What does EMAS require?

EMAS requires organisations to produce an environmental report (EMAS refers to this as an environmental statement).

It doesn't need to be expensive and it doesn't have to be produced as a glossy brochure. It can be published on a website and made available electronically.

The environmental statement needs to include:

• A clear and succinct description of your organisation and its activities, products and services.
• A copy of your environmental policy and a brief description of your EMS.
• A description of your significant environmental aspects and impacts and your objectives, targets and programmes for improvement.
• Summary data and information on your actual environmental performance, including comparison with previous years where appropriate and performance against relevant legal requirements.
• Name of the verifier who has checked all of the information, and the date this was done.

Find out more The European Commission has published a 'Guidance on the EMAS environmental statement' which gives a lot of useful of examples. This document can be downloaded at http://europa.eu.int/comm/ environment/emas/documents/guidance_en.htm