Environmental risks and impacts - Environmental Deterioration and Contamination: Problems and their Management - page 214

- Is the aspect of the organization's overall management structure that addresses

immediate and long-term impacts exerted by its products, services and processes
on the environment;

- Gives order and consistency for organizations to address environmental concerns

through the allocation of resources, assignment of responsibility and ongoing
evaluation of practices, procedures and processes;

- Focuses on continual improvement of the system.

The EMAS is a voluntary instrument in the EU. The most important requirements
which must be fulfilled by organizations for the registration of EMAS are the following:

- The organization must have an environmental policy;

- An on-site review of the policy is necessary;

- There must be clear objectives of the organization regarding environment;

- Audit of the matter related to the environment;

- A clear statement by the organization regarding the environment.

General environmental management is addressed and supervised by environmental
law, a complex and interlocking web of treaties, conventions, statutes, action pro-
grams, regulations and policies. The three main areas of legislation are (i) natural
resources conservation, (ii) pollution, dangerous materials and contaminated land and
(iii) land use and planning.
Many of the laws are environmental compartment specific, for example, only for
air or surface waters, subsurface waters, soil, or waste, etc. In Europe, three types of
legislation give the frame and direct the national legislation of the member states:

- Thematic Strategies on air pollution [COM (2005) 446] and for soil protection

[COM (2006) 231];

- Framework Directives on water (Water Framework Directive, 2000), on waste

(Waste Directive, 2008), and on noise (Noise Directive, 2002);

- Directive 2008/1/EC concerning integrated pollution prevention and control

(IPPC, 2008).

Based on the EU legal background, every member state prepares its national
regulation according to its traditions and existing management infrastructure.
REACH (2006/1907/EC)—Concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authoriza-
tion and Restriction of Chemicals, aiming at the protection of human health and
environment—is the only all-EU regulation, written in 23 languages and applied in
every EU member state. It is a complex regulation, playing a main role in reaching the
equilibrium between economy, social and health aspects and environment.
Managing the environment at local scale is a focused and clear task; the stake-
holders are identifiable, they can co-operate and also harmonize individual and
environmental interests in an optimal case. Management at national and regional levels
needs more effort but promises less success due to economic, political, social, cultural,
etc. differences and due to the gradually increasing uncertainty in information toward
the decision-makers. The same differences and difficulties make the management of the
planet hard to be a success. More knowledge and efforts and a paradigm shift would