The analysis of EMAS efficiency in industrial companies: a case of Lithuania

The contemporary progress in civilisation is combined with new scientific approaches, technological innovations and the huge and growing use of natural resources, which leads to their over-exploitation and, as a result, to their depletion. There is an opinion that without further regulation of economic growth and excessive harvesting of resources, the entire ecosystem of the Earth can be irreparably destroyed. The 2030 Agenda is based on the decoupling principle, which means that the economic growth of the manufacturing and service sectors must be faster than the consumption of natural resources and energy. To this end, countries around the world have developed and are still pursuing different environmental measures, such as regulations, laws and orders, taxes, etc. The most popular management systems in Europe are ISO 14001 and EMAS. The newest analyses reveal that a large number of companies that have received an EMAS certificate are not willing to renew their registration after some time and the reasons are not very clear yet. The article discusses the methods for environmental impact assessment, sustainable industry development and motivations for resources efficiency. The study of the selected three production companies operating in Lithuania and currently using a pollution prevention tool – the environmental management system – is presented and discussed aiming to evaluate the effectiveness of resources consumption