Methodology for planning environmental management systems by drawing upon the Industrial Emissions Directive: A case study at a Spanish metal surface treatment company

Abstract

Companies with an IPPC Permit have a high commitment to environmental improvement and are at a good starting point for the implementation of an Environmental Management System (EMS). The results of a survey of companies with IPPC Permits indicate that 45% do not have an EMS, although 44% of them have considered the possibility of implementing one. The "PLANGESMA″ methodology allows companies that have an IPPC permit to plan an EMS based on the ISO 14001: 2015 Standard, facilitating the identification of environmental aspects and legal requirements based on the terms of the IPPC permit, and the development of an environmental improvement plan. The identification and assessment of environmental aspects is made with a combination of risk assessment-based and criterion-based methods. This new methodology is validated with the Validation Square framework and applied as a case study at a Spanish company in the metal surface treatment sector. The results highlight the possibility of promoting Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production with a relatively small effort.