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It internalises the end-of-life costs and provides a competitive incentive
for companies to design equipment that is easy to collect and to recycle.
The Directive also sets goals for recycling.
The other standards in the family cover specific aspects such
as fundamentals and vocabulary, performance improvements,
documentation, training, and financial and economic aspects. 104
10.4 Kyoto protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC). It aims at taking
global action against global warming. The Protocol was adopted on
11 December 1997 in Kyoto. As of October 2009, 184 states have
signed and ratified the protocol (not the United States). Under the
Protocol, 37 industrialised countries agreed to reduce their collective
greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2% taking the 1990 level as a
reference. Emissions from international aviation and shipping are not
included in the protocol.
The so-called Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) allows for
partnerships between developing and industrialised countries 103 .
Under the CDM, a developing country can implement emission
reductions projects that can be traded or sold to industrialised
countries as certified emission reduction (CER) credits.
The CDM is supervised by the CDM Executive Board (CDM EB) under
the guidance of the Conference of the Parties (COP/MOP) of the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
10.6 ISO 14001
The ISO 14000 family addresses various aspects of environmental
management. The first two standards, ISO 14001:2004 and ISO
14004:2004 deal with environmental management systems (EMS). ISO
14001:2004 provides the requirements for an EMS and ISO 14004:2004
gives general EMS guidelines.
The other standards and guidelines in the family address specific
environmental aspects, including: labelling, performance evaluation,
life cycle analysis, communication and auditing.
An EMS meeting the requirements of ISO 14001:2004 is a management
tool enabling an organisation of any size or type to:
• Identify and control the environmental impact of its activities,
products or services
• Improve its environmental performance continually
• Implement a systematic approach to setting environmental
objectives and targets, to achieving these and to demonstrating that
they have been achieved 105
10.5 ISO 9001
The ISO 9000 family of standards represents an international consensus
on good quality management practices. It consists of standards
and guidelines relating to quality management systems and related
supporting standards.
ISO 9001:2008 provides a set of standardised requirements for a quality
management system, regardless of what the user organisation does, its
size, or whether it is in the private or public sector. It is the only standard
in the family against which organisations can be certified – although
certification is not a compulsory requirement of the standard.
10.7 OHSAS 18000
OHSAS 18001 has been developed to be compatible with the ISO
9001 (Quality) and ISO 14001 (Environmental) management systems
standards, in order to facilitate the integration of quality, environmental
and occupational health and safety management systems by
organisations, should they wish to do so.
The (OHSAS) specification gives requirements for an occupational
health and safety (OH&S) management system, to enable an
organisation to control its OH&S risks and improve its performance.
It does not state specific OH&S performance criteria, nor does it give
detailed specifications for the design of a management system. 106
103) UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, undated
104) ISO – International Standard Organisation, ISO 9000 essentials, 2008
105) ISO – International Standard Organisation, ISO 14000 essentials, 2004
106) OHSAS 18001 HEALTH & SAFETY STANDARD, The Health and Safety & OHSAS Guide, undated
104