Background The North Milan region, comprising the municipalities of Bresso, Cinisello Balsamo, Cologno Monzese and Sesto S. Giovanni, has seen a profound transformation of its economic base in the last 10 years. A serious industrial crisis hit the area at the end of the last decade as the region’s big engineering works and iron and steel factories (Marelli, Falck and Breda) closed down. In their place, however, new small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are establishing themselves and are now ‘re-industrialising’ North Milan. Right from the start, the focus of the reindustrialization plan was to reconcile the industrial vocation of these areas with a new awareness of environmental issues, sorely overlooked during the era of heavy industry. The Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is a useful tool for underpinning the management quality and sustainability of businesses as they manage this transformation. Objectives The project was to demonstrate a concrete application of the EMAS II Regulation in selected industrial district of North Milan and achieve EMAS registration for at least one area where about 20-25 SMEs were located. This was in turn to stimulate EMAS registration in other areas involved with the project, and offer a model that could be transferable to other industrial and reindustrialised areas. Results The project achieved EMAS registration for one industrial area, managed through a non-profit organisation, the Senomi Management Body (SMB), which was formed in 2005 during the project’s development. It comprises the Province of Milan, the chamber of commerce of Milan, Municipality of Sesto San Giovanni, Milano Metropoli Development Agency, North Milan Businessman’s Association, as well as a number of Sesto S.G. companies. The SMB was charged with co-ordinating the EMAS eco-management and auditing system for the districts’ common areas and services (waste, parks and gardens, water, energy, etc.), and collaborating with local and private bodies to improve the environmental performance of the services themselves. Concretely, the SMB reached an agreement between itself, the City of San Giovanni and the new company in charge of separate waste collection and road cleaning, which resulted in a doubling of the frequency of door-to-door separate waste collection, and, for some urban refuse, it was now possible for waste to be collected by type. The SMB appointed a district representative to support the development and application of high-quality environmental solutions. Economically viable energy saving schemes were identified and promoted amongst the various district organisations (and on public occasions), following in-depth internal investigations conducted by a number of firms. The SMB also examined the feasibility of installing solar panels in some of the district’s SMEs and appointed an energy manager for the district. Lastly, the SMB signed an agreement with the manager of the region’s integrated water distribution service in order to gather information on an annual basis about water consumption and effluents in the district. The outcomes of the project were promoted more broadly via an operational handbook with guidelines on the project’s model, which is particularly appropriate for those who wish to replicate the project’s achievements in other homogeneous productive districts.