Eco-Management and Audit Scheme
Encyclopedia
The Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is a voluntary environmental management instrument, which was developed in 1993 by the European Commission
. It enables organisations to assess, manage and continuously improve their environmental performance. The scheme is globally applicable and open to all types of private and public organisations. In order to register with EMAS, organisations must meet the requirements of the EU EMAS-Regulation
. Currently, more than 4,600 organisations and more than 7,900 sites are EMAS registered.
Although EMAS is an official EU Regulation, it is binding only for organisations which voluntarily decide to implement the scheme. The EMAS Regulation includes the environmental management system requirements of the international standard for environmental management, ISO 14001, and additional requirements for EMAS registered organisations such as employee engagement, ensuring legal compliance or the publication of an environmental statement. Because of its additional requirements, EMAS is known as the premium instrument for environmental management.
, whose implementation requires some financial and personnel resources. In return, EMAS provides organisations with many advantages that can easily outweigh these costs. As EMAS is tailored to individual performance improvements, each organisation has to consider different environmental and economic factors. Given the heterogeneity of registered organisations, calculating average benefits and costs of EMAS is nearly unfeasible. The financial benefits of an EMAS registered organisation can differ per country. For example, some countries offer substantial reductions of waste fees, lower permitting costs, faster licensing procedures, etc.
Nevertheless, several studies have been undertaken to provide reference points on the benefits and costs .
In 2009 the European Commission
published the Study on the Costs and Benefits of EMAS to Registered Organisations. The results of this study are summarised in a factsheet.
hands out these important environmental awards every year since 2005. An EMAS Award is the most prestigious award in environmental management and is handed out annually to top performing companies and public authorities in six categories.
EMAS Awards have a different focus every year. Each year, the EMAS Awards winners are honoured for their achievements in a specific area of their environmental performance. Past themes have encompassed a variety of topics, including resource efficiency and waste management. The theme of the 2011 EMAS Awards is Stakeholder involvement leading to continuous improvement.
With the first revision of the EMAS Regulation in 2001 (EMAS II), the scheme opened to all economic sectors including public and private services. In addition, EMAS II was strengthened by the integration of the environmental management requirements of ISO 14001; by adopting a new EMAS logo to signal engagement to stakeholders; and by considering more strongly indirect effects such as those related to financial services or administrative and planning decisions.
The latest revision of EMAS came into effect on 11 January 2010 (EMAS III). With the introduction of EMAS III, the scheme is globally applicable and no longer limited to EU Member States. With EMAS III the EU also introduced obligatory Key Performance Indicators (KPI) in order to harmonize reporting on environmental performance. The number of EMAS registered organisations increased from 2,140 in 1997 to 4,659 in 2011.
Wenk, M. The European Union’s Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). Springer. The Netherlands. 2005.
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
. It enables organisations to assess, manage and continuously improve their environmental performance. The scheme is globally applicable and open to all types of private and public organisations. In order to register with EMAS, organisations must meet the requirements of the EU EMAS-Regulation
Regulation
Regulation is administrative legislation that constitutes or constrains rights and allocates responsibilities. It can be distinguished from primary legislation on the one hand and judge-made law on the other...
. Currently, more than 4,600 organisations and more than 7,900 sites are EMAS registered.
