EMAS, Environment Eco-management Audit Scheme: EC established working dialogue with Sant’Anna School Institute of Management promoting sustainable production and circular economy
The European Commission has selected Italy and, in particular, the Institute of Management at Sant’Anna School to develop two projects aimed at investigating “Eco-Management & Audit Scheme” EMAS’s added value and its ability to provide additional advantages for organizations and public authorities. Since 1993, EMAS regulation and the revised ISO 14001 standard has encompassed legal compliance, transparency and a direct commitment to continuously improve environmental performance.
Through the Rave (“Reinforcing Added Value for EMAS”) and Interreg Enhance (“Emas as a Nest to Help And Nurture the Circular Economy”) projects, the Institute of Management demonstrated well-established and successful strategic cooperation with scientific communities, EU and regional policy makers across Europe to contribute to Circular Economy and sustainable development.
To conduct the Rave study, Professor Fabio Iraldo and researchers of Sant’Anna School Institute of Management have developed a partnership with Adelphi-Berlin, a leading independent think tank and public policy consultancy on climate, environment and development. The mission was to investigate how the EU Member States perceive EMAS as having added benefit over other EMAS registered and non-registered organisations and regulators.
The Rave project team evaluated over 700 EMAS registered organisations in 12 Member States. In addition, surveys were administered to over 200 ISO 14001 certified organizations, more than 70 EMAS environmental performance verifiers/auditors and 16 Member State representatives from the EMAS Committee (advisers to the European Commission on matters related to EMAS) to test adoption of regulatory relief and strengthen legal compliance.
The Interreg Enhance project aims to improve the implementation of policy instruments to increase practises on supporting Emas registration. The Institute of Management, as the scientific coordinator working with the policy makers, has developed the project in partnership with Spain, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic and Estonia. The Interreg Enhance project partners have made a set of recommendations drawing upon 100 best practices in collaborative activities. The project follow-up process through special workshop sessions will present and debate new guidelines for future implementation with the objective to inform all the stakeholders involved.
