## 4 Survey Findings  
In order to identify some possible improvements and map the critical issues in the application of EMAS, the questionnaire was submitted to EMAS registered companies in Italy. The conceptual model proposed for the analysis is divided into three sections:  
* Drivers, that prompted companies to join the regulation;
* Benefits, expected and achieved, on the environmental and economic performance and to further strategic benefits attainable through EMAS;
* Critical issues and difficulties, encountered during the realization and the implementation of the EMS. The first analysis focuses on descriptive investigations, regarding the demographic information of companies as the geographical location, the size of the organization, the number of employees, the public or private nature, the turnover and the duration of the registration. A general profile of an Italian company registered with EMAS has been determined as follows:  
* Is mainly located in Northern Italy (regions with the highest concentration are Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, and Tuscany);
* Is a small or medium sized company, with a number of employees ranging from 10 to 49;* Has a mostly private nature and a turnover between 2 and 10 million per year;
* It caters mostly to the national market, and to local and regional markets, and has an average length of stay within EMAS certification of 36 months;
* In addition, 84.2% of Italian companies registered EMAS have also obtained the ISO 14001 certification, and 55.7% of them has detained such certification for over 36 months. It is also interesting to track down the sector of registered companies by analyzing the NACE code (Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006). 57% of the responding companies belong to five specific fields of activity:  
* 10-Manufacture of food products;
* 20-Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products;
* 35-Electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply;
* 38-Waste collection, treatment, and disposal activities; materials recovery;
* 84-Public Administration and defense; compulsory social security. The sectors in which EMAS is most widespread are Waste collection, treatment and disposal activities, materials recovery (16.1%); Public Administration and defense, compulsory social security (15.8%); and food industries (13.4%) (Table 1). Since its second revision (Regulation (EC) No 2001/761), all kind of organizations can implement the scheme. During the analysis, considering the high number of public administrations in the sample and the deep difference both in governance and purpose among public and private organizations, we decided to treat separately in this section the two types. The aim is to catch differences and similarities between these groups of organizations regarding the implementation of the EMAS. Studying the demographic differences between public administrations and private companies, a greater number of public administrations is located in northern Italy (78.8%) compared to private companies (61.6%). A significant data is the total absence of EMAS public administrations in southern Italy and in the islands, while private companies located in the South represent 14% of the total. The top three regions for the number of private enterprises are Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, and Tuscany whilst for the public administrations are Veneto, Tuscany, and Trentino Alto Adige. The only relevant difference in terms of organizations dimensions is the greatest number of small organizations for public administrations and, on the other hand, fewer in micro. The average length of registration in the private sector is longer than 36 months. In the Public Administration, instead, 34% implemented the EMS for a period between 12 and 24 months, and 44% for over 36 months (Tables 2 and 3).