Eco-Management and Audit Scheme

The goal of the standard is to enable organizations to assess, manage and continuously improve their environmental performance.

[3] In order to register with EMAS an organisation must comply with the following implementation steps (Article 4 of the EMAS Regulation): The Eco-Management and Audit Scheme provides core indicators or key performance indicators (KPIs) with which registered organisations can measure their environmental performance and monitor their continual environmental improvement against set targets.

As a result, the EMAS Regulation is clear on the fact that hazardous waste has to be reported under a specific indicator.

Because ISO 14001 is an integral part of EMAS, these organisations automatically comply with the requirements that the international standard demands as well.

[5] As EMAS is tailored to individual performance improvements, each organisation has to consider different environmental and economic factors.

For example, some countries offer substantial reductions of waste fees, lower permitting costs, faster licensing procedures, etc.

EMAS Awards in environmental management are handed out annually to companies and public authorities in six categories.

Each year, the EMAS Awards winners are cited for their achievements in a specific area of their environmental performance.

Past themes have encompassed a variety of topics, including resource efficiency and waste management.

With the introduction of EMAS III, the scheme is globally applicable and no longer limited to EU Member States.