How can success in the adoption of EMSs and ISO 14001 by a broad spectrum of urban stakeholders be ensured to achieve the goals of sustainable development? The way forward for ISO 14001 in both the public and private sectors:

• ISO 14000 may be used by companies and organizations to better manage their environmental efforts and to show a commitment to environment protection;
• Implementation of ISO 14000 may become a condition of business loans to companies that are not involved in international trade;
• Insurance companies may lower premiums for those who have implemented the standard;
• Compliance with ISO 14000 may become a condition of customer-supplier transactions;
• Proof of compliance to ISO 14000 may factor into regulatory relief programs, the exercise of prosecutorial and sentencing discretion, consent decrees and other legal documents;
• In the courts, ISO 14000 compliance may become a standard of due care in assessing whether a company was in good faith making consistent and diligent efforts to manage its environmental impact;
• In multilateral trade agreements, there is a high probability that the ISO 14000 standards will become a factor in establishing whether governments are actually making an attempt to improve the environmental situation within their countries;
• Multilateral and other financial institutions may use ISO 14000 standards as an indicator of commitment to environmental protection when making loans to developing countries.