Strategic sustainable development1 using the ISO 14001 Standard

The ISO 14001 Environmental Management System Standard has become a wide-spread administrative tool in the field of corporate responses to sustainability. As a framework for the administering of sustainable development in firms, ISO 14001 in itself does not speak of strategic planning for sustainability, nor of upstream solutions of problems at their source. Furthermore, confusion exists with respect to where ISO 14001 fits in relation to a complex array of tools for sustainable development. This research proposes the integration of a “backcasting” method that embodies a five-level approach to planning in complex systems, with the ISO 14001 planning process requirements. The result is a strategic planning framework that focuses on the minimum requirements for a sustainable society and embeds them in a process to assist firms in their sustainability initiatives.