Vendor-Supplier Relationships and ISO 14000
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The growing use of vendor-supplier relationships means that as larger companies look toward establishing their own environmental management systems, the probability of those companies encouraging use of EMS along their lines of supply will also increase. For a small business, the use of an EMS could precipitate that company's access to new markets that may otherwise be closed. A good analogy for this would be the effect of ISO 9000 Quality Management System (QMS) standards. Most of the operations at large companies are either ISO 9000 compliant, or in the process of becoming so. To that end, the larger companies are requiring that their suppliers be ISO 9000 compliant. Smaller companies are using ISO 9000 as a marketing tool to lure large companies.
As of 1996, large companies such as Ford Motor Company and the 3M Company are actively pursuing ISO 14001 compliance for their facilities and services. It will not be long before this EMS thrust is communicated to their sub-contractors and those businesses seeking to sub-contract.
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