THE OTHER day we received the announcement that the Mandarin Oriental Manila had been recommended for an ISO 14001 certification. The certifying body is Lloyd's Register of the United Kingdom.

Because joy and wishes for a better life are part of the hopes of the season, we thought it was timely that the Mandarin would receive good news of their environmental status. We rejoice with the staff and management because it means they have been serious in their commitment to nature. Not that other hotels haven't been as dedicated. Most are similarly involved, and this we found out when we wrote about the greening of hotels some time back. Only, the Mandarin is the first hotel in Manila and the first in the Mandarin chain (there are at present 11 hotels worldwide) to aim for an ISO 14001--and to be close to getting it.

General manager Helmut Gaisburg credits his 15-member ISO working team for the recognition which an accreditation signifies. ''They devoted long hours over the past years,'' he said, ''to find practical and effective methods on how to minimize environmental damage.''

The team, under the direction of resident manager Clemens Hoerth, is composed of staff from the different departments of the hotel. They started by defining the environmental aspects in hotel operations, considered legal and other requirements set objectives and targets, and drew up its environmental management program in order of priority. It then assigned the responsibilities each department would handle, like training programs or information dissemination for faster implementation. The team also monitored rate of compliance, corrective and preventive actions, and then audited performances before the management review took place. It was, obviously, not work of a week or month.

Out of the auditing and review, the hotel's environmental policy was developed in which it states its commitment to the environment ''within the context of our business requirements without compromising our established standards and the comfort of our guests, colleagues and community.''

The hotel also set down its environmental principles (there are eight in all) and then printed them on wallet-sized cards that employees now carry with them.

We list some of them here:

l to comply with requirements and standards set by the government;

l to minimize pollution through proper waste management and effective maintenance of equipment;

l to educate and train colleagues and encourage them to act in an environmentally responsible manner;

l to strive to provide and use products and services which are safe and not harmful to the environment;

l to conserve its resources through efficient utilization and the application of appropriate recovery and recycling methods;

l to periodically monitor and evaluate practices embodied in its environmental programs; and

l to encourage suppliers to take up the hotel's environmental goals.

Full ISO certification is expected in the next few months.

We've mentioned the ISO 14001 several times in this section but there are those who may still wonder what it's all about. The acronym stands for International Organization for Standardization (ISO is its French form).

The Mandarin explains further: ''ISO 14001 is one of the standards published by the ISO, a worldwide federation of standard bodies based in Geneva, Switzerland. It was established in 1946 to develop standardization and facilitate international goods and services.'' 14001 is an environmental category.