More useful information on aim and form of the environmental statement
What is the aim of the environmental statement?
The aim of the environmental statement is to provide environmental information to the public and other interested parties regarding the environmental impact and the continual improvement of environmental performance of the organisation.
It is also a vehicle to address the concerns and particular needs
for information of interested parties considered as significant by
the organisation. Additional information on the requirements on continual
improvement and needs of information can be found in the Annex
I - Section B.3 and Annex VI, point 6.4. of the EMAS Regulation..
Where to find help on drafting?
The interested parties can find guidance about the form, content and language of the environmental statement in the Commission’s Guidance on the EMAS environmental statement.
The Regulation 761/2001 of the European Parliament and the Council
lists the minimum requirements which need to be covered by an environmental
statement in Annex III, point 3.2.
An Environmental Statement should present relevant information:
Environmental information shall be presented in a clear and coherent
manner in printed form for those who have no other means of obtaining
this information. Upon its first registration and every three years
thereafter, every EMAS registered organisation is required to make
available the information detailed under Annex III point 3.2 in a consolidated
printed version.
Environmental Statements need not be long and printed as an expensive,
high quality brochure. The presentation should take the form seen most
appropriate to communicate a company’s environmental performance
to interested parties. If organisations feel a web version is more
appropriate, the management can select a web published environmental
statement only and prepare print-outs made available to interested
parties without web access.
An Environmental Statement should be easy to read:
The environmental statement needs to pay particular attention to the results achieved by an organisation against its environmental objectives and targets as well as the requirement of continuing to improve environmental performance. It also has to reflect the information needs of relevant interested parties.
The Commission Recommendation on environmental performance indicators shows how to transform measurements into indicators reflecting annual continual improvement of environmental aspects. These can be used for benchmarking on performance and presentation within economic sectors or between different economic sectors.
Valuable best practice examples
are at hand from the Environmental
Statement Library now.
