The present work aims at displaying the overall scenario for the application of the ISO 14001:2004 standard in Brazil, in order to get important information about the environmental certification process that Brazilian companies have been undergone. Achievement of ISO 14001:2004 certification is nowadays a mandatory requirement for organizations that desire to reach international markets. However, small companies find it hard to obtain such certification, mainly due to the high cost of deployment of the environmental management system implementation. Companies tend to add new aspects to the their certification, integrating their environmental, quality and health and safety at work systems. In countries under development with great social disparities such as Brazil, a promising new trend has also recently appeared, that is the business social responsability. The Brazilian region that has the highest number of issued certifications is the Southeast region, where the state of São Paulo outstands having around 50% of the certificates, whereas Petrobras outstands as a company in the Brazilian scenario. In Brazil, the automotive, petrochemical and chemical and services industries are the ones that have the highest number of certifications.
Environmental management; ISO 14001; Environmental management system
