What are incentives?

Remas considered potential incentives to promote the uptake of robust EMSs by sites including:

• proportionate fees to provide real recognition for those who can demonstrate better performance.
• a partnership approach to inspection between inspectors and certifiers.
• regulating companies with many sites as one organisation.

Industrial partners proposed that whereas a fiscal benefit equating to between 25% and 50% of the regualtory fees (where paid) may provide a financial business case to introduce an EMS, it is more important that regulators provide some kind of fiscal token i.e. the amount is not the driving factor; recognition is!

Where sites can demonstrate good self management and lower risk of non compliance, the relationship with the regulator should change from one of 'inspection' to one of coordinated business planning to set agreed environmental objectives and targets. This could lead to appropriately assured environmental management systems being accepted as equivalent to permits, where the risk to the environment are considered to be low. Further work on this is taken forward within Defra's environmental permitting programme [link to consultation] and better regulation work [link to defra better regulation]. The European Commission is also taking account of the work in the revision to EMAS [link to consution pages]

You can read more about this in newsletter issue 9