Abstract Balanced economic growth in line with environmental care is one of the greatest challenges facing the world nowadays. Entrepreneurs' interest in sustainable production schemes, including Environmental Management Systems (EMS), becomes an important part of many strategies and a frequent requirement of environmentally aware societies. Despite this, the number of organisations registered under the Eco-management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) decreased, while the implementation of EMS based on ISO 14001 continues to be popular. Many organisations registered in the EMAS scheme do not renew their registration; therefore, it is important to analyse the effectiveness of this environmental management tool as it should support sustainable development. This paper includes the results of research on EMAS registered organisations in Poland. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the EMAS based on analysis of (1) the degree of environmental objectives implementation, (2) core environmental performance indicators, and (3) the correlation between establishing environmental objectives and results of environmental indicators in specific areas. The study involves an analysis of secondary data based on organisations' environmental statements published by the EMAS competent body. The findings suggest that there is no linear relationship between the time the EMAS is implemented and its effectiveness and that there is a weak correlation between establishing environmental objectives and changes in environmental performance indicators. These results are unexpected and may be linked to numerous mistakes made by organisations during establishing their environmental objectives. The study results have an impact to the EMAS regulation and shall be considered during review of EMAS scheme and future revisions of EMAS regulatory requirements.

中文翻译：

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EMAS 的有效性：在 EMAS 下注册的波兰组织的案例研究

摘要 兼顾环境保护的均衡经济增长是当今世界面临的最大挑战之一。企业家对可持续生产计划的兴趣，包括环境管理系统 (EMS)，成为许多战略的重要组成部分，也是环保社会的常见要求。尽管如此，在生态管理和审计计划 (EMAS) 下注册的组织数量减少了，而基于 ISO 14001 的 EMS 实施继续流行。许多在 EMAS 计划中注册的组织不会更新其注册；因此，分析这种环境管理工具的有效性很重要，因为它应该支持可持续发展。本文包括对波兰 EMAS 注册组织的研究结果。本研究的目的是基于以下分析来评估 EMAS 的有效性：(1) 环境目标的实施程度，(2) 核心环境绩效指标，以及 (3) 建立环境目标与环境指标结果之间的相关性在特定领域。该研究涉及对基于 EMAS 主管机构发布的组织环境声明的二手数据进行分析。研究结果表明，EMAS 的实施时间与其有效性之间没有线性关系，并且环境目标的建立与环境绩效指标的变化之间存在弱相关性。这些结果是出乎意料的，可能与组织在制定环境目标过程中犯下的许多错误有关。研究结果对 EMAS 监管有影响，在审查 EMAS 方案和未来修订 EMAS 监管要求时应予以考虑。