A total of 28 people representing EMAS organisations and Chambers of Commerce and Industry from NRW took part in the event organised by Elisabeth Noke-Schäfer, responsible for EMAS registrations in NRW and Dr. Heinz Herzog, VNU member.
ISO 14001:2015 closer to EMAS!?
Dr. Heinz Herzog advises businesses from the chemicals, management systems, and REACH sectors and reports on his findings gleaned from numerous audits, on which ISO 14001:2015 requirements pose the greatest challenges for businesses. In his experience, businesses already registered with EMAS have no difficulties implementing the new norm’s requirements. Businesses solely certified via ISO 14001 face greater efforts in implementation, and businesses without prior experience with management systems face the greatest effort.
EMAS as a marketing tool – a UGA offer
Esther Zippel from the office of the Umweltgutachterausschusses (UGA) explained the new UGA marketing tool, which offers communications help, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and organisations. adelphi hosts the German EMAS Advisory Board (UGA).
The UGA is offering SMEs and organisations the possibility to create an individual EMAS flyer free of charge an in a few easy steps via the website http://flyer.emas.de. The flyer is intended to explain EMAS and the engagement of registered organisations in an easily understood way. The flyer should help make EMAS clearer to, for example, visitors to open house or sustainability days, complete with the organisation or business’s own logo, contact details, and a suitable image.
Daniel Weiss, senior project manager at the policy consultancy adelphi Consult GmbH presented the contents of the new guideline for a sustainable supply chain. Under commission of the Federal Environment Ministry, Daniel Weiß is developing the guide that will help SMEs to view their supply chains from an environmental viewpoint, and to improve them accordingly. SMEs receive support on how to get information on the environmental impacts of their supply chains, and on how to assess this information, to improve the most significant aspects. It is becoming more and more urgent for SMEs to deal with their own supply chains as policy-makers focus on the topic as a way to counter shifting the environmental impacts of businesses.
Changes to the EMAS regulation
In a second presentation, Esther Zippel introduced the coming changes to the EMAS regulation. The EU Commission, in cooperation with the member states, is currently revising the appendixes on environmental auditing (appendix 1), on the requirements for environmental management systems (appendix II), on internal environmental operations auditing (appendix III), and on environmental reporting (environmental declaration, appendix IV).
The ISO 14001:2015 will be integrated into appendix II. Its requirements on determining relevant requirements and expectations and the binding duties of the interested parties resulting therefrom, on taking the core business and life journey in connection with environmental aspects into account, and on determining opportunities and risks will be incorporated into the environmental audit. The reporting indicators will remain, but will be expanded upon, while digital availability and the environmental declaration will be improved. The EU Commission plans on publishing the changes to the appendixes in the first quarter of 2017.
The EMAS Clubs are regional meetings of EMAS organisations and interested parties, organised by the VNU Association for Sustainability and Environmental Management e.V.