US Government Contracts and ISO 14000
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On August 3, 1 993, President Clinton signed Executive Order No. 12856, which pledges the Federal Government to implement pollution prevention measures, and publicly report and reduce the generation of toxic and hazardous chemicals and associated emissions. Section 4-405 of Executive Order 12856 requires the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in cooperation with Federal agencies, to establish a Federal Government Environmental Challenge Program (CEMP). Similar to the "Environmental Leadership" Program Proposed in 1993 by EPA's Office of Enforcement, the Program is designed to recognize and reward outstanding environmental management performance in Federal agencies and facilities.
EPA is seeking endorsement of the CEMP Principles on an agency wide basis, with flexibility as to how the Principles themselves are implemented at the facility level. For example, agencies can choose to directly implement the CEMP Principles at the facility level or use another alternative environmental management system (e.g. ISO 14001). This flexible approach is in recognition that of the fact that individual Federal facilities and installations may already have environmental management systems in place or are considering adoption of the ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standard.
The fact that the federal government is now looking at EMS standards in general and ISO 14001 in particular for its own agencies should make the advantage of ISO 14001 registration for a company seeking to bid on a government contract clear. In addition, the Department of Energy has stated that it may require ISO 14001 certification for certain future contracts. The Department of Defense and Transportation are likely to follow suit.
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