EMAS for SMEs CONFERENCE, BRUSSELS 15 DECEMBER 2008


 

More than fifty delegates from DG Environment, European Competent Bodies, verification organisations, consultancies and industry representatives met in Brussels on 15
 December to hear a variety of presentations on the revisions to the EMAS regulation, its implementation and barriers to its greater penetration in the market, with a clear focus on SMEs.

 

Forthcoming revisions will embrace the EU Commission’s ambition for greater attention to resource efficiency and sustainable consumption, as well as reinforcing the understanding of current environmental legislation. It is hoped that this greater rigour will be supplemented by sector guidance on the implementation of EMAS.

 

Costs of registration and verification and even access to verifiers were identified as barriers to more registrations, especially by SMEs, while accreditation bodies confirmed their ambition to work with verifiers to provide consistency in verification.

 

Finally, delegates heard from small businesses, consultants and verifiers of the successes being achieved in cluster programmes for implementation and verification. Simplified systems such as EMASEasy were reducing the bureaucratic burdens for small business as well as the development and registration costs.

 

The meeting, hosted by representatives from the EMAS Help Desk, provoked a variety of questions on the added value of EMAS and the quality of its promotion by the Commission, but expressed satisfaction that the Scheme was to be made available outside the EU. 

 

Slideshows of the conference are downloadable hereunder :

 

 

Session 1 : Setting the stage : EU policy , EMAS and barriers to access

 

1. EMAS in the new EU policy package : Sustainable consumption and production and other initiatives - Pavel Misiga, Head of Unit Industry and Environment, DG Environment

 

 

2. The headlines of the EMAS Revision - Marianne Muller, DG Environment, Brussels

 

 

3. Representing SMEs’ interests in order to make the EMAS regulation more SME friendly - Rosa Solanes, Environmental Adviser, UEAPME, Brussels

 

4. ‘Fighting the paper tiger’ in EMS implementation with EMASEasy Feedback from 50 certifications in Europe - Heinz Werner Engel, Managing Director, Eco-counselling Enterprise Brussels

 

 

Session 2 : Verification - the missing link in simplification

 

 1.Working with small Business - EMAS and challenges for the verification process; accreditation criteria, rules and international practise - Andrew Marlow, UKAS, London


  

3. Lowering the barriers of access: Experience of EMASEasy in Hungarian certification.

- Csaba Bodroghelyi – Hungary, Organisational Verifier

 

4. EMAS going global- challenges of validating EMAS in the Mediterranean area- case studies from Cyprus and Jordan - Dr. Burkhard Kühnemann – Hannover

 

Session 3 : Is EMAS affordable for small business ? EMAS - innovative and cost-effective for business

 

1. Experience : EMAS in the regional industry  cost-cutting with cluster approaches, shared consultantsand verifiers - Kurt Göbgen - Kölle GMBH, Germany

 

2. Experience : Micro companies in the cement mixing and distribution sector. Collaborative implementation of simplified EMS in multiple sites and reductions in auditing costs - Nicolas Vuilliers - Italcimenti Group, France

 

3. EMAS for beginners and informal implementation of procedures. Experience from implantation and auditing - Thibault Jacquet - Resources Social Economy Network, Belgium

 

Session 4 : Consultants - Selling bureaucracy or smart environmental coaching?

 

1. EMASEasy :  the elegant  toolbox for integration into other management systems  in medium sized companies - Stefan Muessig - WUQM, Germany

 

2. EMASEasy - bottom up and vertical integration. How to build environmental management systems which are easy to handle, robust on delivery and cost effective- Aurélie Bois - Eco-Conseil Mediterranée, Marseille, France