The EC's Eco-Management and Audit Scheme Regulation

Environmental Management Systems (EMS)
Level 5

The EC's Eco-Management and Audit Scheme Regulation

Unit 1
Overview of Environmental Management Systems

Although the EMAS regulation is mandatory, i.e member countries have to comply with the regulations for setting up the scheme, the scheme itself is voluntary and there is no legal requirement for companies to participate in the scheme.

The scheme is only open to companies from the industrial sector who operate a site or sites within the European Union (EU). A full list of eligible industrial sectors is given in the 'EC Eco-Management and Audit Scheme, A participant's guide' publication.

Each member state has a designated competent body who is responsible for registering sites under the scheme and producing a list of registered sites. In the UK, the competent body background=/envENVMAN5/course/images/back/back.jpg is the Institute of Environmental Management (IEM).

Article 1 of the EMAS regulations (COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No. 1836/93) defines the objectives of the scheme as:

.....to promote continuous improvements in the environmental performance of industrial activities by:

(a) the establishment and implementation of environmental policies, programmes and management systems by companies, in relation to their sites;

(b) the systematic, objective and periodic evaluation of the performance of such elements

In order for a site to registered under the scheme, the company must:

Adopt an environmental policy that includes commitments to comply with relevant legislation and continuous improvement in environmental performance, and prevention of pollution.

Conduct a comprehensive environmental review of site activities, services and products to provide baseline data for identifying the sites environmental impacts, and identifying applicable legislation.

Introduce an environmental programme that takes into account the results of the environmental review. The programme should aim to achieve the commitments included in the environmental policy.

Set objectives and targets at the highest appropriate management level, and revise the environmental programme where appropriate to enable the set objectives and targets to be achieved.

Implement a management system (such as ISO 14001, the international environmental management systems standard) to ensure the requirements of the policy and programme can be met.

Carry out periodic audits to check the environmental performance against the goals that have been set to improve performance.

Prepare an environmental statement for each site to be registered. The statement should include a description of site activities, an assessment of significant environmental issues, relevant data, and presentation of the policy, programme and EMS.

Have the environmental policy, programme, management system, review or audit procedure and environmental statement examined to verify that they meet the relevant requirements of the EMAS regulations.

Have the environmental statement validated and submit it to the competent body background="/envENVMAN5/course/images/back/back.jpg, and make the statement publicly available after registration.

EMAS registration applies only to individual sites; organisations with more than one site must register those sites individually. Companies outside the EU can also use EMAS to set up an EMS, but they will not able to register sites in non-EU countries under the scheme.

The EMAS regulation allows Member States to adapt the EMAS scheme for other sectors, on an experimental basis. In the UK, the scope of the standard has been broadened to allow local authorities to participate. The Voluntary Eco-Management and Audit Scheme for Local Government (LA-EMAS) is intended to help local authorities evaluate and improve their environmental performance. An estimated 30% of local authorities are actively implementing the scheme, although currently there are only around twenty sites that have been verified.

Revisions to the EMAS Regulation

The EU recently published proposals to amend the EMAS regulations. Key features of the proposal include:

enhancing the scope of EMAS, so that it is applicable to all types of organisation from all economic sectors, rather than being restricted to sites in the manufacturing, power and chemical sectors

adoption of ISO 14001 as the management system specification for EMAS, making the steps for progressing from ISO 14001 to EMAS more straightforward

greater flexibility in the use of the EMAS logo, helping to raise the profile of companies participating in the scheme

providing organisations with an opportunity to produce environmental statements for different stakeholder groups from a body of validated information

maintaining the requirement for compliance with environmental laws and regulations and for a commitment to continuous environmental improvement, thereby ensuring that the key strengths and distinguishing features of the existing scheme are maintained

It is expected that the proposed changes to the scheme will come into effect by January 2000.

Tasks:

Why would some companies view the production of an environmental statement as a contentious issue?
How often does a company need to produce an environmental statement?