REMAS, exploiting the links between EMS and regulation

REMAS is a three-year project designed to examine environmental management systems (EMS's) currently in place in business and industry across EU Member States. REMAS aims to demonstrate that companies and organisations that implement environmental management systems, such as EMAS and ISO 14001, show better environmental performance overall. The IEMA is one of the project partners, along with the Environment Agency, Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Irish EPA.

Businesses around the world are facing increasing demands for improvement in environment performance. They are exposed to greater pressures from customers, employees and competitors and are having to deal with a plethora of rapidly changing regulations and guidelines in their field. To deal with these pressures, many companies have chosen to implement environmental management systems (EMS) that essentially allow the environmental impact of a company or organisation to be more easily controlled.

Whilst in theory, implementing an EMS should improve a company's environment performance, there is little data to back this up. Over the next three years, REMAS will collate data from sites throughout Europe with the aim of documenting the evidence to link the presence of an EMS to environmental performance. In addition, REMAS will use this information to demonstrate ways of avoiding duplication from the overlap of regulatory process work and that of EMS implementation.

The project will take this further by cascading the project findings to key EU stakeholders to encourage replication, understanding and the enhancement of environmental management practice.

Further information on REMAS can be found at:
www.remas.info
[email protected]
REMAS Project Team
Environment Agency
Burghill Road
Westbury on Trym
Bristol
BS10 6BF