ESTONIAN ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW 2009

12. Environmental
management tools
There has been a great increase in interest in environmental topics in recent years. When resolving
environment-related matters, companies and organizations must take into consideration increasingly
stringent legal acts and more demanding consumers. Environmental management systems, such
as EMAS and ISO 14001, are used by service providers or merchants to prove that these organizations
or companies avoid activities that may cause environmental problems. Various eco-labels are
created so that environmentally friendly products and services could be distinguished from others.
As of the beginning of 2009, 269 companies had been certified in accordance with the ISO 14001
standard in Estonia, and two companies held registration certificates pursuant to the EMAS regulation.
In addition to the goods of foreign producers, a product made by an Estonian company and
sold domestically also bears the European Community eco-label – one of the eco-labels with the
strictest requirements – AS Eskaro’s ceiling paint Primo 2
12.1. Legal background
In 2004, Estonian organizations became eligible to
join the European Community’s eco-management and
audit scheme (EMAS) and the European Community’s
eco-label award scheme. Initially, EMAS was established
in 1992 by regulation no. 1836/93 of European Parliament
and of the Council, which was meant only for the
industrial sector, but regulation no. 761/2001 of 2001
expanded EMAS, allowing organizations in other sectors
to join the system. The awarding of the Community
eco-label is governed by regulation no. 1980/2000 of the
European Parliament and of the Council of 17 July 2000.
Pursuant to the Environmental Impact Assessment and
Environmental Management System Act, the competent
body for the EMAS and eco-label is the Ministry of the
Environment; the functions of the body are performed
by the Estonian Environment Information Centre, which
deals with registration of organizations pursuant to the
requirements of the EMAS regulation and issues the
authorization to use the Community eco-label.
12.2. Environmental
management systems
One option for organizing and improving the environment-related
activity of a company or organization in a
planned manner is to implement various environmental
management systems. An environmental management
system is part of the general management of an organization,
the goal of which is to verify, reduce and prevent
negative impact to the environment arising from the
organization’s activity. An environmental management
system may be implemented either formally – by applying
for the respective certificate or non-formally – by
performing specific environment-related functions.
Enterprises are showing increasing interest in implementing
environmental management measures related
to a product or service – for instance, product development
is taking into account the principles of eco-labels,
eco-design A and lifecycle assessment B .
Certainly yet another key influence is the fact that
society is becoming increasingly environmentally conscious.
When making their consumer decisions, many
consumers think about whether a good or service is
environmentally safe and harmless to the health and
they expect manufacturers to provide information on this
aspect. Nor can the media’s increasing interest in covering
environmental topics be underestimated. Promoting and
publicizing companies’ environment-related progress
and environmentally friendly goods to the public and
business partners are important for winning trust and
achieving a good reputation.
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A
Ecodesign (aka environmentally clean design) – prevention and reduction of environmental impact that may arise throughout the product’s life cycle – already in the phase of
planning/designing the good or service
B
Life cycle – chain of consecutive and interrelated stages of a product, the so-called lifetime of the product from “cradle to grave”. The product life cycle begins with the selection of
the materials used to manufatcture the product, consumption and production of energy resources until the use of the project, waste handling and final