EMAS: Response to future challenges for environmental protection in business and industry

The self-evident rapid climate change of recent years and the pessimistic forecasts as to its future progression make clear that businesses cannot go on as they are at present. Energy and resource efficiency will be of key importance in future. Eco-efficiency will become a strategic competitive edge for companies. A key instrument in establishing such a strategy is the European Union's voluntary environmental management system EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme).

The second EMAS conference, under the heading "EMAS and climate protection", was held on December 2, 2008 in Berlin. The event was hosted by the German Federal Environment Ministry. It provided an opportunity for all EMAS users, interested companies and organisations, professional bodies and state and federal politicians to discuss EMAS and gather valuable information on it within the framework of a range of different forums. The aim of the conference was to help publicise the benefits of EMAS to a broader public by way of multipliers and to consider the potential for optimising the system.

adelphi prepared the substantive aspects of the conference by drafting input papers for the individual forums: (1) EMAS – Climate protection and resource efficiency, (2) EMAS and public procurement, (3) EMAS and reporting, (4) EMAS and SMEs and (5) EMAS revision.