Background Environmental management has become a priority for municipalities. Currently, they have essentially three tools at their disposal: Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS), City and Local Environmental Accounting and Reporting (CLEAR) and ecoBudget. The EMAS instrument has tended to be used as a "general container" of the three methods, as it is the only one among them having a specific reference law. However, whilst there are overlapping areas between the three schemes, each is actually quite specific in scope. The European Commission, working on the new Strategy for the Urban Environment, is stating the importance of a comprehensive plan to tackle environmental issues in an integrated manner. Such a plan requires an adequate environmental management system. Using just the EMAS instrument, which was initially conceived for the environmental management of private industries, is not optimal. Expertise collected during the past years suggested to the beneficiary that the best way would be to start from the existing systems and develop them into an integrated framework. Ravenna has long experience in environmental management. It was a partner in the LIFE CLEAR and VISIT (Voluntary Initiatives for Sustainability in Tourism) projects and participated in the Adriatic Action Plan 2020, a border-crossing project, co-financed by the Interreg Programme. Objectives The project aimed to integrate environmental management systems with environmental accountability and budgeting systems. Specifically, it hoped to integrate EMAS, CLEAR and ecoBudget to meet the specific requirements of a local authority in adopting an Urban Environmental Management Plan, as stated by the European Commission Communication “Towards a Thematic Strategy on the Urban Environment”. It sought thus to improve the effectiveness of environmental policies and management, addressing issues, such as integrating environmental concerns in the internal decision-making process and adapting new methods for the private sector as distinct from the public sector. The project hoped to enhance the quality of environmental themes such as public transport planning, private transportation management and waste management. Specifically, the project planned to: Produce and disseminate guidelines for the system; Provide EMAS Registration for the four municipalities participating in the development of the system; Identify implementation recommendations for EMAS in Urban Areas to update the existing EMAS Regulation (2008) Provide the European Commission with preliminary information about the implementation of the Urban Environmental Management Plan.Results The IDEMS project successfully produced a new methodology for urban environmental management, which improves the EMAS instrument. The 'IDEMS model' allows public administrations, also of big dimensions and very different environmental situations, to implement an EMAS process. The project worked with four ‘developer’ municipalities - Ravenna, Ferrara, Mantova (Italy) and Amaroussion (Greece) - to develop and pilot an integrated system. These were supported and assisted by three ‘reference’ cities - Dresden and Heidelberg (Germany), and Växjö (Sweden) - who shared their existing expertise and experience. Each developer municipality conducted an internal audit of its current use of environmental management systems. The gaps between the used and available tools were analysed, and draft guidelines produced for effective and integrated environmental management. The guidelines had eleven points covering issues such as planning, stakeholders engagement, environmental analysis and legal compliance. To support implementation of the guidelines, the partners created customised work plans for each of the developer municipalities, and a training kit covering each point of the guidelines. The project ran training events on each point and organised field visits to the reference cities to better understand what was required. The developer municipalities used these support tools to carry out demonstration pilot implementation of the guidelines. The learning from this process and analysis of the results enabled the partners to define the final optimised Guidelines - the ‘IDEMS model’ - for the integration and interaction of the three environmental management tools. It is tailored to the needs of public organisations and provides politicians and technicians with guidance for implementing EU environmental policy without gaps and overlaps between multiple systems. The partners also presented the European Commission with a proposal for the revision of the EMAS Regulation. The revision aims to facilitate, not only implementation by local authorities, but also its use with territorial governance processes and in integration with other sustainable development tools. Whilst Amaroussion already had EMAS registration, Mantova had its Environmental Statement approved during the project(November 2008). Ravenna received the ISO 14001:2004 registration, including the validation of its Environmental Statement, soon after the end of the project (September 2009). The Municipality of Ferrara received its ISO 14001:2004 registration after the end of the project(May 2010). The use of the 'IDEMS model' to integrate current best environmental management systems is highly transferable and would facilitate and enhance EMAS adherence in local authorities. Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report and After-LIFE Communication (see "Read more" section).