Environmental management systems (EMSs) are a prominent topic in the business world today. Companies, organizations and legal bodies have apparently accepted they have to tread more carefully and somehow cope with the environmental impact of their business dealings. Although a number of initiatives are under way (for example, Agenda 21, one of the documents agreed at the 1992 Earth Summit, puts forward some guidelines for sustainable business conduct; and the Responsible Care programmes of national chemical industry associations, which give environmental performance guidelines), two capture public attention to a greater extent: EMAS and ISO 14001. Both feature EMS standards, thus overlapping with each other. To avoid this overlap, which would create trade distortions and other problems, the European Commission has the difficult task of accepting other standards as compatible with EMAS. The Comite Europeen de Normalisation (CEN) is therefore revising the ISO 14001 Draft International Standard to develop a "bridge" document, closing the gap between the two standards. Is this task feasible?