Compliance assurance through company compliance management systems

This document, a final report from IMPEL, focuses on how company compliance management systems (CMSs) can be used to ensure legal compliance and reduce environmental risk. It discusses using company CMSs as a tool for compliance, examining various system standards and the necessary competencies for supervisors to conduct assessments. It concludes with recommendations for a follow-up project to study the effectiveness of customized supervision for companies with CMSs.

This report from the European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL) examines using Compliance Management Systems (CMS) for public supervision, known as CMS supervision. The report describes CMS supervision as a system that shifts the focus of public supervisors from compliance to compliance assurance. It also explores challenges to public supervision, the limitations of traditional supervision, and the use of third-party certification and verification.

This report from the European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL) explores the potential for cooperation between public supervisors and private parties involved in the certification and accreditation of Environmental Management Systems/Compliance Management Systems (EMS/CMS). The report summarizes a workshop held in Brussels in 2015 which brought together stakeholders to discuss using EMS/CMS certification in public supervision. The report concludes that there are promising opportunities for closer cooperation, and the workshop resulted in a joint statement outlining principles and practical steps for moving forward.

Traditional supervision has several shortcomings. Although certain regulatees need a deterrent approach, most regulatees are willing to comply to public regulations. Some of them, especially the bigger regulated organizations, are responsive to new forms of regulation. For these companies, a traditional command and control approach is not very effective because it does not recognise the company’s own capabilities and may undermine the intrinsic motivation.