprehensive manner, using ISO 14007 guidelines.
Understanding environmental costs and benefits allows you to:
- Link environmental impacts and dependencies to your decision-making processes
- Create a better understanding of issues, for example, financial implications related to the environmental aspects of a site
- Improve operational performance, risk management, investment decisions and corporate communications
- Manage your environmental dependencies and mitigate your environmental impacts
ISO 14007 helps you to:
- Determine and document environmental costs and benefits in a comprehensive and transparent way, either quantified in monetary or nonmonetary terms, or described qualitatively
- Assess environmental costs and benefits either ex-ante or ex-post
- Disclose and exchange relevant information
