Rewarding green innovations: European Commission presents winners of the 2015 EMAS Awards

At the 2015 EMAS Awards on 20 May, the European Commission rewarded six organisations for outstanding innovation in environmental management. The Awards ceremony took place in Barcelona as part of the 18th European Forum on Eco-Innovation. adelphi provided conceptual and organisational support.

The theme for this year’s EMAS Awards was "Effective eco-innovations promoting improvements in environmental performance". In order to make the concept behind this more known amongst the general public, the Commission used the 2015 EMAS Awards to nominate 22 companies and organisations from nine EU Member States as examples of outstanding innovation, presenting all nominees on the European Commission website. Amongst this year’s finalists was a metalworking company from Germany which – despite its inherently energy-intensive production methods – is moving ever closer to its target of carbon neutrality. These efforts have now been rewarded: on 20 May 2015, this and five other organisations were honoured at the 2015 EMAS Awards in Barcelona. In addition, the efforts of two organisations were deemed considerable outside of the area of eco-innovation and so they were given honorary mentions at the Awards ceremony. More information on the winners can be found on the EMAS website.

As the lead partner in the EMAS Helpdesk project, adelphi provided support to the European Commission, taking care of various organisational and communication responsibilities related to the preparation of the EMAS Awards. In addition, adelphi coordinated the work of the international jury who selected the six winners on the basis of recommendations made by the EU Member States.

The European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is a management tool which allows companies and organisations to improve their environmental performance and to communicate their achievements in this regard. The EMAS Awards are the most prestigious awards for environmental management in Europe. The European Commission has been honouring outstanding environmental performance by EMAS registered organisations in six different categories since 2005. Every year, the ceremony has a different theme.