Product-Oriented Environmental Management System (POEMS) in the agri-food sector: main results of the EMAF Project

In this paper the main results of the Eco-Management for Food Project (co-funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research - PRIN No. 2008TXFBYT) are presented. Within the EMAF project, a Product-Oriented Environmental Management System (POEMS) framework that is specifically tailored for the agri-food industry, is being designed and implemented. It has a modular structure as it is made up of a set of complementary tools: an Integrated Quality and Environmental Management System; a simplified Life Cycle Assessment methodology; guidelines for product environmental communication. Finally, this paper describes the main results of the POEMS framework implementation to different pilot food companies, in order to verify the effective functioning and to highlight the strong and weak points of the POEMS model and of its individual fundamental elements.