Environmental management systems based on the ISO 14001 standard rely strongly on metrological measurement and confirmation processes to certify the extent to which organizations monitor and improve their environmental behavior. Nevertheless, the literature lacks in studies that assess the influence of these metrological processes on the performance of environmental management in organizations, even now that the international standard ISO 10012 is already available to establish requisites and guidelines for the development of a metrological management system that is compatible with any other standardized management system. This work seeks to assess that influence through the development of an evaluation model for metrological management, which is then validated through an experimental analysis of the results obtained from the application of an audit process in 11 Spanish companies, all ISO-14001-certified and operating in different industrial sectors. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.