European Commission

Environmental Management Systems (EMS) are tools for any organisation – enterprise or public authority – to manage the impact of its activities on the environment. An EMS integrates environmental management into an organisation’s daily operations, long-term planning and other quality control mechanisms.

The integration and application of an EMS includes the following main elements:

• Planning phase, listing all environmental aspects and including final goals
• Implementation of the plan, including training and operational controls
• Supervision of the application, including monitoring and corrective action
• Reviewing, including progress reviews and, where necessary, making changes to the EMS

The EU has developed its own environmental management tool – the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) – to evaluate, report and improve environmental performance. Originally restricted to companies in industrial sectors, EMAS has since 2001 been extended to all economic sectors.

Participation in EMAS is voluntary and open to public or private organisations operating in the European Union and the European Economic Area (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway). An increasing number of candidate countries are also implementing the scheme in preparation for their accession to the EU.

The objective of EMAS is to ensure continued improvement of the environmental performance of public or private organisations by addressing five key issues:

• As a first step, the establishment and implementation of an environmental management system according to the requirements of EN/ISO 14001 (international standard on environmental management)
• The systematic, objective and periodic evaluation of the performance of this system
• The provision of information on environmental performance and an open dialogue with the public and other stakeholders, among other things through use of the EMAS logo
• The active involvement of employees in the organisation and appropriate training that makes active participation in the tasks referred to under the environmental management system possible
• Companies and organisations subscribing to EMAS are required to comply with environmental legislation.

It is becoming increasingly important for organisations to demonstrate that not only their philosophies but also their investment strategies and day-to-day operations must be sustainable.

The integration of EMAS brings organisational and economic benefits.

Organisationally, EMAS means:

• Quality environmental management due to the application of a highly developed scheme
• Contribution to an organisation’s environmental risk management
• Incentives to eco-innovate production processes
• Compliance check with environmental legislation by an EMAS verifier
• Sharing of best practice with other companies and organisations
• Added credibility and confidence with public authorities, other businesses and customers/citizens
• Improved relations with the local community
• Better quality workplaces, employee morale and incentives to team building
• Marketplace advantage and improved company image by improving stakeholder relations

Economically, EMAS means:

• Resource savings and therefore lower costs
• Reduction of financial burdens caused by reactive management strategies such as remediation, clean-ups and the paying of penalties for breach of legislation
• Financial benefits through better control of operations
• New business opportunities in markets where green production processes are important

Further information on benefits and costs of EMAS implementation can be found here.

EMAS structured guidance to public purchasers wishing to put into place a greener purchasing policy

Communication between and within concerned departments of public or private organisations is a key factor to ensure successful implementation of green procurement policies. However, public procurement is very often a rather decentralised process with many individuals in different parts of an organisation involved. Efficient information transfer is often at risk.

• Environmental Management Systems such as EMAS provide clear guidelines for internal communication and reporting structures.
  
  There is wide acceptance that public procurement does present substantial consequences for the environment. Green purchasing therefore constitutes a major environmental objective of any organisation wishing to improve its environmental performance. On the other hand, as an environmental management system allows organisations to clearly structure and monitor their environmental policy objectives, public authorities wishing to apply green public procurement may benefit from the instalment of a proper environmental management system. An increasing number of public authorities have therefore put environmental management systems in place to promote the integration of green procurement.
  
  
• Environmental Management Systems such as EMAS provide a useful framework for coordinating environmental improvements. An EMS foresees all necessary elements to involve and coordinate the concerned parties within the organisation.

EMAS offers major advantages for the supplier

• For the supplier, EMAS can be used as a way of demonstrating compliance with an environmental selection criterion related to the capacity of bidders to take environmental management measures during the performance of the contract :
  
  In some limited cases – when services and works contracts call for the adoption of specific environmental management measures during their execution (for instance when a bridge needs to be built in an environmentally protected area or in the case of waste management and sanitation contracts) – the contracting authority can, by way of a selection criterion, ask bidders to demonstrate their capacity to apply environmental management measures for the duration of the contract. In such cases, registration under EMAS, or a comparable environmental management scheme (for example EN/ISO 14001), should be recognised as sufficient proof of compliance with this specific and exceptional selection criterion.
  
  However, this possibility does not exist for supply contracts. Contracting authorities are not allowed to ask potential suppliers to prove their environmental credentials through registration under an environmental management scheme. Any requirements that contracting authorities impose on the bidders and their bids must be linked to the purchased product/service itself. Registration under an environmental management scheme may say something about the general environmental performance of the company, but not necessarily about the environmentally sound characteristics of the products that are the subject of the tender.

EMAS and SMEs

The European Commission places special emphasis on encouraging SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises with less than 250 employees) to participate in EMAS. Member States and the Commission support SMEs by

• Facilitating access to information, especially on existing funding, and dialogue with relevant public institutions
• Promoting technical assistance measures
• Providing SMEs with certain deviations from the EMAS requirements to avoid an undue administrative burden
• Applying a reduced registration fee to encourage higher SME participation in the scheme

A dedicated EMAS Toolkit for small organisations can be found online.

EMAS and Public Authorities

LEAP – Local Environmental Management Systems and Procurement

A group of 11 cities throughout Europe have started the LEAP project, supported by the European Commission’s LIFE programme (The Financial Instrument for the Environment), with the aim of:

• Examining how management and implementation of green purchasing can be improved through integration of environmental management systems
• Developing practical approaches aimed at realising the environmental and financial benefits of joint procurement

The LEAP project is developing a number of tools aimed at supporting local authorities in implementing green procurement. This work is still in progress, but drafts can already be downloaded.

The LEAP website also offers a series of publications on the programme.