EEA reaches European environmental management award finals

Under EMAS, or the EU’s Eco-Management and Audit Scheme, organisations set up an eco-management system following certain criteria to improve their environmental performance. They are then evaluated and, if good enough, given an EMAS certificate. The EMAS Awards 2006 were given to the organisations which communicated best about the scheme.

One of the main award criteria was how innovative the EMAS communication of an organisation had been. Each EU country could select one entry from each of the three categories: micro, small and medium-sized as well as large enterprises, and the EEA was selected as the best medium-sized organisation in Denmark to have carried out EMAS communication activities this year.

The EEA was the first EU body to be registered under EMAS (2004) and has used a variety of communication tools to involve and motivate the staff to participate in improving the EEA’s environmental performance. The most important one is face-to-face communication by line managers at group meetings. Other activities have included: semi-annual EMAS staff seminars, introductory information sessions to all new staff, an intranet EMAS site, and information folders, posters and stickers.

In 2006, the EEA expanded its EMAS communication activities by establishing a greening network consisting of nine other EU bodies, which are interested in environmental management. Moreover, it has begun to provide assistance to the European Parliament in its efforts to raise the staff’s awareness of environmental management and EMAS.

More on EMAS at the EEA

More on the EMAS scheme

More on the EMAS Awards 2006