EMAS and ISO/EN ISO 14001 : differences and complementarities.
Date: 2012-02-15
Institutions: Directorate-General for Environment
Subjects: audit, environmental standard, quality of the environment

[EN] - May 2008 - Third Edition

EMAS - Factsheet

EMAS and ISO/EN ISO 14001:
differences and complementarities 

Compatibility of EMAS with international standards

EMAS and ISO/EN ISO 14001 share the same objective: to provide good environmental manage-
ment. Yet, they are too often seen as competitors. Back in 1996, the Commission recognised 
that ISO/EN ISO 14001 could become a steppingstone for EMAS. In such a way, the adoption of 
ISO/EN ISO 14001 as the management system element of EMAS allows your organisation to 
easily progress from ISO/EN ISO 14001 to EMAS without duplicating efforts. 

What is the difference between ISO/EN ISO 14001 and EMAS?

While EMAS and ISO/EN ISO 14001 share the same objective, they are different in a number of 
ways. These differences are illustrated below showing in particular where EMAS goes beyond 
the ISO/EN ISO 14001 requirements. 

EMAS 

       ISO/EN ISO 14001

What is EMAS?

The  Eco-Management  and  Audit  Scheme  (EMAS)  is  the  EU’s 

voluntary scheme designed for companies and other organisations 

committing  themselves  to  evaluate,  manage  and  improve  their 

environmental performance.

EMAS  is  currently  the  most  credible  and  robust  environmental 

management  system  on  the  market,  adding  four  pillars  to  the 

requirements  of  the  international  standard  for  environmental 

Status

Organisation

Under legal bases (EU Member States 
and EEA countries).
Regulation of the European Parliament 
and the Council under public law

The entity to be registered shall not 
exceed the boundaries of the Member 
State, and it is intended to go towards 
entities and sites

Included commitment to continual 
improvement of environmental 
performance of the organisation

management systems ISO/ EN ISO 14001:

Environmental policy

• continual improvement of environmental performance;

• compliance with environmental legislation ensured by govern-

ment supervision;

Initial environmental 
review

Obligatory preliminary review, when 
is the first time that the organisation 
sets its environmental status 

• public information through annual reporting;

Environmental aspects

• employee involvement.

Identification and evaluation of the 
environmental aspects (direct and 
indirect).
Establishment of criteria for assessing 
the significance of the environmental 
aspects

Under no legal bases.
(International: world wide) ISO standard 
under private law

Does not go towards entities or sites

Does not include a commitment to the 
continual improvement of environmen-
tal performance but of the performance 
of the system

Initial review is recommended, but not 
required

Required only a procedure able to 
identify environmental aspects

Who can participate in EMAS?

EMAS is open to all types of organisations in the public and private 

Legal compliance

Obligatory to demonstrate it.
Required full legal compliance. There 
is a compliance-audit

Only commitment to comply with 
applicable legal requirements. There is 
no compliance-audit

sector which want to improve their environmental performance. It 

applies  to  all  27  Member  States  of  the  European  Union,  to  the 

External 
communication

Open dialogue with the public.
Public Environmental Statement 
(validated for verifiers)

European Economic Area (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) and 

to the Candidate Countries for EU membership (Croatia, The Former 

Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey).

EMAS  can  be  introduced  easily  in  small  and  medium  sized 

enterprises (SMEs), even with few financial and human resources, 

or  limited  in-house  expertise.  Large  and  multi-site  organisations 

can  benefit  from  the  standardisation  of  EMAS  in  all  sectors  EU-

wide. For local authorities, EMAS can help to streamline environ-

mental  activities  and  requirements  e.g. 

in  administration, 

construction, health and education.

Continual 
improvement

Management review

Contractors and
suppliers
Employees
involvement
Internal environmental
auditing

Not open dialogue with the public. Only 
is required to respond to relevant 
communication from external interested 
parts.
Control by public is not possible

Required periodically improvement 
without a defined frequency

Required an environmental 
performance in the management, but 
not through a performance audit

Required annual improvement

Is wider and requires an evaluation of 
the environmental performance of the 
organization, based in a 
performance-audit

Required influence over contractors 
and suppliers

Relevant procedures are communicated 
to contractors and suppliers

Active involvement of employees and 
their representatives

No

Includes: system-audit, a 
performance-audit (= evaluation of 
environmental performance) and an 
environmental compliance-audit (= 
determination of legal compliance)

Included only system audit against the 
requirements of the standard

Auditor

Required the independence of the 
auditor

Advised the independence of the 
auditor

 
 
Audits

EMAS 

       ISO/EN ISO 14001

Check for improvement of 
environmental performance.
Frequency required: 3 year cycle 
during which all areas are verified 
at least once

Check environmental system 
performance.
No frequency required

External verification

Accredited environmental verifiers

No

Verification/
Certification Scope

Verifiers accredited according to 
NACE codes

Certifiers accredited according to EAC 
code

Authorities are
informed

Logo

Obligation by Validation of 
Environmental Statement

No obligation

Yes

No

EMAS and ISO/EN ISO 14001:
differences and complementarities 

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The emergence of ISO/EN ISO 14001 has
helped EMAS in terms of raising general
awareness of environmental management
schemes. The two systems are 
complementary but EMAS is more rigorous
in some areas. EMAS continues to be seen
as more prestigious than ISO/EN ISO 14001
in many Member States.

