Helping you get started with EMAS

Last modified: Apr 13, 2011

EMAS — the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme, is a voluntary initiative encouraging companies and organisations to continuously improve their environmental performance. Its aim is to recognise and reward those organisations that go beyond minimum legal compliance and make continuous efforts to reduce their impact on the environment.

Each year, the participating organisations must publish a public environmental statement, which not only evaluates their environmental performance against the previous year's performance targets, but also sets out new ones for the year ahead. It is this voluntary publication of environmental information that gives EMAS and the participating organisations enhanced credibility and recognition.

EMAS was established in 1995 by the EU. It was originally restricted to companies in industrial sectors, but since 2001, EMAS has been open to public and private organisations operating in all economic sectors throughout the European Union and the European Economic Area (EEA) — Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.

The European Commission's EMAS website provides a full explanation of the EU's eco-management and audit scheme and a variety of toolkits to help you get started with the registration process.

For more examples, you may browse through the section entitled "Downloadable examples for your use" where many of EEA's internal documents are available for inspiration and adaptation.