5. EMS in stages

It had become apparent that the ISO 14001-2004 standard was popular with organizations of all kinds, but not so much with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) unless they were practically obliged to do so by their customers. Surveys were carried out and their conclusions indicated that the reason was not to be found in the excessive complexity of the standard, but rather in the reluctance to commit to a process, more or less bureaucratic, which would require resources without the benefits appearing obvious a priori. What's more, a number of principals were asking their suppliers to commit to an environmental approach, without necessarily requiring immediate certification of compliance with ISO 14001-2004. This led to the conclusion that, for an SME, the step required to achieve ISO 14001-2004 might seem too high, and that intermediate levels could make things easier. In France, AFNOR...