Abstract
The European Union International Organization for Standardization management system for the environment (ISO 14001) is established by European Commission Regulation 1221/2009. This legislates a voluntary system where organizations can register in a community eco-management and audit scheme. In the literature, this standard is recognized as an instrument of international environmental protection law, introduced by soft law regulations. ISO 14001 has been implemented by many global and European organizations, and it strives to improve the quality of their environmental resources.
 It was considered that the ISO 14001 eco-management and audit scheme enforced protection of environment in EU countries by imposing the obligation to implement appropriate legal regulations in this area. This article aims is determine what legal solutions in chosen UE countries enable the effective implementation of ISO 14001 and what positive effects it has on the state of the environment in these countries.
 The results demonstrated that the number of certified organizations is increasing despite the many difficulties and costs of implementing and organizing required environmental protection areas. The implementation of ISO 14001 was described using the example of Poland and Italy compared to other EU countries. The uptake identifies improved environmental quality, and this is confirmed by indicators of decreasing gas emissions and increasing waste recycling which improve global air, soil and water quality. The higher implementation index of the ISO 14001 standard in Italy translates into higher environmental quality indicators in this country than in Poland.
Highlights
The European Union (EU) is a supra-national organization which currently devotes a lot of time to environmental protection in accordance with the principle of sustainable development
An example of the required Key Environmental Performance Indicators (KPIs), established by the European Parliament and the organization’s results achieved after the implementation of ISO 14001 in 2012-2016: (1) CO2 emission was to be reduced by 27.3%; (2) electricity consumption reduction by 4% from 12.4% between 2012 and 2016; and the EU Parliament’s 4% target was vastly exceeded; (3) gas, heating oil and district heating consumption reduction by 5% between 2012 and 2016; (4) the quantity of office and kitchen waste decreased by 28.62% during the monitored period, significantly exceeding the 5% target, and (5) annual waste recycling objective was 68% in 2016; the 65.8% recycling recorded in 2016 is just below the 68% objective, this was exceeded in 2014 with 68.9% and in 2015 with 77.4%49
The ISO 14001 environmental management system standard is an instrument of international environmental protection law introduced by sof law regulations
Summary
The European Union (EU) is a supra-national organization which currently devotes a lot of time to environmental protection in accordance with the principle of sustainable development. The ISO 14001 standards are based on the Deming cycle which inspired the “Plan-Do-Check-Act” movement This principle enables organizations to continuously improve associated environmental outcomes by harmonizing; (1) Planning the environmental aspects under legal requirements, environmental policy, objective and targets; (2) Doing; by following the action plan which considers resources and responsibilities, employee involvement, communication and reporting; (3) Checking by monitoring the results and recording the audit, evaluation and compliance results; (4) Acting, through continuous management assessment of environmental performance. European Commission, “Final Report Supporting the Evaluation of the Implementation of EMAS,” June, 2015, accessed March 26, 2019, http:/Artykuł%20EMAs/ normy%20EMAS%20i%20ISO/30752634-549a-11e7-a5ca-01aa75ed71a1.en.pdf.pdf
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