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welcome to the e-learning module of the European commission's DG environment Environmental Compliance assistance program this module has the main goal to make you aware on the European environmental regulation concerning small and medium Enterprises and to give you the opportunity to learn how your company can become more and more sustainable and environmentally compliant the European environmental regulation concerning smmes is actually a wide topic and we have decided to focus our attention only on those instruments and mechanisms which are really useful to all those smmes that really want to be environmentally compliant EU environmental regulation concerning SES is based on the following three pillars legislative instruments such as the directives on Energy Efficiency Waste Management water policy and Industrial emissions technical instruments such as life cycle assessments environmental footprinting and environmental impact assessments financial support mechanisms which include for example the Live program cosme and Horizon 2020 the contents of each Macro area will be described in the next pages of the present e-learning module in order to better understand the impact of European environmental regulation fores it is fundamental to start from a solid conceptual basis regarding legislative instruments smmes often consider the environmental legislation as a complex and puzzling issue and the European Union therefore wants to help them better understand this matter and become compliant with all European environmental laws regulations standards and other requirements whilst the individual environmental impact of each are generally small in comparison to those of large companies the cumulative environmental impact of the sector is huge the PPP principles of the EU environmental legislation are the following the first one the polluter pays principle states that the price of a good or service should include the cost of environmental damage that results from the production process a simple example of this principle is a tax on oil because when we consume oil we create pollution the tax means the price we pay contains the social cost as well the second one the proximity principle requires waste to be disposed of as close to the place of production as possible and one of the nearest appropriate waste disposal facilities finally the third one the precautionary principle means that if it is known that an action may cause harm it should not be done unless it can be satisfactorily proven not to cause harm for example smoking was strongly suspected of causing lung cancer long before the link was demonstrated conclusively by then many smokers had died of lung cancer but many other people had already quit smoking because of the growing evidence that smoking was linked to lung cancer these people were wisely exercising precaution despite some scientific uncertainty these principles are made more concrete the 1996 EU General strategy on waste which sets out a preferred hierarchy of Waste Management operations one prevention of waste two Recycling and reuse three Optimum final disposal and improved monitoring with regard to the EU legislation there are some relevant areas for smmes to be taken into account such as air quality chemicals energy Greener products Environmental Management waste water state aid for Environmental Protection and soil the European environmental regulation concerning smes is actually a white topic and we are hereby focusing our attention only on those areas which are really relevant and useful for smmes in helping them become environmentally compliant such as energy waste and water in order to get a better perception of this white topic you should visit the ecap website section dedicated to it namely the EU legislation one after mentioning the ecap EU legislation areas we want to focus our attention on those which are considered as the core ones by the European commission given their social and environmental importance these main areas are energy ing to the eu's main goal to reduce projected energy use by 20% by 2020 waste due to an eu-wide legislation framework water since EU tries to avoid water pollution every day preserving human and environmental health industrial emissions defining the obligation to be met by industrial activities with a major pollution potential the main legislative principles of these topics are listed in the next slide with regard to the ecap EU legislation areas it is important to focus in particular on the principles in the fields of energy waste water and Industrial emissions energy principles when discussing about the EU environmental legislation it is fundamental to start with the Energy Efficiency directive 27 2012 which defines the European goal of 20% energy consumption reduction by 2020 the directive can be applied to many sectors because energ energy Andes interact with each other in several situations spending from buildings where SES are located prly propoline products produced Heating and Cooling actions energy transformation processes transmission and distribution actions and so on ingly among the main actions to pursue European goals there are building Renovations utili saving plans frequent energy auditing facilities Finance Energy Service [Music] certification waste principles the principles are to be applied to all kind of products in all sectors in particular to manufacturing smes the waste framework directive directive 2008 98 EC aims at promoting waste prevention Recycling and reusing as well as improving and monitoring final disposal water principles ing to the high amount of water required by many activities every day the principle stated in the directed 2060 EC aims at establishing a community framework for Inland surface protection Waters transitional water Coastal Waters and groundwater industrial emissions principles last but not least directive 20175 EU regulates atmospheric pollution and volatile organic compounds emissions as well as noise emissions from industrial plants the directive also sets the principles of emission trading industrial emissions specifically belong to those smes which are involved in industrial scale installations the directive contains Provisions for