Commission proposes to revise EMAS
The European Commission has recently adopted a proposal for the revision of the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) which was established in 1993, aimed at promoting continuous improvements in the environmental performance of industrial activities by committing sites to voluntarily evaluate and improve their performance and to provide relevant information to the public. The Commission has taken the opportunity of the revision of the 1993 Regulation to ensure the broader applicability of the instrument and to increase the clarity of the requirements and the transparency of the EMAS scheme. One of the main changes to the existing system would be to extend its application outside industry, meaning that sectors such as the financial sector and even the Commission itself would be able to participate. In order to facilitate the process, the proposal would also allow organisations to use the international environmental management standard ISO 14001 as a building block for EMAS accreditation. This would mean, in effect, that companies or organisations already fulfilling ISO standards would need only to address certain supplementary elements to become accredited to EMAS. The proposed regulation would also require the Commission to develop an information and promotion strategy aimed at increasing participation in the EMAS scheme. As part of this strategy, a new logo would be introduced, allowing participants in the scheme to ensure that their commitment to improved environmental performance is more visible to the general public, who in turn would be able to track performance through a more flexible approach to reporting. Other important elements to the proposal include the new requirement for participating organisations to involve their employees in the implementation of the scheme. Priority is also granted to increasing the participation of SMEs, and the proposal provides for the development of a set of tools for this purpose. These would include measures such as operational guidelines, guidance to verifiers, as well as initiatives such as supply chain partnerships with their customers.