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Vocabulary
Australian Standard™
ISO 14050:1998

Environmental management—
AS ISO 14050—1999
 This Australian Standard was prepared by Committee M/EV/-, Environment
Standards Coordination Group. It was approved on behalf of the Council of
Standards Australia on 1 March 1999 and published on 5 May 1999.

The following interests are represented on Committee M/EV/-:

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Environmental Management Industry Association of Australia

Environmental Protection Authority of Victoria
Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand
World Wide Fund for Nature, Australia
Quality Society of Australia
Primary Industries and Resources, S.A.

Review of Australian Standards. To keep abreast of progress in industry, Australian Standards are
subject to periodic review and are kept up to date by the issue of amendments or new editions as
necessary. It is important therefore that Standards users ensure that they are in possession of the latest
edition, and any amendments thereto.
Full details of all Australian Standards and related publications will be found in the Standards Australia
Catalogue of Publications; this information is supplemented each month by the magazine ‘The
Australian Standard’, which subscribing members receive, and which gives details of new publications,
new editions and amendments, and of withdrawn Standards.
Suggestions for improvements to Australian Standards, addressed to the head office of Standards
Australia, are welcomed. Notification of any inaccuracy or ambiguity found in an Australian Standard
should be made without delay in order that the matter may be investigated and appropriate action taken.

This Standard was issued in draft form for comment as DR 98470.

 AS ISO 14050—1999
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Australian Standard™

Environmental management—
Vocabulary

First published as AS ISO 14050 — 1999.

Published by Standards Australia

(Standards Association of Australia)
1 The Crescent, Homebush, NSW 2140
ISBN 0 7337 2739 5
 ii

PREFACE

This Standard was prepared by the Standards Australia Environment Standards Coordination Group
under the direction of the Multitechnics Standards Policy Board.
This Standard is identical with, and has been reproduced from, ISO 14050:1998, Environmental
management — Vocabulary.
The objective of this Standard is to provide a consistent terminology for use with environmental
management systems and auditing. It is essentially a collection of the terms and their related
definitions taken from the first five Standards to be published in the ISO 14000 series. Future
editions will include terms and definitions from other Standards in the series as they are published.
Because this Standard will eventually cover terms used in a number of Standards Australia technical
committees, it was felt appropriate that the Environment Standards Coordination Group take
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responsibility for its approval and publication.

The term ‘informative’ has been used in this Standard to define the application of the annex to
which it applies. An ‘informative’ annex is only for information and guidance.
As this Standard is reproduced from an International Standard, the following applies:
(a) Its number appears on the cover and title page while the International Standard number appears
only on the cover.
(b) In the source text, ‘this International Standard’ should read ‘this Australian Standard’.
(c) A full point substitutes for a comma when referring to a decimal marker.

© Copyright STANDARDS AUSTRALIA

Users of Standards are reminded that copyright subsists in all Standards Australia publications and software. Except where the
Copyright Act allows and except where provided for below no publications or software produced by Standards Australia may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system in any form or transmitted by any means without prior permission in writing from
Standards Australia. Permission may be conditional on an appropriate royalty payment. Requests for permission and information
on commercial software royalties should be directed to the head office of Standards Australia.
Standards Australia will permit up to 10 percent of the technical content pages of a Standard to be copied for use
exclusively in-house by purchasers of the Standard without payment of a royalty or advice to Standards Australia.
Standards Australia will also permit the inclusion of its copyright material in computer software programs for no royalty
payment provided such programs are used exclusively in-house by the creators of the programs.
Care should be taken to ensure that material used is from the current edition of the Standard and that it is updated whenever the
Standard is amended or revised. The number and date of the Standard should therefore be clearly identified.
The use of material in print form or in computer software programs to be used commercially, with or without payment, or in
commercial contracts is subject to the payment of a royalty. This policy may be varied by Standards Australia at any time.
 iii

INTRODUCTION

This International Standard contains concepts and their definition as used in

the ISO 14000 series of standards and related to environmental
management.

Communication is important in the implementation and operation of

Environmental Management Systems. This communication will be most
effective if there is a common understanding of the terms used.

Many environmental terms and definitions are the result of recently

developed concepts. The gradual evolution of these environmental concepts
inevitably means that environmental terminology will continue to develop.
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The purpose of this document is to convey understanding of the terms used

in the published standards in the ISO 14000 series.

The terms and definitions in this International Standard are derived from the
following International Standards on environmental management.

ISO 14001:1996, Environmental management systems — Specification with

guidance for use

ISO 14004:1996, Environmental management systems — General guidelines

on principles, systems and supporting techniques

ISO 14010:1996, Guidelines for environmental auditing — General principles

ISO 14011:1996, Guidelines for environmental auditing — Audit

procedures — Auditing of environmental management systems

ISO 14012:1996, Guidelines for environmental auditing — Qualification

criteria for environmental auditors

Because of the ongoing work on the development of environmental

management standards within ISO/TC 207 including the publication of
additional and revised International Standards, this International Standard
will be reviewed, and as appropriate revised or amended.

Other concepts which may be encountered in the environmental management

field are not defined in this International Standard. However, to aid users of
the ISO 14000 standards on environmental management, some of these
additional concepts are included with bibliographic references in an
informative annex.

Users should be aware that the application and description of these concepts
vary throughout the international environmental community. Their presence
in Annex A is not intended to promote or endorse the use of these concepts.
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iv

NOTES
 1

AUSTRALIAN STANDARD

Environmental management—Vocabulary

Scope
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This International Standard contains definitions of fundamental concepts

related to environmental management, published in the ISO 14000 series of
standards.

Normative reference

The following standard contains provisions which, through reference in this

text, constitute provisions of this International Standard. At the time of
publication, the edition indicated was valid. All standards are subject to
revision, and parties to agreements based on this International Standard are
encouraged to investigate the possibility of applying the most recent edition
of the standard indicated below. Members of IEC and ISO maintain registers
of currently valid International Standards.

ISO 10241:1992, International terminology standards — Preparation and

layout.

1 Terms and definitions

In accordance with ISO 10241, in some situations in this International

Standard, the special usage of a concept in a particular context is indicated
by the qualification given in angle brackets before the definition.

COPYRIGHT
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AS ISO 14050-1999, Environmental management -

Vocabulary
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