Posted By terryt As you already know it depends on the circumstances of your particular organisation and how good the existing environmental systems are. I can give you my thoughts on the implementation of ISO14001 at one manufacturing site, employing 130 people; producing hazardous/non hazardous waste; discharging trade effluent; bulk storing hazardous substances; having packaging obligations; and falling within the IPPC legislation. The cost of accreditation was around £2500, with an annual fee therafter. The time to implement the system will depend on the existing systems and how good the person is who is tasked with the implementation - we gained accreditation within one year. We appointed and Environmental Manager from inside the existing workforce who was tasked with the implementation and the maintenance of the system after accreditation - 1 full time position. Being from within the workforce he new the systems and people that worked there. He carried out all the workforce training (cost of taking people off the job for a period of time). We had internal auditors trained by an external trainer - £2000 ish. I personally wouldn't employ a consultant to help with the accreditation if you can do it yourself - you have to own the system afterwards so do it yourself so you understand it. There wasn't any capital outlay to put things right as improvements were identified from significant aspects and put into an improvement plan. The overall cost is hard to say - 1 full time position (although maybe we should have had that even without accreditation), cost of accreditation £2500, and external training £2000 - the rest is time off the job, etc. I'm sure there maybe other specific costs which I don't recall.