The Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is the EU voluntary scheme for organizations willing to commit themselves to evaluate, improve and report on their environmental performance. The EMAS is established to evaluate and improve the environmental performance of organizations and to provide relevant information to the public and other interested parties. The objective of the EMAS is to promote continual improvement in the environmental performance of organizations by:
(1) establishing and implementing environmental management systems;
(2) systematic, objective and periodic evaluation of the performance of such systems;
(3) providing information on environmental performance and open dialogue with the public and other interested parties;
(4) active involvement of employees in the organization and appropriate initial and advanced training that make active participation in the above-mentioned tasks possible.
In its requirements, the EMAS is closely related to ISO 14000 environmental management standards.
