R E C   E V E N T

  It sounds promising, but what is it? For industrialists, it is the environmental management system (EMS) known as the ISO 14001 series, providing a framework for business to manage the present and potential effects of their operations and products on the environment. It is in part based on the PDCA principle: plan (understand where gaps are in satisfying local environmental needs); do (fill in the gaps); check (prove that it has been done); and act (make new plans that are better). And it means that local governments could improve on delivering plans, reporting on performance and learning from previous experience.

  This possibility was explored by local and regional leaders from four continents — including the deputy secretary of Fiji's Ministry of Regional Development and Multi-Ethnic Affairs and the mayor of Lusaka City, Zambia — who assembled at the REC last September in Szentendre. The conference was organised by the REC's Japan Special Fund.

  "One of our observations was that the EMS approach has worked for industry," said John Whitlaw, Director of the UN's International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC) which co-organised the conference. "It has been adopted widely and has many principles that may be relevant for local government."

  During the conference, participants discussed the creation of a universally applicable module. Asked whether such a system could be useful in her own municipality, Laima Galkute, coordinator of Local Agenda 21 in Kaunas, Lithuania, responded that "energy and air quality are two separate departments for us now and we need to have communications between them to combine decision-making procedures without conflicts." Developing a standard practice of managing these two areas could reduce existing conflicts, she added.

  Participants from the CEE countries are scheduled to return to the REC in July to receive the "EMS Applications in Urban Management" training module.