66 │ 4. THE EUROPEAN UNION: A STANDARDISED METHODOLOGY TO ESTABLISH BAT revised draft BREF was then distributed in September 2017, in preparation of the Final TWG Meeting, held at the end of November 2017 in Seville. This meeting, where conclusions on different best available techniques and other aspects of the reviewed BREF were jointly formulated by the TWG, signified the end of the technical discussions in the review process. The JRC is currently, as of March 2018, finalising the document.
4.4. Eco-Management and Audit Scheme Regulation: Sectoral Reference Documents and Best Practice Reports 4.4.1. Key features The Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) Regulation (EU, 2009) establishes the voluntary participation by organisations in EMAS, the European Community’s ecomanagement and audit scheme. The Regulation seeks to promote continuous improvements in the environmental performance of organisations by the establishment and implementation of environmental management systems, the systematic, objective and periodic evaluation of the performance of such systems, the provision of information on environmental performance, an open dialogue with the public and other interested parties and the active involvement of employees in organisations and appropriate training. The Regulation promotes the use of Best Environmental Management Practice (BEMP), defined as "the most effective way to implement the environmental management system by organisations in a relevant sector and that can result in best environmental performance under given economic and technical conditions". For this purpose, the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) develops two different documents describing the BEMPs for each sector: a concise Sectoral Reference Document (SRD) and a detailed Best Practice Report (BPR). An organisation wishing to participate in EMAS must go through a procedure to obtain an accredited environmental verifier’s approval of their environmental review, management system, audit procedure and statement. The validated statement is registered and made publicly available. An organisation successfully completing all stages may use the EMAS logo to demonstrate its commitment to improving its environmental performance. The SRDs, as stipulated in Article 46.1 of the EMAS Regulation, briefly describe all the BEMPs identified for a specific sector in addition to the conditions under which they can be applied. An EMAS-registered organisation must take into account the relevant SRDs when assessing its own environmental performance. For each BEMP, the SRD also contains environmental performance indicators and benchmarks of excellence (EC, 2017). The presentation of each BEMP is structured as follows: i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. viii. ix. x.
description; achieved environmental benefits; appropriate environmental indicators; cross-media effects; operational data; applicability; economics; driving force for implementation; reference organisation; and reference literature.
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