Page 37 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

L1644_C01.fm Page 13 Monday, October 20, 2003 11:46 AM

1.5.1.6 Special Protection Plans for Specific Areas

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Coastal Zone
Management (CZM) Program (http://www.nos.noaa.gov/ocrm/czm/) is a voluntary
partnership between the U.S. government and U.S. coastal states and territories. It
is authorized by the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 to preserve, protect,
develop and, where possible, restore and enhance the resources of the nation’s coastal
zone.

1.5.2 INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS
The International Standards Organization (ISO) was founded in 1946 in Geneva,
Switzerland. ISO has established nonmandatory international standards for the man-
ufacturing, communication, trade and administrative sectors. It has also created ISO
9000 for management and quality assurance; this has been adopted by more than
90 countries and implemented by thousands of industries and service providers.
Accordingly, for environmental management, ISO has created the ISO 14000 series,
a new generation of standards to foster national and international trade in compliance
with international standards to protect the environment. In this way, some common
guidelines and similarities between environmental management and business man-
agement are established for all businesses regardless of size, activity or geographical
location. Several of the ISO 14000 standards refer to the previously mentioned
procedural and analytical of tools. The five groups of environmental standards
governed by the ISO 14000 series are:

• ISO 14001–04: Environmental management systems — general guide-
lines on principles, systems and supporting techniques
• ISO 14010–14012: Guidelines for environmental auditing
• ISO 14020–14024: Environmental labels and declarations
• ISO 14031: Environmental performance evaluation — guidelines
• ISO 14040–14043: Life-cycle assessment

These standards will be reflected in some of the procedural and analytical tools
explained later.

1.5.3 PROCEDURAL TOOLS
Important procedural tools described next are the environmental impact assessment,
environmental management system, eco-audit and eco-labels. Some procedural tools
come from current legislation and others from international standards. The latter can
be applied at process, product and service levels.

1.5.3.1 Environmental Impact Assessment
As stated in Council Directive 85/337/EU, modified by Council Directive 57/11/EU,
environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a set of research papers and technical
systems used to estimate the effects on the environment of implementing a given

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