Today, the European Commission adopted a new version of the EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) User’s Guide. The aim of the scheme is to help organisations worldwide become more sustainable and address their environmental impact. This new guide is useful for organisations that are already registered to EMAS as well as ones that are aspiring to join the scheme.
The revision of the EMAS User’s Guide followed an extensive consultation process.
The guide provides more clarity on the registration process and a simple overview of the requirements of the scheme.
It shows organisations how they can contribute to more sustainable production and consumption models. It outlines the scheme’s implementation process and empowers private and public economic operators to address their environmental performance systematically. It highlights how this systematic approach can lead to cost savings and legal compliance. In this way, organisations can reduce their environmental impacts, influence their value chain and communicate on their objectives and achievements substantiated with third party certified data.
The guide was updated in line with the latest amendments to the EMAS Regulation, particularly focusing on the use of core indicators and setting minimum requirements for environmental statements by organisations. The revision also streamlines the registration process for organisations with multiple similar sites, facilitating the use of sampling procedures and reducing bureaucratic hurdles and registration timelines. The guide is also now more user-friendly as it includes more practical examples, best practices and pictograms.
The guide also highlights the links between EMAS and other legislative requirements such as:
- The Industrial Emission Directive - EMAS is recognised as a Best Available Technique in terms of existing environmental management systems
- The Corporate Due Diligence Directive - EMAS provides a suitable framework for carrying out environmental due diligence and can serve as a basis for broader sustainability management in the value chain.
- The Corporate Sustainability Directive – the environmental management system of EMAS can support the generation of reliable data for the sustainability reporting and the environmental statement can be used by reference to fulfil the recently adopted Environmental Sustainable Reporting Standards.
For more information
Details
- Publication date
- 3 November 2023
- Author
- Directorate-General for Environment