Commission Decision (EU) 2019/63Show full title

Structure of the Sectoral Reference Document

This document consists of four chapters. Chapter 1 introduces EMAS’ legal background and describes how to use this document, while Chapter 2 defines the scope of this SRD. Chapter 3 briefly describes the different best environmental management practices (BEMPs)(1) together with information on their applicability. When specific environmental performance indicators and benchmarks of excellence could be formulated for a particular BEMP, these are also given. However, defining benchmarks of excellence was not possible for all BEMPs either because of the limited availability of data or because the specific conditions of each company and/or plant (type of electrical and electronic equipment manufactured ranging from large household appliances to small and microelectronic equipment and including both business-to-business and business-to-consumers, diversity of manufacturing processes carried out in each manufacturing facility, etc.) vary to such an extent that a benchmark of excellence would not be meaningful. Even when benchmarks of excellence are given, these are not meant as targets for all companies to reach or metrics to compare the environmental performance across companies of the sector, but rather as a measure of what is possible to help individual companies assess the progress they made and motivate them to improve further. Finally, Chapter 4 presents a comprehensive table with a selection of the most relevant environmental performance indicators, associated explanations and related benchmarks of excellence.

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A detailed description of each of the best practices, with practical guidance on how to implement them, is available in the ‘Best Practice Report’ published by the JRC and available on-line at: http://susproc.jrc.ec.europa.eu/activities/emas/documents/BEMP_EEE_Manufacturing.pdf Organisations are invited to consult it if interested in learning more about some of the best practices described in this SRD.