In June 1992, the United Nations' Conference on Environmental Development was held in Brazil. At that Conference, ISO made a commitment to continue the work it had begun the prior year in the area of environmental management. The previous year, ISO had formed the Strategic Advisory Group on the Environment (SAGE) to develop an international consensus of what needed to be done in this area. The work of SAGE ultimately resulted in the formation of TC 207 in 1993 to develop standards in the field of environmental management tools and systems. The United States has been an active participant in ISO TC 207 since 1993. The American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) and ASQC jointly manage U.S. participation in TC 207 and its subcommittees under the aegis of ANSI. The work of ISO TC 207 is divided into seven areas:

Work is ongoing in all of these areas. In the management system area, ISO 14001 and 14004 were released in the fall of 1996, and have been the subject of much review and analysis in the United States. Some U.S. companies have already begun to seek conformance with the standards, with a smaller number seeking third party registration of that conformance. While it is still unclear as to the extent that these standards will ultimately gain acceptance with U.S. industry, there appears to be growing acceptance of these standards in Europe and elsewhere.