EMAS Regulation: Structure
The EU EMAS Regulation entails 52 Articles and 8 Annexes:- Chapter I: General provisions
- Chapter II: Registration of organisations
- Chapter III: Obligations of registered organisations
- Chapter IV: Rules applicable to Competent Bodies
- Chapter V: Environmental verifiers
- Chapter VI: Accreditation and Licensing Bodies
- Chapter VII: Rules applicable to Member States
- Chapter VIII: Rules applicable to the Commission
- Chapter IX: Final provisions
- Annex I: Environmental review
- Annex II: Environmental management system requirements (based on EN ISO 14001:2004) and additional issues to be addressed by organisations implementing EMAS
- Annex III: Internal environmental audit
- Annex IV: Environmental reporting
- Annex V: EMAS logo
- Annex VI: Information requirements for registration
- Annex VII: Environmental verifier’s declaration on verification and validation activities
- Annex VIII: Correlation table (EMAS II/EMAS III)
Although EMAS is an official EU Regulation, it is binding only for organisations which voluntarily decide to implement the scheme. The EMAS Regulation includes the environmental management system requirements of the international standard for environmental management, ISO 14001, and additional requirements for EMAS registered organisations such as employee engagement, ensuring legal compliance or the publication of an environmental statement. Because of its additional requirements, EMAS is known as the premium instrument for environmental management.
Implementation of EMAS
In order to register with EMAS an organisation must comply with the following implementation steps (Article 4 of the EMAS-Regulation):- Environmental review: initial comprehensive analysis of the organisation's activities, products and services and their environmental impact; cataloguing applicable environmental law, etc.
- Environmental policyEnvironmental policyEnvironmental policy is any [course of] action deliberately taken [or not taken] to manage human activities with a view to prevent, reduce, or mitigate harmful effects on nature and natural resources, and ensuring that man-made changes to the environment do not have harmful effects on...
: definition of the organisation’s overarching environmental objectives; commitment to continuous improvement of environmental performance. - Environmental programme: description of measures, responsibilities and means to achieve environmental objectives and targets.
- Environmental management systemEnvironmental Management SystemEnvironmental management system refers to the management of an organization's environmental programs in a comprehensive, systematic, planned and documented manner....
: part of an organisation’s management entailing structure, planning activities, responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes and resources for developing, implementing, achieving, reviewing and maintaining the environmental policy and managing the environmental aspects. - Environmental audit: systematic, documented, periodic and objective evaluation of the organisation’s environmental performance, management system and processes designed to protect the environment, conducted by internal auditor(s).
- Environmental statement: comprehensive, regular reports to the public on the organisation’s structure and activities; environmental policy and management system; environmental aspects and impacts; environmental programme, objectives and targets; environmental performance and compliance with applicable environmental law etc.
- Verification and Registration: The steps above must be verified by an accredited/licensed environmental verifier; the validated environmental statement needs to be sent to the EMAS Competent Body (exists in each EU country) for registration and made publicly available before an organisation can use the EMAS logo.
EMAS and ISO 14001
All organisations listed in the EMAS-Register run an environmental management system according to the EMAS requirements. Because ISO 14001 is an integral part of EMAS, these organisations automatically comply with the requirements that the international standard demands as well. However, EMAS registered organisations fulfil requirements that go beyond the scope of ISO 14001. EMAS registered organisations demonstrate:- CredibilityCredibilityCredibility refers to the objective and subjective components of the believability of a source or message.Traditionally, modern, credibility has two key components: trustworthiness and expertise, which both have objective and subjective components. Trustworthiness is based more on subjective...
: the proper implementation of EMAS is assessed by qualified and independent environmental verifiers. - TransparencyCorporate transparencyCorporate transparency is set of information, privacy, and business policies to improve corporate decisionmaking and operations openness to employees, stakeholders, shareholders and the general public. Standard & Poor's has included a definition of corporate transparency in its aimed at analysis...
: by periodically reporting on their environmental performance. Those reports include information on key performance indicators. The reports must be validated by an environmental verifier. - Continuous improvement processContinuous Improvement ProcessA continuous improvement process is an ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes. These efforts can seek "incremental" improvement over time or "breakthrough" improvement all at once...
: by committing themselves to continuous improvement of their actual environmental performance. This performance is also evaluated by an environmental verifier. ISO 14001 only requires improving the environmental management systemEnvironmental Management SystemEnvironmental management system refers to the management of an organization's environmental programs in a comprehensive, systematic, planned and documented manner....
itself. - ComplianceComplianceCompliance can mean:*In mechanical science, the inverse of stiffness*Compliance , a patient's adherence to a recommended course of treatment...
