Terms of reference for remas participating sites

Aims & Objectives of the Project

Remas has been commissioned to study the benefits of environmental management systems in the context of regulation. The project runs from 1 November 2002 - September 2005.

Objectives

• To gather environmental performance data on industrial sites and correlate this with their environmental management system (EMS)
• Define key parameters within an EMS that are valuable to the regulator
• Demonstrate methods that will reduce any duplication between EMS implementation and the regulatory effort required

Ownership, Access & Confidentiality

Ownership

Remas will own any Project materials it has developed or that has been developed by its agents used before, during or after the Project.

The participants of the remas Project will own any materials they have developed during the Project that relate to their corporate business.

The intellectual property rights and value of any Project materials produced before, during or after by the Project, as outlined above will remain the property of it’s owner.

Notwithstanding the above, all participants shall not reasonably withhold their permission for other participants to make reasonable and non-commercial use of their Project materials in connection with remas, so long as this does not involve their sale, unauthorised publication or distribution. This excludes any data already in the public domain.

Access

All materials produced by, or required for, the Project shall be available to any member of remas or Project participants’ staff, subject to the other provisions set out in the Principles of the remas Project.

Remas will ensure commercial confidentiality is maintained with respect to any sensitive material used for Project purposes. It is the responsibility of the Project participants to notify the remas team of any material deemed to be commercially confidential, or a national security risk.

Release

All materials produced by the Project (whether produced before, during or after the Project is held) shall be confidential to remas, the Regulator, Project Participant and their named agents.

In relation to data produced by or for the Project, remas will only release data to the public domain where it cannot be attributed to its source or where the original source was the public domain. Remas will agree the release of any data that may be attributable prior to its release to any third party, including trade associations, the general public and the press.

Agreement to the release of any material shall not be unreasonably withheld.

Remas, the Environment Agency of England & Wales, the Project Participants and the Regulator shall all give permission prior to any endorsement of material produced for or by the Project.

Resolution of Issues Arising During the Project

Any disputes with respect to conduct of the Project will be referred to a Joint Management Board comprising of a Named Company contact, the remas Project Executive and a Senior Manager of the Regulator.

Any dispute, which cannot be settled in this way, shall be referred to mediation by a mediator appointed by the Parties or by The Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution.

Normal Regulator-Company relations will be maintained, notwithstanding the activities of the pilot.
The Regulator will refer any enquiries regarding the pilot to the remas Project Manager.

Remas, the Regulator and Company reserve the right to discontinue their participation in the Project at any time should either party consider this appropriate.

Companies shall have the right for return of all materials provided by them to the Project and/or Project members should they decide to discontinue their involvement. Except that the raw data and/or information they submitted may be retained by remas subject to the condition that all reference to it’s origination and source identity shall be removed (i.e. such that it is an un-attributable data set).

Remas will publish a list of companies participating in the project. If you wish to be excluded from any such list please place your request in writing to the remas project manager.