1) You must be in compliance with the standard to be accredited by any external body, ie to obtain a certificate.
2.) As it's solely an environmental standard for business, the whole idea is to prevent that business polluting the area. This is done through planning, controls, monitoring, and actions (including preventative and corrective actions)
3) Continual Improvement is the cornerstone of every ISO system, whether it's ISO9001 (business), 18000 (health & Safety), 14001 etc. This means that there must be a myriad od methods available to ensure the system gets better and better, and must involve every person within the organisation.
Can I ask - is this a school/college assignment (in which case i can possibly point you to more pertinent information), or are you professionally involved? If the latter, you should be aware that this is a really skilled area, and a very high level of training is required. ISO 14001 usually runs in conjunction with other standards set by the EPA, local authority etc, and is a specialised field...