Interinstitutional EMAS Days 2023: Main highlights

But what are the Interinstitutional EMAS Days all about?

The eighteen EMAS-registered EU institutions and agencies are already practising what they preach, reducing the impact of their day-to-day activities, helping the European Union to reach its ambitious climate neutrality target by 2050. They join forces organising the EMAS Days, by creating a platform for sharing their climate neutrality strategies and action plans, energy efficiency of EU buildings, mobilizing the EMAS networks and groups of volunteers, as well as setting up common projects and joint surveys.

From Staff engagement brainstorms to Green public procurement, to  Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and EMAS reports and how to prevent greenwashing. Did you know that taking a four-star hotel over a five-star hotel saves 213 litres of water per room per night (EIBG, 2023)? And that 52% of the respondents to the Eurobarometer Survey do not trust sustainability claims made by providers (EIOPA, 2023)?

This, and many more interesting facts and knowledge were shared. For example, during the session about Green Public Procurement provided by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). Their main recommendation: have sustainability criteria in the register system, so the contractor gets a display of the GPP classification of the new tender or contract. Moreover, to understand more about the phenomenon of greenwashing, the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) organized a session on sustainable finance, also covering topics such as green loans and insurance for natural disasters.

The European Parliament, in their session, invited several enthusiastic sustainability experts to get more insights about sustainability report standards other than EMAS, such as GRI and ESRS. From the European Court of Auditors, we learned that two-thirds of the EU agencies have made plans to improve energy efficiency and climate neutrality in their operations. And then there was the session on ‘Beyond green networks’ (European Commission) and Energy Saving Measures (European Central Bank) where participants gathered to brainstorm on staff engagement in sustainability and got inspired by tips on how to save energy.

All in all: the EMAS days were again an interesting success. If you got inspired by this message but could not attend, the PowerPoints of all the sessions can be found below!

• Session 1: Energy Saving Measures, 28/11
  General publications28 November 2023

  Session 1: Energy Saving Measures
• Session 2: Emission Reduction Strategies for Professional Travel, 28/11
  General publications28 November 2023

  Session 2: Emission Reduction Strategies for Professional Travel
  General publications28 November 2023

  Session 2: EIBG Business Travel and Emissions
• Session 3: Beyond Green Networks, 28/11
  General publications28 November 2023

  Session 3: Staff Engagement
• Session 4: Introduction to Sustainable Finance, 29/11
  General publications29 November 2023

  Session 4: Introduction to Sustainable Finance
• Session 5: Empowering GPP in public institutions, 29/11
  General publications29 November 2023

  Session 5: Empowering GPP in public institutions: The EUIPO experience
• Session 6: Sustainability Reports in EU institutions, 30/11
  General publications30 November 2023

  Session 6: European Court of Auditors sustainability reporting
  General publications30 November 2023

  Session 6: European Sustainability Reporting Standards and Synergies with EMAS
• Session 7: The EU Agencies' Response to the Energy Crisis and sustainability reporting, 30/11
  General publications30 November 2023

  The EU agencies' response to the the climate and energy crises and their reporting on their climate and energy performance