Speakers
(Director General for Environment, European Commission)
Catherine Day joined the European Commission in 1979 from the Confederation of Irish Industry. She served in the Cabinets of European Commissioners Richard Burke (1982-84) and Peter Sutherland (1985-89) and was Deputy Head of Cabinet to Sir Leon Brittan (1995-97) before becoming Director responsible for relations with the EU candidate countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the European Commission's Directorate General for External Relations in 1997. Prior to becoming Director General for Environment last year, Catherine Day was the European Commission's Deputy Director General for External Relations.
(Former Executive Director of Friends of the Earth, UK)
Charles Secrett is one of Britain's leading environmentalists. He was Executive Director of Friends of the Earth 1993-2003. He frequently appears on national TV and radio news and current affairs programmes, and has written extensively on a wide range of environmental and sustainable development topics. He regularly works with local environmental groups. Charles Secrett has worked on environmental research and investigation projects in Malaysia, Nigeria, Brazil, Zimbabwe, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. He is a member of the UK Government's Commission for Sustainable Development, and sits on the Advisory Boards for The Ecologist magazine and the Environmental Law Foundation in Britain, and for the Environment Programme of the University of North Carolina in the United States. In 1999, The Observer newspaper ranked him the 36th most influential person in Britain in its annual Power 300 List.
(EMAS Team, Industry and Implementation Unit, Directorate General for Environment at the European Commission)
Matthias Fritz holds a university degree in geography from the University of Freiburg in Germany and a degree in hydrology and water management from the University Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris 6), France. After university he worked four years as a research consultant at the Research Institute for Applied Knowledge Processing (FAW) in the area of environmental information systems and sustainable development in Ulm, Germany. In January 2001 he joined the EU Commission's Directorate-General for the Environment. His responsibilities include environmental policy for industry with a focus on the EU's Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS).
(Managing Director of DAU GmbH)
Dr. Markus Racke is the Managing Director of DAU - Deutsche Akkreditierungs- und Zulassungsgesellschaft für Umweltgutachter, which has been designated the German Accreditation Body for EMAS verifiers. As Vice-Chairman of the EMAS Forum of Accreditation Bodies (FAB) from 2000 to 2002, Dr. Racke played a crucial role in the design and implementation of the first peer review process of EMAS Accreditation Bodies. Previously Dr. Racke worked several years for the BDI, the Federation of German Industries as a consultant on the economic aspects of environmental protection. In this capacity he was responsible for EMAS projects and involved in the development of the EMAS Regulation and its implementation.
(Managing partner ETA Ltd, Austria and EMAS verifier)
Dr. Gara is the founder and managing partner at ETA Ltd., Austria. ETA is one of the pioneers for environmental management systems with ten years of professional experience. It is the first accredited environmental verifier organisation in Austria with more than 60 validated environmental declarations, including the first registered sites in Austria. Dr. Gara is a senior consultant and trainer for sustainability strategies, management system and organizational development. He has been an accredited environmental verifier under the EMAS regulation and Lead Auditor for ISO 14001 since 1995. He is a founder member of the board of the Austrian Institute for verifiers, auditors and environmental consultants, IdU. In addition, Dr. Gara is a member of several working groups on EMAS and ISO 14001 including the Austrian EMAS verifier expert group, Austrian Environmental Management Act, ISO/TC 207 Environmental Management.
(Director of the Department of Maintenance and Technical Services, Universal Mediterranea).
Vicenç Veses is an industrial engineer who since 1994 has been directing the department of maintenance and technical services at Universal Mediterranea. Mr. Veses deals with the environmental management system and is President of the Environmental committee at Univeral Mediterranea. Currently he is directing the EMAS certification and re-certification for Port Aventura and the EMAS certification for two 500 rooms hotels. Mr. Veses is also the President of the Occupational Health and Safety committee, directing the audit of the Prevention system at the company. In addition he is a representative in the Spanish Sustainability Excellence Club (CES).
(Environmental engineer, Södra Skogsägarna)
Elisabeth Carlsson has worked for Södra Skogsägarna since 1995. She started environmental auditing - including EMAS - at Södra group in 1996. Her current responsibilities at Södra group include: developing inventories of environmental impact; educating, informing and advising internal and external stakeholders about environmental issues; coordinating and performing internal environmental audits within the Södra group and monitoring development in the environmental area and participating in relevant projects.
(Former Chairman of the Board of Management at Victoria Versicherungen, (Germany) responsible for environmental issues).
