Environmentally Exemplary = Economically Successful

This marked a path that, unlike regulations and limits, relies on the self-responsibility of companies and organisations and promotes a balance between economy and ecology. EMAS can demonstrate that improving environmental performance also leads to enhanced competitiveness.

Against the backdrop of rising energy costs, increasingly scarce resources, sustainably oriented markets and business partners, and a more critical public, active environmental management proves to be an important success factor. As a forward-looking management and audit system, EMAS helps organisations improve their innovation capacity, reduce environmental impacts and costs, and strengthen credibility. Through the continuous improvement process initiated by EMAS certification, weaknesses can be systematically eliminated and potentials developed step by step.

This dynamic of progress also represents one of the main advantages over the international environmental management standard ISO 14001. Furthermore, EMAS automatically meets the requirements of ISO 14001, and the EMAS environmental verifier is authorised to issue an ISO 14001 certificate. In addition, an EMAS environmental management system also addresses the criteria of transparency (environmental statement) and enhanced legal certainty.

The Key Benefits of EMAS

• Energy efficiency and climate protection: Continuous improvement of energy efficiency saves not only financial resources but also emissions, providing an effective contribution to climate protection.

• Resource management: Comprehensive recording of all raw and auxiliary materials, as well as waste, provides the best basis for systematically and permanently reducing the organisation’s resource consumption.

• Legal compliance and reduced liability: EMAS validation thoroughly checks whether the organisation complies with legal requirements. For EMAS participants, this means increased legal certainty and lower liability risks.

• Environmentally responsible procurement: Demonstrating comprehensive environmental management and commitment increases opportunities, particularly in public tenders, for organisations with EMAS certification.

• Employee involvement: EMAS supports employee participation, credibly communicates environmental objectives, and strengthens employees’ identification with the organisation.

• Transparency and trust: Trust is the most important asset for organisations. EMAS environmental statements provide maximum transparency to all stakeholders.

• Sustainable development: Sustainable business development must consider not only ecological but also social and societal aspects. EMAS environmental management simultaneously provides the best foundation for comprehensive sustainability management.