MANAGEMENT & PROTECTION SYSTEMS

The EMAS Regulation

What is EMAS?

The Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme = EMAS) is a system set up for organizations that, voluntarily, wish to evaluate and improve their environmental efficiency.
The first edition of EMAS dates back to June 1993: it underwent a first re-edition in 2001 and later in 2009.
In 2017, the EMAS Regulation was aligned with the ISO 14001: 2015 edition (characterized by the HLS structure - "High Level Structure", typical of the new editions of the ISO standards for their greater integration) and in 2018 the structure of the new Environmental Statement was defined.

With the first revision ( EU Regulation EMAS 761/2001 ) revision was decided in particular :
• the extension of the possibility of participation in the system;
• the adoption of an EMAS logo ;
• the choice of a system of relationships more suited to the needs of organizations and interested parties
• the establishment of ISO 14001 as an intermediate step towards EMAS;
• employee participation.

The main novelty of the second revision ( EU Regulation EMAS 1221/2009 )covered the request to describe, within the Environmental Declaration, a summary of the available data on environmental performance using "key indicators" (see Annex IV of the Regulation).

With the change of 2017, the EU Regulation 1505/2017has aligned the EMAS Regulation with the new edition of the ISO 14001 standard, replacing Annexes I, II and III of Regulation 1221/2009.
In particular, the changes concerned the requirements for environmental analysis and the requirements relating to the audit internal environment, in the annexes of which reference was made to the ISO 14001: 2004 standard.

The change made by EU Regulation 2026/2018 concerned Annex IV of the EMAS Regulation, relating to the requirements of environmental communication.

Who can participate in EMAS?

EMAS is open to any public or private sector organization that intends to improve its environmental efficiency. Member States of the European Union and the European Economic Area (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) can join the system.

What are the advantages of participating in EMAS?

EMAS has many advantages for participating organizations. Here are some examples :
• a quality environmental management system;
• greater credibility;
• improvement of employee morale and ability to work in a team;
• greater staff awareness ;
• improvement of the corporate image ;
• reduction of costs and regulations ;
• new business opportunities ;
• greater consumer confidence ;
• improving relations with customers, local communities and regulatory bodies.