Identification of Environmental Aspects
1. OBJECTIVES OF THE GUIDELINES
These guidelines are intended to facilitate the identification of significant environmental aspects deriving from activities, products and services on which the organization submitting a request for registration to the EMAS system exercises managerial control or exercises an influence.
In the EMAS system, significant environmental aspects are the focal point of the eco-management system of an organization, the evaluation and improvement of its environmental performance, thanks to the definition of objectives and aims, as well as the ongoing review process.
Significant environmental aspects and impacts are also relevant to the environmental statement.
2. RELATIONS BETWEEN ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS, SIGNIFICANT ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS AND SIGNIFICANT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
The EMAS system starts from the assumption that the environmental aspects of an organization determine environmental impacts.
If an environmental aspect of an organization has a significant environmental impact, it must be considered "significant" and included in the environmental management system.
3. PROCEDURE FOR PHASES TO TAKE IDENTIFIED ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS
In the initial environmental analysis and in the subsequent ongoing review process, it is essential that the company openly, fully and without conditioning the specific environmental aspects of its activities, products and services. In some cases it may be difficult to classify an identified environmental aspect as "direct" or "indirect".
In this case it must be kept in mind that the main concern, as regards the identification of environmental aspects, is to produce a complete overview of the environmental importance of the organization's activities, products and services and to address all the environmental aspects present.
It is important not so much to classify a factor as direct or indirect, but to verify that all aspects are identified, so that they can be managed through the eco-management system.
The procedure for identifying significant environmental aspects can be summarized as follows:
- Phase 1 Identification of all environmental aspects
- Phase 2 Definition of the significance criteria by the organization, taking into account the community rules
- Phase 3 Identification of significant environmental aspects based on the significance criteria referred to in phase 2
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