UGA - Umweltgutachterausschuss / German EMAS Advisory Board
The German EMAS Advisory Board (UGA) supports the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety in implementing EMAS in Germany and promoting the dissemination of EMAS. Its tasks, members and responsibilities are regulated in the Environmental Audit Act. Several working groups support the plenary meeting (2-3 per year). They prepare topics and projects in specific meetings for the final decision of the plenary meeting.
VNU is represented with its environmental verifyer as of the first nomination period in 1995. Additional VNU members represent industry or environmental associations. Representatives and their alternates are nominated in the IX. period for 3 years (2020-2022).
Contact Person at VNU
In case of questions or initiatives please contact:
- Bettina Heimer (vice president of VNU Board)
Actors
In the IX. period are the following members nominated:
Environmental Verfier
voting member
- Thorsten Grantner
- Chairman for the group of Environmental Verifiers
- Leader of the working group "approval, testing and monitoring"
- Bettina Heimer
- Prof. Dr. Jan-Uwe Lieback
- Ulrich Wegener
alternate members
- Raphael Artischweski
- Dr. Stefan Bräker
- Peter Fischer
- Dr. Claudia Käsehagen
Industry
voting member
- Thomas Voß
- Dr. Heinz Herzog
alternate member
- Curd Blank
- Claudia Brandstäter
Environmental Associations
alternate member
- Dr. Joachim Nibbe
Activities
These are the working groups
- WG Marketing, Communication and Promotion of EMAS (Head: Jakob Flechtner / Hauke Dierks)
The WG examines and analyses possibilities to make EMAS better known, to establish it in legislation and it accompanies various actions to promote and disseminate EMAS. - WG Accreditation, Verification and Supervision (Head: Thorsten Grantner)
The WG develops implementation guidelines for accreditation, verification and supervision of environmental verifiers under EMAS, supports environmental verifiers in other fields of activity outside EMAS and is responsible for keeping the DAU verifier list up to date. - WG Resources (Head: Andreas Hirsch)
The working group examines the interfaces of environmental management with regard to the Circulat Economy Action Plan, the Environmental Action Programme and the PROGRESS III project. - WG Climate and Energy (Head: Dr. Burkhard Huckestein)
The WG is working on an EMAS climate module, the role of EMAS for climate neutrality, the audit of climate aspects and the implementation of climate protection agreements. - WG Sustainability (Head: Prof. Dr. Frank Ebinger)
The working group shows the opportunities of EMAS as a sustainability module for sustainable corporate management, looks at EMAS and the environmental statement in the context of CSR reporting and highlights opportunities through the interfaces of EMAS with other instruments of sustainability management.