The City of Lahti is located in suothern Finland by the Lake Vesijärvi.
The Lahti-EMS process aims at a systematic, holistic and interactive approach to reducing the environmental impact of the city´s activities. The Lahti-EMS is a kind of an application of the EU´s Eco-Management and Audit Scheme for industry and it includes both direct and indirect impacts on the city´s activities.
Improving environmental awareness and performance as well as choosing city´s environmental priorities represents a complex planning and decision-making process, in which local authorities from different levels, politicians, citizens and stakeholders should be involved. If the process is well organized, it helps to reach significant environmental improvements in regard to many activities in the city.
Lahti-EMS in practise
The process is coordinated by the city´s Environmental Office. All offices of the city as well as municipal energy, water work and waste management companies are involved in the process. The environmental analysis, which is done separately for each operational unit, has been an essential starting point for setting functional environmental objectives and the means for different levels of the city organisation. Also, a set of seminars has been arranged for participating city personnel, other related authorities and city politicians to run the EMS-process and to evaluate the results achieved.The City Council approved the environmental policy in October 1995 and the environmental program in September 1996. The first environmental audit was done in 1996 by an external consultant, and the auditing results are used to identify the problems and advantages of the EMS process.
Lahti-EMS and public participation
Public participation is an important part of the EMS-process. Local newspapers, radio stations, exhibitions in libraries and lectures have been used to inform the public about the process and its results. For intensive communication direct contacts have been made with local citizen groups and NGOs. A significant part of the participation has been channeled through the Lahti Environmental Forum, which is a slightly supported participative process set up to create the Local Agenda 21. The Lahti-EMS is a part of the Local Agenda 21 for the Lahti Region and therefore it is one of the means of implementing the Rio convention for sustainable development.For more information, please contact Mr Sakari Autio or fax: +358 3 8165 100 or Mr Kari Porra , fax: +358 3 8114 333. You are also welcome to visit the Lahti homepage!
