In December of last year the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions were the proud recipients of Eco-Management and Audit Scheme certification. This was a strong illustration of the unity between our Committees’ administrations and their political commitment to sustainable development, and highlighted the exemplary role we seek to play towards other administrations and the public. Indeed, since 2008, our Committees have been committed to setting up an environmental management system that complies with the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS), in order to ensure that we operate in the most environmentally friendly way possible. We have for example managed to reduce our electricity consumption by 14,5% and our gas consumption by 25,5% with respect to 2008. We already achieved an initial success with the award of the Brussels Eco-Dynamic Enterprise Label in 2009, for which we obtained the maximum three stars. But, although winning certification was a great achievement, we must now maintain and constantly enhance our policies. Thus this afternoon I attended a meeting of our inter-institutional EMAS steering committee, a meeting that brings together all of the involved actors in the two Committees. We have plucked most of the low-hanging fruit but we are determined to continue to improve our act, for EMAS is a classic win-win proposition: an ethical good that brings economic advantages.
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