Dr. Dassow has extensive experience in environmental management systems. For several years he was in charge of environmental activities at Victoria Versicherungen, a well-know German insurance company. His responsibilities included the supervision of all environmental activities, the implementation of the environmental management system according to EMAS and annual reporting as well as audit reviews every two years. Within this framework his specific task dealt with all questions related to product-ecology matters. For instance, he introduced the idea of a product-matrix, which is the guideline for the further development of Victoria's product ecology activities.
(Lead environmental auditor, AIB Vinçotte International, Belgium and EMAS verifier)
Jean-Charles de Viron is an agronomist and lead auditor for environmental management systems (EMAS and ISO 14001) within the biggest Belgian certification body, AIB Vinçotte International. He has worked for ten years in Small and Medium Enterprises active in the environmental sector (in particular waste management). As such, he has extensive experience with the specific problems of SMEs in setting up documented management systems. Mr de Viron is also Chairman of Pan European Forest Certification (PEFC) Belgium, which was developed for the mutual recognition of national or regional forest certification schemes meeting internationally recognised requirements for sustainable forest management.
(Senior Environmental Counsellor, Eco Counselling, Brussels)
Heinz-Werner Engel is senior environmental advisor and trainer on Eco-management in the public sector. He is currently introducing EMAS and ISO 14001 into government agencies and policy operations, territorial governance and social economy networks. Among his core expertise is the creation of participatory management tools for small and micro companies in European Candidate Countries and in developing countries. Mr. Engel is member of the Board of INEM, the International Network of Environmental Management, and represents part of the EU environmental professionals on the EMAS Management ('article 14') Committee. Mr. Engel has also developed a number of practical simple instruments for SMEs to help them implement environmental management, including the Eco-mapping tool.
(Global Product Manager EMS for LRQA Ltd Centre and EMAS verifier)
Dr Anne-Marie Warris is an EARA/IEMA registered lead auditor and Lead EMS auditor. Her varied responsibilities include development and support of new environmental system based services, influencing and inputting to a number of accreditation and other committees as well as ensuring the technical integrity of the LRQA EMAS and EMS services including external and internal liaison and support. Dr. Warris is an UKAS accredited EMAS verifier and has carried out EMAS verification in a number of EU member states including UK, Sweden, Portugal and Germany. She supported the EU in drafting the EMAS guide for SMEs and acted as consultant to the EC in the original drafting of annex in EMAS I related to internal audits and verification process. She is chairperson of the International Independent Organization of Certifiers and Verifiers (IIOC) Environmental Committee which she represents in various accreditation forums. She is also a member of International Standardization Organization (ISO) TC207 (ISO14000) committees specifically those on ISO 14001 and environmental communication.
(Councillor for Environmental and Sustainable Development, Modena Province, Italy)
Ferruccio Giovanelli has been involved in environmental affairs since more than 20 years. As the mayor of Sassuole he contributed to the agreement on a regulation for regional ceramic businesses which was signed in 1996. This agreement aims at introducing urban and environmental improvement measures to the region and at the experimental application of EMAS to the whole industrial district. Mr Giovanelli coordinated the committee promoting EMAS which also took a leading role in the approval procedure of the district environmental action plan. As Environment Councillor of the province, Mr Giovanelli signed the International Declaration on Cleaner Production with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and endorsed an agreement on environmental support with the Ministry of the Environment in Costa Rica in the framework of the Kyoto Protocol. In March 2003 the LA 21 Action Plan of the Province of Modena was selected one of the 12 best practice examples by the European Sustainable Cities and Towns Campaign.
(Managing director of INTECHNICA (Germany) and EMAS verifier).
In 1990 Dr. Norbert Hiller founded INTECHNICA (Germany) as one of the first environmental consulting organisations served as its managing director. Since then the company deals with both projects in energy saving and environmental protection, management systems for quality, environment, occupational health and safety and risk and in actual projects are in the field of Integrated Product Policy (IPP) and sustainable development. In 1995 INTECHNICA started as the first environmental verifiers in Germany and managed verifications/certifications according to EMAS and ISO 14001. Since then the company has audited about 450 locations in Germany, Europe and worldwide.
(Head of the Industry and Implementation Unit, Directorate General for Environment at the European Commission).
Herbert Aichinger has a degree in chemistry from the University of Vienna and between 1978 and 1987 worked for the Austrian Environmental Protection Agency where he was responsible for ambient air quality and industrial emissions. In 1988, Mr. Aichinger was appointed head of the Chemical Regulations Department at the Austrian Ministry of Environment. This department dealt with pesticides, VOC-control and the protection of the ozone layer. In 1996, he transferred to the European Commission, becoming head of the Industrial Installations and Biotechnology Unit in 2000. In January 2001, Mr. Aichinger was appointed head of the Air quality, Urban Environment, Noise, Transport and Energy Unit before becoming Head of Unit for Industry and Implementation in February 2001.