The ISO 14001:2015 requirements are broadly separated into 10 sections (called ISO 14001 clauses), with clauses one through three describing the standard and clauses four through 10 containing the requirements for an EMS:
- Context of the organization (clause 4),
- Leadership (clause 5),
- Planning (clause 6),
- Support (clause 7),
- Operation (clause 8),
- Performance evaluation (Clause 9) and
- Improvement (clause 10).

Clauses 1 through 3 include no requirements but instead deal with the scope of the standard, normative references to understand the standard better, and terms and definitions used in the standard.