A New Standard Finished sweating through your ISO 9000 certification? Time to think about ISO 14001.

In 1998, SWD Inc. was one of the first U.S. companies to boastcertification under the ISO 14001 environmental standard. With itsautomotive customers asking the 105-person Addison, Illinois,metal-finishing company to follow ISO 9000 quality standards, thethen-new environmental certificate looked like the natural nextstep. "Because of the industry we're in, we have to dealwith environmental laws on a continuing basis anyway," saysvice president Tim Delawder, 35, whose father started SWD in1980.

Today, more than 1,500 U.S. firms are under the ISO 14001banner. While they make up a tiny fraction of American businesses,the number was up 23 percent during 2001. That doesn't rivalEurope and Asia, however. The roster of 14001-certified Japanesecompanies was up 50 percent in 2001 to nearly 8,000.

Why the interest? ISO 14001 is the environmental cousin of theISO 9000 quality certificates carried by close to a half-millioncompanies worldwide. The Geneva-based International Organizationfor Standardization, author of both, wrote ISO 14001 to specify howcompanies should set up, maintain and continually improve anenvironmental management system (EMS). The EMS helps companiesmonitor and measure the impact on air, water and soil of vehicleand smokestack emissions, noise, vibration, radiation and otherfallout of business products and activities.