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This table includes additional information to the above visualized indicators, i.e. a short definition of this indicator and a description of the politically determined target values as well as explaining the political intention behind selecting this indicator.

Definition

The indicator shows the number of locations in Germany registered with EMAS, the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme, for German as well as foreign organisations.

Target and intention

Climate change, the energy transition and scarcity of resources are presenting companies with new challenges that are forcing them to reconfigure their business processes, structures and products along environmentally responsible and resource-saving lines. EMAS offers a strategy for organisations to pursue systematic environmental protection, with the ultimate aim of steadily improving their locations’ environmental performance. The goal is therefore to identify a total of 5,000 organisation premises for registration with EMAS by 2030.

Data status

The data published in the indicator report 2022 is as of 31 October 2022. The data shown on this platform is updated regularly, so that more current data may be available online than published in the indicator report 2022.

Text from the Indicator Report 2022 

EMAS is a voluntary instrument of the European Union that helps organisations of any size and in any sector to continuously improve their environmental performance. Having EMAS certification does not automatically mean that organisations or their products are more environmentally friendly than comparable organisations and products. EMAS involves a reporting obligation requiring organisations to submit environmental statements. These statements include reporting on the main environmental impacts of the organisation in question as well as data pertaining to energy and material efficiency, emissions, water, waste and use of land/biodiversity. Organisations have to update their environmental statements annually, with the exception introduced in 2010 that small and medium-sized enterprises can apply to do so every two years instead. The environmental statement, which is public, and various additional internal documents are inspected by independent, licensed environmental verifiers. The verification must be repeated on a regular basis, no less than every three years. Organisations that pass the verification process and have no breaches of environmental regulations or complaints to answer for are added to the EMAS register. The German EMAS Advisory Board1 is responsible for quality assurance. EMAS organisations and locations are registered by the responsible chambers of industry and commerce and stored in a publicly accessible database at the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

In terms of methodology, it should be noted that the EMAS register shows the number of registrations. Participating organisations are free to include several locations under a single organisation registration (corporate registration) or to have their locations registered individually. Some organisations have had their sites abroad registered in Germany. These are present in the EMAS register, but they are not included in the number of EMAS locations recorded here.

In 2021, there were 2,290 EMAS locations registered in Germany. This equates to an increase of 17 % compared with 2005. Considered over the last five years, the indicator has been gradually moving in the direction of the target. Nevertheless, if that trend continues unchanged, the goal for 2030 will not be achieved.

The registered organisations employed a total of 911,042 people in 2021. This equates to an decline of 5.2 % compared with 2005.

The 2,290 EMAS locations on the register in 2021 belong to 1,115 German organisations. The number of German organisations had shrunk by 25.2 % since 2005. Furthermore, those organisations were very well spread throughout the country. The majority were based in Baden-Württemberg (330) and Bavaria (296), followed by North Rhine-Westphalia (99). In contrast, there was just one registered organisation in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Divided by sector, the distribution was as follows: 39.4 % of the German organisations represented the manufacturing industry, 8.2 % miscellaneous services, 8.0 % the education sector, 6.2 % areas of water supply, waste water and waste disposal and removal of environmental pollution as well as 6.1 % the hospitality industry. It should be noted that some of the organisations belong to more than one sector.

1The EMAS Advisory Board is an independent advisory body of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection.

The synoptic table provides information about the evaluation of the indicator in previous years. It shows if the weather symbol assigned to an indicator was rather stable or volatile in the past years. (Evaluation of the Indicator Report 2022 )

Indicator

12.2 EMAS eco-management

Target

5,000 locations of organisation by 2030

Year

2018

2019

2020

2021

Evaluation <p>Wolke</p>
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