Activities undertaken by Polish manufacturing companies to reduce air emissions

Abstract

The emphasis on the need to balance the relations between the economy and the natural environment has been growing in recent years. For individual enterprises, it means considering the environmental protection issues in their activities and switching to environmentally-friendly business practices. The purpose of this paper is to present the activities undertaken and performed by Polish manufacturing companies participating in the European Union Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) to reduce emissions of contaminants to air and an attempt to determine solutions that could serve as good environmental practices in this aspect. The grounds for the assumed research method were the analysis of secondary sources in the form of environmental statements. Environmental statements were downloaded from the EMAS website. The selection of the sample was targeted, the study was complete and included 13 manufacturing companies from Poland participating in EMAS, according to the register as of February 18, 2021. The findings indicate that Polish enterprises most frequently performed activities that involved using or improvement of technologies to reduce air emissions and implementation of monitoring and emissions measurement systems. The implemented or improved technologies mostly focused on limiting hard coal usage and replacing it with other energy sources, e.g., liquid gas, earth gas, or renewable energy sources. Analyzed enterprises also performed activities with the purpose of process containment, improvement of offered products, or reducing transport-related emissions.