combustion plants larger than 50 megawatt waste incineration or co-incineration plants certain installations and activities using organic solvents and installations producing titanium dioxides in order to better understand the delicate issues described so far as well as to provide some tips for enhancing s's Environmental Compliance here are some useful examples of the guidelines stemming from the mentioned directives on energy waste water and Industrial emissions let's start from the Energy Efficiency directive 201227 EU imagine being an with many energy related building [Music] elements you are supposed to carry out periodic energy consumption and cost monitoring as well as energy audits aimed at identifying potential areas of [Music] improvement if otherwise you are a service oriented with a pool of Old Computers to be replaced you should give your old laptops back to the supplier and make sure that they get recycled instead of throwing them in a regular waste container as stated by the waste electrical and electronic equipment directive 20296 EC the water framework directive 20160 EC supports the activities of smes which use a large amount of water in improving for example drain techniques and liquid treatment processes avoiding to throw organic waste in normal water drain finally ing to the integrated pollution prevention and control directive 20081 AC chemical smes which produce for instance insecticides and pesticides should not leave their industrial emissions in the air as they are but they are supposed to implement a recycling system in order to destroy all those emissions originated from production processes after presenting the legislative instruments on environmental regulation we are now going to examine and deeply analyze some technical instruments used bymes to comply with environmental legislation such as life cycle assessments environmental footprinting and environmental impact assessments life cycle assessment tool also known as LCA represents the best framework to assess the potential environmental impacts of a product by drafting an inventory of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental impact evaluating the potential environmental footprint associated with identified inputs and releases and interpreting the results to help you make a more informed decision smes can use such instruments in order to increase their competitiveness as well as to improve their environmental performance the LCA tool does not only provide simple yes or no answers to's questions on the need of products and processes improvements but it also provides quantitative and qualitative factual information helping on several critical [Music] issues the LCA process is composed by four main steps the first one is the goal and scope phase during which products and service to be assessed are defined a functional basis for comparison is chosen and the required level of detail is [Music] defined the second step is the inventory analysis of extractions and emissions in that identifying quantity and quality of energy and raw materials used emissions to the atmosphere water and land such data are then combined in the process flow chart and related to the functional bases and used during the impact assessment phase the third phase known as impact assessment phase copes with analyzing the effects of the resource [Music] used emissions generated are grouped and Quantified into a limited number of impact categories which may then be weighed by [Music] importance such analysis finally leads to the fourth and final step the inter ation phase which reports the results of previous steps in the most informative way possible with the aim of identifying and evaluating needs and opportunities to reduce the environmental impacts of products and services several practical examples of LCA implementation are available under the best practices section of the ecap website other valuable technical instruments deployed in the field of s sustainability management are represented by environmental footprinting it measures the demand for natural Capital which does not fit with the planet's ecological capacity to [Music] regenerate environmental impact assessments introduced by the directive 2011 92 EU is a useful cross cutting environmental policy tool use to predict environmental consequences both positive or negative of a specific plan policy program or project before it is [Music] implemented the assessment also aims at proposing measures to adjust impacts to acceptable levels or to investigate new technological solutions in general the analysis of's environmental footprinting Sports the assess ment of their business impact and all foot printing reports are used both to improve their working mechanisms and to inform managers and owners about the priority areas of [Music] improvement for more information on these topics just click on the direct link provided at the bottom of the page eventually the other important point of the EU environmental regulation concerning SNES is the one regarding financial support mechanisms such as the Live program tme or Horizon 2020 the main financial support mechanisms provided by the European commission are the following Live program which is the eu's funding instrument to support environmental and climate actions Horizon 2020 program with specific focus on research and innovation the competitiveness of Enterprises and small and mediumsized Enterprises program also known as cosos program which aims at enhancing the competitiveness especially of mediumsized Enterprises running since 2014 to 2020 these financial support mechanisms can be used for any kind of initiative referred to information aligned tools and websites active direct support and advice training and networks also inherent to all kind of sectors such as agriculture leather transportation and cross sector targeting environmental topics for further information please follow the link to the ecap website section dedicated to these topics namely the funding opportuni further details are provided on the websites that dedicated to single financial support mechanisms the European commission's DG environment ecap health desk team thanks you for taking part in the e-learning module on European environmental regulation for [Music] smmes