: by fully complying with applicable environmental legislation. - Stakeholder engagementStakeholder engagementStakeholder engagement is the process by which an organisation involves people who may be affected by the decisions it makes or can influence the implementation of its decisions...
: by involving employees and other stakeholders in order to benefit from their commitment, ideas, skills and experiences.
Benefits and costs of EMAS
EMAS is a comprehensive and demanding premium labelLabel
A label is a piece of paper, polymer, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or article, on which is printed a legend, information concerning the product, addresses, etc. A label may also be printed directly on the container or article....
, whose implementation requires some financial and personnel resources. In return, EMAS provides organisations with many advantages that can easily outweigh these costs. As EMAS is tailored to individual performance improvements, each organisation has to consider different environmental and economic factors. Given the heterogeneity of registered organisations, calculating average benefits and costs of EMAS is nearly unfeasible. The financial benefits of an EMAS registered organisation can differ per country. For example, some countries offer substantial reductions of waste fees, lower permitting costs, faster licensing procedures, etc.
Nevertheless, several studies have been undertaken to provide reference points on the benefits and costs .
In 2009 the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
published the Study on the Costs and Benefits of EMAS to Registered Organisations. The results of this study are summarised in a factsheet.
Key benefits
- Environmental and financial performance through a systematic framework: e.g. increased resource and energy efficiencyEnergy efficiencyEnergy efficiency may refer to:*Efficient energy use, sometimes simply called energy efficiency.*Energy conversion efficiency, the ratio between the output and input of an energy conversion machine....
, waste reduction. - Risk and opportunity management: e.g. legal compliance, regulatory relief.
- Credibility, transparency and reputation: e.g. environmental statement, key performance indicators, verification and validation through independent environmental verifiers.
- Employee empowerment and motivation: e.g. improved involvement of staff, higher awareness, often leading to innovations.
Costs
- Fixed costs: validation/verification fees, registration fees, integrating EMAS logo into corporate design.
- External costs: consultancy expertise to support implementation and reporting.
- Internal costs: personnel and technical resources needed for implementing, administering and reporting.
EMAS Awards
The EMAS Awards praise the relentless efforts on environmental protection of EMAS registered organisations. The European CommissionEuropean Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
hands out these important environmental awards every year since 2005. An EMAS Award is the most prestigious award in environmental management and is handed out annually to top performing companies and public authorities in six categories.
EMAS Awards have a different focus every year. Each year, the EMAS Awards winners are honoured for their achievements in a specific area of their environmental performance. Past themes have encompassed a variety of topics, including resource efficiency and waste management. The theme of the 2011 EMAS Awards is Stakeholder involvement leading to continuous improvement.
Development of EMAS
The first EMAS Regulation (EMAS I) was adopted in 1993 and became operational in 1995. It was originally restricted to companies in industrial sectors.With the first revision of the EMAS Regulation in 2001 (EMAS II), the scheme opened to all economic sectors including public and private services. In addition, EMAS II was strengthened by the integration of the environmental management requirements of ISO 14001; by adopting a new EMAS logo to signal engagement to stakeholders; and by considering more strongly indirect effects such as those related to financial services or administrative and planning decisions.
The latest revision of EMAS came into effect on 11 January 2010 (EMAS III). With the introduction of EMAS III, the scheme is globally applicable and no longer limited to EU Member States. With EMAS III the EU also introduced obligatory Key Performance Indicators (KPI) in order to harmonize reporting on environmental performance. The number of EMAS registered organisations increased from 2,140 in 1997 to 4,659 in 2011.
Literature
Baxter, M.: Taking the first steps in environmental management. In: ISO Management Systems (July/Aug): 13-18.Wenk, M. The European Union’s Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). Springer. The Netherlands. 2005.