(Eco Management & Audit Scheme)
The Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is part of the European Union's Environmental Initiatives under the EC Fifth Action Programme: "Towards Sustainability".
The objective of EMAS, which is a voluntary scheme backed by the EC Eco-Management and Audit Regulation which ensures that identical EMAS standards and approaches are adopted in all EC countries, is to promote continuous environmental performance improvements with industry. It aims to achieve this by providing a means for industrial companies to manage their environmental performance, to introduce environmental improvements and to provide information on their environmental performance to the general public.
EMAS is site-specific. This means that it is up to an individual company, having considered all of the likely benefits and commitments, to decide whether it wishes to seek accreditation for its site(s) under EMAS or against an alternative National environmental standard (e.g. a standard such as British Standard 7750), or neither. There is an ISO 14000 series of Standards in existance for environmental management systems, which parallels the ISO 9000 series for Quality Management. The new standards supersede BS 7750.
As EMAS is voluntary and company/site specific, it is clear that neither EAPA nor its member national asphalt associations can play a direct role in EMAS, but through this statement EAPA recommends its member associations to ensure that their member companies are aware of the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme. While it is not anticipated that EMAS will become mandatory, companies able to demonstrate good environmental credentials and a commitment to adopting and maintaining, and where possible, improving on these good environmental practices, are likely to be less susceptible to external environmental pressures than companies who cannot do so.
They are also likely, therefore, to be looked upon more favourably by regulators, customers and the general public. Should mandatory requirements eventually be introduced, companies voluntarily working to EMAS guidelines would be in an advantageous position. It is significant to note that the asphalt industry is not specifically targeted in national and EC initiatives, because it is regarded as a low environmental impact industry.
The EAPA Best Available Technology Document (BAT) published in 1994 and updated in 1996, aims to serve as a valuable industry-specific technical reference for environmental auditing and compliance reporting. The document is available in English, French, German, Italian, Hungarian, Spanish and Portugese.