ISO 14001 and EMAS are often confused with environmental labels, but are actually something quite different. They are certified (or, in the case of EMAS, verified) environmental management systems, and are evidence of the way the holder is carrying out their operations, not of specific performance levels. Both require auditing by third party assessors.

It is important to check, when considering certification, that the certifier you use is properly UKAS accredited - this ensures that they are operating under international controls to ensure that they are competent, objective, and all working to equal standards. In the UK, UKAS is the sole national accreditation body recognised by Government to assess, against international agreed standards, organisations that provide certification, testing, inspection and calibration services. It is, itself, accredited by international bodies to ensure universal standards.

These standards are very effective business tools when used properly, and companies can and do use them to reach the standards required by the Eco-labels. Envirowise have produced a short, but very informative,  podcast, in which the business benefits, general requirements and costs of  environmental management systems are discussed. They also publish two free guides, the first few pages of which can be downloaded from here: How to develop an environmental policy: a guide for small printing companies and EMS in printing.

ISO 14001, which is the international standard for environmental management systems, takes a very systematic approach. A company must satisfy the certifier that they:

• understand how they affect the environment
• understand and are committed to complying with relevant environmental legislation
• are committed to reducing pollution
• have a system that enables them to manage their activities and achieve both the above - which includes all staff and extends to sub-contractors and suppliers as well
• have environmental objectives and targets for improvement
• have plans to cover emergency preparedness
• are achieving 'continuous improvement'

The latter is important - there is still a residual belief that management systems simply require consistency, and at any level. This is not the case. For ISO 14001, progress towards targets and in improving the system forms part of every surveillance and re-certification audit - for it's not a case of passing just once to get your certificate. The assessors monitor performance every year, and every three years a complete re-certification audit is required.

EMAS is the European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme. It takes a management system to the requirements of ISO 14001 as its core, but has some extras over and above this. A company must go beyond legal compliance and must publish an EMAS statement that includes the results they have achieved against their environmental objectives and future steps they are going to take in order to continuously improve their environmental performance. The environmental information in the statement must be verified by an external body. UKAS also accredit EMAS verifiers in the UK.

There are also a number of staged approaches to help guide a company along the road to ISO 14001 certification, or to stay at whatever stage is appropriate to their needs with recognition of having reached it. The best known are the  Green Dragon (originally just for Wales, but now a UK-wide scheme), the Green Mark and the BSI standard BS 8555, popularly known as Acorn.

PAS 75 is a fairly new Publicly Available Specification from BSI - the British Standards Institution. Its full title is PAS 75:2005: Specification for the service and provision of printing services, and it was developed in co-operation with the BPIF. The specification is not for an environmental management system, but does include environmental management as part of the requirements, along with business planning, information security, occupational health & safety, financial management, management culture, administration, estimating & invoicing, print production & service delivery, delivery of product, service quality, colour management and training provision.