S-Tiles - EMAS & ISO 14001

EMAS/ISO 14001

The revision of the Regulation has significantly strengthened the EMAS scheme by linking it to the ISO 14001 standard. The apparent ‘competition’ between the two has been overcome with the inclusion of the ISO 14001 procedure for environmental management in EMAS. Currently, the two systems therefore have the same procedures, organisation, practice and enterprise control systems, providing EMAS with an environmental improvement programme and a relevant system of internal management. The differences between the two systems have increased, however, with respect to the public commitment of companies via the environmental declaration and the related verification process. In EMAS, this is guaranteed by a public and Europe-wide accreditation system.

Once an organisation has decided to assess the environmental aspects of its activities, its first step can be to adhere to the ISO 14001 standard, thus providing it with an environmental management system certified at private level. It can then decide to take the more binding step of adopting EMAS. In this case, the move from an internal system of environmental management to the European scheme confirms the commitment of the company to open its doors to the public, thereby binding itself to a true moral contract - an obligation of environmental improvement that often goes beyond legal compliance. By doing so, the company agrees to the submission of its environmental declaration for evaluation by a European verifier.