11. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT: LEGISLATION, POLICIES, INSTITUTIONS
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progressively extending all the above to all its activities and
buildings;
systematically assessing the potential economic, social and
environmental impacts of major new policy and legislative
initiatives and promoting the systematic integration of
environmental objectives into Community policies;
ensuring the effectiveness of environmental legislation and
funding in creating environmental benefits;
promoting transparent internal and external communication
and dialogue with all interested parties.
Organisations are registered with the competent national autho-
rity that assesses the applicant’s compliance with the requirements
of the Regulation, registers organisations and decides on their
removal from the register temporarily or permanently.
Pursuant to the requirements of the Regulation, a participating
organisation should, involving and educating all its employees,
identify environ mental problems, develop an environ mental policy,
establish and implement an environ mental management system and
internal auditing system and draw up an environ mental statement,
which includes information on what has been accomplished and
what is planned for the future. The environ mental management and
audit system of the organisation is inspected by an independent,
accre dited environ mental assessor (verifier), who also approves
the environ mental statement. The information included in the en-
vi ron mental statement is updated on a regular basis and is freely
available to the public and all interested persons.
With the emergence of ‘green’ marketing, ‘green’ consumer orga-
nisations began to develop as well. Consumer protection authorities
have been active already since the 1960s. Marking of goods to
indicate that they are environ ment-friendly has been promoted in
many countries, including USA, Canada, Germany and Sweden. In
most cases, independent agencies measure certain products against
similar products to determine which of the compared products cause
less environ mental impact. Germany was among the first countries
introducing the ‘green’ labelling of goods (1978).
In the EU eco-label system, ecological criteria are developed for
each group of goods or services. These criteria are aimed at reducing
the product environ mental impacts throughout their life cycle –
from manufacture to disposal. The criteria are developed by expert
working groups under the guidance of the presiding Member State,
in consultation with the representatives of all interested parties
(manufacturing and retail businesses, state and public consumer
protection and environ mental protection organisations).
This was one of the ways to influence consumer behaviour,
helping them to identify the environ mental impact of products.
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