Exceptional circumstances for the registration of an entity smaller than a site
If an organization intends to register an entity smaller than a site, the following principles must be the basis of its decision.
First of all, the exception cannot be used to select the best for inclusion in the EMAS system (cherry picking).
It is therefore not permitted to register parts of a single production process with the intent to exclude departments that could not be registered to EMAS.
An organization must be able to demonstrate its ability to monitor and control all its significant environmental aspects and to demonstrate that the entity for which registration is requested has not been specifically separated from other departments within the same site characterized by from lower performance.
Secondly, the principles of «local responsibility» and «public responsibility».
Communication with the public is a key element of EMAS.
In its own interest, an organization must inform the public in a clear and understandable way about the environmental performance of a specific site. If a subdivision has its own market, it may be important for you to be able to use the logo for your communications. However, if an entity smaller than the respective site intends to request EMAS registration, it must be clearly communicated to the public that only parts of the organization's activities on the site are managed within EMAS as, normally, the activities of a site they are perceived by the public as a single whole.
An organization is responsible for clear communication with the surrounding environment and must take appropriate action to avoid misunderstanding in the public.
Based on these principles, an entity smaller than a site can be registered separately if:
a) the subdivision has clearly defined the products, the services or the own activities and the environmental aspects and the effect of the subdivision can be clearly identified and distinguished in comparison to the other parts of the site not registered;
b) the subdivision has its own administrative and management functions, such as to guarantee that it is enabled to organize and control its environmental management system (EMS), its environmental impacts and to take corrective actions about its responsibilities. The proof of this can be given by the following elements: legal status, registration in the chamber of commerce, organization chart, reports presented by the parent organization, headed paper;
c) the division has specific responsibility for compliance with the environmental authorization / licensing requirements issued to it.
The site cannot be divided if:
a) the separate entity only covers parts of the operations on the site that are not representative of the environmental aspects and impacts of all the activities on the site;
b) it is not possible to understand from the outside what part of the activities on the site is managed by the environmental management system (EMS) and the precise reasons why this part was separated from the activities on the site.
In this case it is particularly important to clearly define the limits of the responsibilities related to the incoming and outgoing flows of the organization. In its environmental management system (EMS), the organization also takes into account the interfaces with services and activities that are not completely covered by the EMS application field.
For example, it evaluates the environmental aspects and impacts of the common infrastructure on the site, such as common waste management or effluent treatment plant and includes them in the environmental program and in the process of continuous improvement.
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