MANAGEMENT & PROTECTION SYSTEMS

Small companies that operate in a large specific area and produce identical or similar products or services that require individual registration

The Regulation provides that "In order to promote the participation of SMEs, including those concentrated in well-defined geographical areas, local authorities, together with sector associations, chambers of commerce and interested parties, can provide assistance in identifying significant environmental impacts. SMEs can use this information to define their environmental program and establish the objectives and targets of their EMAS management system ".

In these geographical areas, SMEs (which very often have a common technological level, the same production methods and roughly the same organizational and management systems), need to:

• consider the cumulative effects deriving from their production processes;
• interact for their environmental problems with the same community, the same institutions, the same environmental control bodies at the local level. They are in fact confronted with identical needs in terms of environmental quality;
• consider the interaction between their environmental impacts and those produced by other industrial operators in the geographical area as well as by public services, businesses and civil residents.

On the other hand, they have the possibility of:

• seek common solutions to their environmental problems (to increase the efficiency of pollutant reduction plants, overcome their cultural limitations or their inadequacy for environmental management, etc.);
• supporting each other, for example:
• exchange experiences on the identification of environmental aspects and impacts;
• jointly develop an environmental policy and program;
• carry out internal audits with each other at the partner's organization to identify them more easily environmental aspects and impacts;
• jointly use the services of the same environmental consultant;
• use the same infrastructures for the management of various environmental impacts, such as treatment plants waste water, waste incinerators, landfills etc. and create specific organizations, such as consortia;
• on the basis of their common commitment to implement the EMS, make use of the services of the same verifier, which, due to the similarity of the EMSs, will facilitate the verification and validation process and reduce them corresponding costs;
• participate in local environmental projects, such as the Agenda 21 processes (local or regional authorities or industrial organizations can support these activities by contributing to the creation of networks).

Taking into account the previous considerations, the definition of a general program implemented by local authorities, industrial associations, chambers of commerce based on an initial environmental analysis of the entire territory, represents a very useful preliminary step for SMEs that approach the regulations EMAS.

The territorial environmental program must be clearly identified, published and accepted by all interested parties and aim for a significant environmental improvement in the whole area.

Once the environmental objectives and targets have been adopted and acknowledged, each organization (SMEs, public services, local authorities, etc.) can at this point, on a voluntary basis according to the EMAS procedure, determine the steps necessary to comply individually with the Regulation and request registration on an individual basis.

The verifier in this case will have to check that the environmental management system can lead to the achievement of the specific objectives and targets of each single organization, in line with the general program, the objectives and the targets of the entire area.
The environmental declaration, in addition to the part necessary for EMAS, should also clearly identify the specific contribution of the organization to the targets of the entire environmental program.