The environmental management system ‘industry’ has its experts – trainers, consultants,

auditors and certification bodies – and they generally take for granted that the clients they
deal with have at least as much understanding about EMS development as they have. During
the training, consultancy or auditing process, there will be gaps in the knowledge of the client
and errors in the implementation processes. That is why such experts are used by clients and
called in to assist.

But do the experts devote as much time as they should do to explain the reasons how and why
ISO 14001 evolved and is in the present format. Do clients have a whole host of
misconceptions about why ISO 14001 is structured as it is? Do they believe (cynically) it was
written to be only accessible and understood by environmental professionals and provide
employment to the above mentioned disciplines? There is some anecdotal evidence to suggest
that this cynicism is not wholly misplaced and that not enough has been said, written,
discussed and mooted to allay some of these suspicions and illustrate the map of the evolution
of environmental management; to show that there are historical triggers and drivers, fuelled
by the interest of a host of stakeholders all seeking to reach the same goal – reconciling the
demands of a modern technological society with the available resources of the planet. Such an
understanding can only improve any organization’s ability to manage for the environment.

This introduction will demonstrate that a combination of national and international forces at
work, plus the legislative measures taken by successive governments, the rise of stakeholder
power and green pressure groups, as well as the trigger of environmental disasters, have all
played their part in the development of environmental management. The following are some
of these forces:

National and international forces of change

Industrial Revolution – old and new environmental issues We do not need to look too far back
in modern history to find a point at which major impacts on the Earth’s resources began and
the balance of nature was disturbed. Certainly this occurred in the nineteenth century in
Europe with mechanization – the Industrial Revolution. This was a period when inventiveness
and innovation was at its height, and the resultant mechanization of manufacturing processes
began to have negative impacts upon the environment. Prior to this period, any negative
environmental impacts tended to be localized due to lack of mechanization. Immense changes
to society began to occur and, consequently, vast amounts of nonrenewable resources were
consumed to support this industrialized society with little thought as to the longer-term effects
on the health of the population or the quality of the environment.

Successive governments brought in legislative measures to control the worst excesses of

manufacturing pollution (mainly due to health problems) and as the processes became more
diversified and sophisticated in the twentieth century, ever more legislation became necessary
to control these diverse industrial activities. Concurrent with this build-up of legislation, the
powers of the policing authorities grew – especially with regard to imposing greater financial
penalties. It also became clear that the impact – the magnitude – was also rising with disasters
not restricted to national boundaries. In the twenty-first century many of the Industrial
Revolution’s pollution problems have receded especially in highly regulated industrialized
countries. However, new environmental impacts have taken their place – such as global
warming and destruction of the ozone layer.