The EMAS Registration of the Livenza Furniture District in the Province of Pordenone (Italy)

Veronica Novelli,Luciano Ceccon,Paola Geatti,Francesco Bianco,Stefania Del Frate,Paolo Badin

doi:10.3390/su12030898

Veronica Novelli, Luciano Ceccon + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su12030898

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Abstract

One of the most important manufacturing areas of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region is the territory close to Pordenone, the Livenza furniture district. This industrial district, consisting of industries of wood, wood and cork products, furniture, straw articles, and weave materials, located in 11 municipalities of that area, was the first Italian district to obtain the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) Registration in 2006. Data and information from a questionnaire compiled by more than 100 firms and 11 municipalities of the district were used to draw up the territorial environmental analysis (TEA). For the EMAS registration renewal, obtained in 2016, the TEA was updated by reviewing the methodology of the environmental impact evaluation: the ecological footprint (EF) was compared with the carrying capacity (CC) of that area. The results put in light that the EF was greater than the CC. Several actions for reducing the environmental impacts of the district activities were highlighted.

Highlights

The bound between enterprises and environment is strong
In 2015, the territorial environmental analysis (TEA) was deeply revised in view of the renewal of the registration, which was obtained by the district in 2016
ecological footprint (EF) was calculated to quantify the environmental impacts of the district, and compared with the corresponding CC

Summary

Introduction

The bound between enterprises and environment is strong. Water footprint [1,2], carbon footprint [3,4], ecological footprint (EF) [5], life cycle assessment (LCA) [6] are used as recent indicators/tools of environmental sustainability, in the perspective of sustainable development goals [7].The European Community (EC) chose the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) regulation as one of the tools to reduce environmental impacts of firms [8]. The development of the EMAS registration procedure has required a long period from the first version, which was limited only to industrial sites, to the actual third (the fourth version is ongoing): it can be adopted by all kinds of organizations, as services and public administrations. In Italy, the European Commission (EC) Regulation No 761/2001 [9], known as EMAS II, enabled small and medium enterprises to improve the competition on the market fitting well in the Italian economic system [10]. The EMAS II Regulation required an elaboration of the environmental indicators using a common methodology, in order to obtain homogeneous data, comparable among the organizations of a specific sector [11]

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