The Analysis of EMAS Efficiency in Industrial Companies: A Case of Lithuania

Authors

  • Žaneta Stasiškienė
  • Olga Anne Klaipeda University
  • Dovilė Aleknavičiūtė Klaipeda University
  • Tatjana Paulauskienė Klaipeda University
  • Rasa Viederytė Klaipeda University
  • Lilita Abele Liepaja University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.erem.76.2.25411

Keywords:

Sustainable Development Goals, Resources, EMAS, Decoupling

Abstract

The contemporary progress in civilisation is combined with new scientific approaches, technological innovations and the huge and growing use of natural resources, which leads to their over-exploitation and, as a result, to their depletion. There is an opinion that without further regulation of economic growth and excessive harvesting of resources, the entire ecosystem of the Earth can be irreparably destroyed. The 2030 Agenda is based on the decoupling principle, which means that the economic growth of the manufacturing and service sectors must be faster than the consumption of natural resources and energy. To this end, countries around the world have developed and are still pursuing different environmental measures, such as regulations, laws and orders, taxes, etc. The most popular management systems in Europe are ISO 14001 and EMAS. The newest analyses reveal that a large number of companies that have received an EMAS certificate are not willing to renew their registration after some time and the reasons are not very clear yet. The article discusses the methods for environmental impact assessment, sustainable industry development and motivations for resources efficiency. The study of the selected three production companies operating in Lithuania and currently using a pollution prevention tool – the environmental management system – is presented and discussed aiming to evaluate the effectiveness of resources consumption.

Author Biographies

Olga Anne, Klaipeda University

Assoc. prof. dr. Olga Anne  – the senior researcher at the Engineering Department of Marine Technology and Natural Sciences Faculty, Klaipeda University

Main research area(s): Environmental Impact Assessment, Environmental Management

Dovilė Aleknavičiūtė, Klaipeda University

Dovilė Aleknavičiūtė – Bachelor in environmental science

Main research area(s): Sustainability, Environmental Management

 

Tatjana Paulauskienė, Klaipeda University

Assoc. prof. dr. Tatjana Paulauskiene – the senior researcher at the Engineering Department of Marine Technology and Natural Sciences Faculty, Klaipeda University.

Main research area(s): Alternative Fuels for Marine Applications, The Use of Natural Sorbents and Cellulose Aerogels for Spilled Crude Oil removal

 

Rasa Viederytė, Klaipeda University

Assoc. prof. dr. Rasa Viederyte at the Economics Department of Social sciences and humanities Faculty, Klaipeda University

Main research area(s): Industrial clustering, Industrial symbiosis

 

Lilita Abele, Liepaja University

Lilita Ābele –Head of Circular Economy Center in Institute of Natural Sciences and Innovative Technologies, Liepaja University

Main research area(s): Circular economy, Sustainable development, Compound indexes for measuring sustainable development and circular economy performance.

 

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Published

2020-07-03

Issue

Section

Articles