ISO 18504:2017 provides procedures on sustainable remediation. In particular, it provides:

- standard methodology, terminology and information about the key components and aspects of sustainable remediation assessment;

- informative advice on the assessment of the relative sustainability of alternative remediation strategies.

ISO 18504:2017 is intended to inform practitioners about contemporary understanding of sustainable remediation. It is not intended to prescribe which methods of assessment, indicators or weights to use. Rather, it is intended to inform consideration of the concept of sustainable remediation in a local legal, policy, socio-economic and environmental context.

The scope of ISO 18504:2017 is restricted to sustainable remediation ? that is demonstrably breaking the source-pathway-receptor linkages ? in a manner that has been shown on a site-specific basis under a specific legal context to be sustainable.

The concepts of "green remediation" and "green and sustainable remediation" (so called GSR) that in some parts of the world are conflated with sustainable remediation are neither endorsed nor discussed in ISO 18504:2017.