Make a difference! 
Joint the EMAS club.

How to implement EMAS if ISO/EN ISO 14001 already exists?

If your organisation is already ISO/EN ISO 14001 certified, the recent revisions have made it 
easier to register for EMAS. Minor modifications will need to be made to the core ISO/EN ISO 
14001 elements as well as some additional steps specific to EMAS. 

EMAS Implementation Route
for an ISO/EN ISO 14001 certified organisation

Initial Environmental Review
Optional so long as all those elements listed in Annex VII of
the Regulation are covered in the EMS

Additional steps for EMAS registration

1. Initial Environmental Review – EMAS requires an initial environmental review to identify 
an organisation’s environmental aspects. Organisations ISO/EN ISO 14001 certified do not 
need  to  conduct  a  formal  environmental  review  when  implementing  EMAS,  as  long  as 
specific environmental aspects in Annex VI, are fully considered in the certified EMS.

2.  Environmental  statement  –  EMAS  requires  an  environmental  statement,  based  on  the 
outcome of the EMS. The environmental statement has to fulfil the requirements of Annex 
III and examine all the data generated by the environmental management system to ensure 
it is represented in a fair and balanced way in the environmental  statement.

3.  Validation  of  the  environmental  statement  and  environmental  performance  –    The 
Environmental Statement must be validated independently. This process will check that the 
statement meets the requirements of Annex III and is publicly available.

Modifications to ISO/EN ISO 14001 to meet EMAS requirements

1.  Environmental  Policy  –  Your  organisation  must  strengthen  its  statement  of  commitment 
included in its environmental policy to make provision for regulatory compliance. If more 
than one site is registered under EMAS then continual improvement must be demonstrated 
on a site-by-site basis.

2. Planning – Your organisation should ensure that in identifying its environmental aspects in 
the planning stage of ISO/EN ISO 14001, it has addressed the items listed in Annex VI which 
is  applicable.  Your  organisation  should  also  ensure  that  all  the  elements  of  the  initial 
environmental review, detailed in Annex VII, have been considered and incorporated where 
necessary in the ISO/EN ISO 14001 process. Your organisation should take steps to ensure 
that the scope to be covered by the EMAS registration is covered by the ISO/EN ISO 14001 
certificate.

3. Implementation –  One of the requirements of EMAS is the active participation of employees 
in the environmental improvement programme. This may be achieved in a variety of ways, 
like  for  example:  an  environmental  committee;    suggestion  book  or  environmental 
representatives. Your organisation should also take steps to ensure that any suppliers and 
contractors used also comply with your organisation’s environmental policy.

Environmental Policy
Provision for legal compliance Commitment to continual 
improvement of environmental performance

Planning
Includes all elements covered in environmental review
Compatibility of scope

Implementation
Employee involvement 
Compliance of suppliers and contractors

Checking and corrective action
Audit cycle of 3 years or less
Coverage of EMS and environmental performance

Management Review

Certification
Approved accreditation scheme

Environmental Statement
Environmental statement that meets the requirements of Annex III

Validation of Environmental Statement
Externally validated annually and accessible to the public

KEY : EMAS Element

ISO/EN ISO14001 Element

4. Checking and corrective action – It is necessary for your organisation to check that the frequency of the audit cycle is in compliance with Annex II of the 
EMAS Regulation and takes place at intervals of no longer than 3 years. In addition to the EMS being audited, your organisation’s environmental performance 
must also be addressed annually to demonstrate continual improvement.

5. Certification of ISO/EN ISO 14001 – In order to comply with the requirements of EMAS, the ISO/EN ISO 14001 certificate must be issued under one of the 

accreditation procedures recognised by the European Commission.

Essential items regarding the process and the principles of EMAS, which go beyond ISO/EN ISO 14001 

1. Continual annual improvement of the environmental performance of the organisation
2. Initial environmental review required
3. Legal compliance is required and checked through out the whole process before registration
4. Identification of all environmental aspects for the determination of the significant ones
5. Internal environmental auditing includes: environmental manage system-audit, an environmental performance audit and an environmental compliance-audit
6. Environmental Statement required
7. Full legal compliance required: commitment included in policy, identification of legal and other environmental requirements, periodic evaluation, awareness 

and training, operational controls and emergency preparedness, monitoring, audits and management review and delivery of improvements

© European Commission, 2008. Reproduction is authorized provided the source is acknowledged.

Contact: Additional information is available through the EMAS web site (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/emas/news/index_en.htm)
or through the EMAS Helpdesk : emas@ec.europa.eu