EMAS stands for Eco-Management and Audit Scheme and is an environmental management system developed by the European Union that enables organisations to systematically record, document and continuously improve their environmental performance. It is based on the international environmental management standard ISO 14001 and goes beyond it with additional requirements, such as a regularly audited environmental statement. Under the German Energy Efficiency Act, it is one of the two recognised methods by which companies can fulfil their obligation to have a management system in place.
What is EMAS?
EMAS is an environmental management system established by the European Union to help organisations systematically improve their environmental performance. Unlike a system focused solely on energy management, it takes into account all the key environmental aspects of an organisation’s operations, ranging from energy and material use to water, air and biodiversity.
Participating organisations are entered into a public register following a successful audit by an accredited environmental verifier. It is regarded as a demanding system because it goes beyond the requirements of ISO 14001 and requires a validated, publicly accessible environmental statement.
How does EMAS differ from ISO 50001?
ISO 50001 is a dedicated energy management system that focuses on energy consumption. EMAS is a more comprehensive environmental management system that treats energy as one of several environmental aspects. In practice, the two overlap considerably: anyone operating an environmental management system that treats energy use as a significant environmental aspect is already meeting a large proportion of the requirements of ISO 50001.
For organisations that wish to establish a comprehensive environmental management system anyway, this is therefore the more comprehensive approach, whilst ISO 50001 is the focused approach for energy management alone.
What role does EMAS play in the German Energy Efficiency Act?
The German Energy Efficiency Act requires companies with an annual consumption above a certain threshold to operate an energy or environmental management system. The Act explicitly lists ISO 50001 and EMAS as recognised systems, meaning that a company may choose to fulfil its obligation using either one or the other. Which approach is appropriate depends on whether the focus is solely on energy efficiency or on broader environmental management.
The exact consumption thresholds and deadlines should be checked against the current text of the legislation, particularly as, at the time of writing, an amendment to the Energy Efficiency Act was going through the legislative process.
Related terms
Sources and further information
- Betterspace: Regulatorik, ESG und Resilienz für Betreiber
- Umweltgutachterausschuss (UGA): EMAS und das Energieeffizienzgesetz
- Directorate-General for Environment/Green Forum: Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS)