• reviewing the organization's environmental goals;
• analyzing its environmental impacts and legal requirements;
• setting environmental objectives and targets to reduce environmental impacts and comply with legal requirements;
• establishing programs to meet these objectives and targets;
• monitoring and measuring progress in achieving the objectives;
• ensuring employees' environmental awareness and competence; and
• reviewing progress of the EMS and making improvements.

What is ISO 14001 and how does it apply to EMS? ISO 14001 is an internationally recognized standard for the environment. It provides a systems approach patterned after the Deming model of plan, do, check and act. ISO 14001 is one of a series of Environmental Standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization. The ISO 14001 standard includes all of the elements needed to develop an environmental management system in your organization.

What are the benefits of an EMS? An EMS provides tools to help manage your organization's environmental impacts efficiently and effectively and to improve environmental stewardship across the entire organization. Organizations who have implemented an EMS have realized the following benefits:

• cost savings;
• reduced risk;
• increased operational efficiency;
• positive external relations and public image;
• improved communication;
• greater employee stewardship;
• shared environmental solutions; and
• improved public relations.

Why should state and local government entities implement an EMS? State and local government entities are organizations that both regulate and are regulated. These circumstances require management to understand a broad range of environmental impacts and contend with a long list of federal and state regulations. Management must constantly balance services provided with reduced budgets while maintaining compliance.

An EMS helps an organization address its regulatory demands in a systematic and cost-effective manner. This proactive approach can help reduce the risk of noncompliance and improve health and safety practices for employees and the public. The EMS can also help address non-regulated issues such as odor management and energy conservation. In addition, the EMS can promote stronger operational control and employee stewardship. State and local government entities are also using EMS to manage growth and in response to privatization concerns in the management of utilities.

Where can I find additional information on EMS? To learn more about the EPA grant program, EMS and the ISO 14000 standard, visit these Web sites:

http://www.epa.gov/ems
Includes - Final Report: The US EPA Environmental Management System Pilot Program for Local Government Entities
http://www.epa.gov/performancetrack
EPA's incentive program including EMS requirement

http://www.iso.ch
ISO Web Site

http://eli.org
Environmental Law Institute
ISO 14001 Pilot Project web page, with National Database on Environmental Management Systems

Vision Statement

DEP believes that implementation of effective environmental management systems can improve an organization's environmental performance. To this end, DEP is supportive of any organization seeking such results.

DEP has identified guiding principles under which it will embrace EMS activities. We will:

• Lead by Example
• Educate and Raise Awareness
• Encourage
• Continue to Evaluate Regulatory Compliance

And we will not:

• Dictate specific management practices or procedures

Making Compliance a Foregone Conclusion

Just as preventing pollution is more efficient and less expensive than cleaning it up after it happens, achieving and sustaining environmental compliance is easier through proactive planning than under the threat of regulatory enforcement. In other words, organizations that implement environmental management systems (EMS) are usually caught doing things right.

What exactly is an environmental management system? That's a good question, because to many businesses and regulators, EMS is an abstract term. So, let's begin by defining it. According to the dictionary, a management system is a plan to achieve a desired outcome. By extension, an environmental management system is a plan to address and minimize the impacts of an operation on the environment.

For an example of how a management system is practically applied, we need only look at our own homes and families. We all try to keep our households running smoothly. For instance, we establish who is responsible for paying the bills, shopping for groceries, getting the kids to school on time and taking the trash barrels and recycling bins out to the curb every week.

Certain events - let's call them inspections -prompt us to do more than we normally would to whip our households into shape. Who doesn't make cleanup a top priority when friends or relatives are coming over? But let's face it. When the visitors have left and the pressure is off, we're more apt to let the hamper overflow with laundry and dishes pile up in the sink again.

In the workplace - where worker safety, public health and environmental quality are all at stake- lack of attention to good housekeeping can be potentially dangerous. That's why, when DEP assumes the role of visitor at one of the facilities it regulates, the agency looks not only for obvious violations, but also the root causes of the violations.

As part of its enforcement program, DEP has entered into consent orders with numerous public and private organizations that have agreed not only to correct their existing violations, but also to implement and improve their environmental management systems so those violations won't be repeated in the future.

Organizations that proactively integrate environmental management into their daily operations generally have little to worry about when DEP inspectors arrive.

That's what it takes to ensure that compliance isn't just a snapshot in time, but something that can be lasting and sustainable; in other words, a foregone conclusion. It's also the kind of environmental protection that the citizens of Massachusetts expect DEP to deliver. Working cooperatively with the regulated community, we will.

Elements of an E.M.S.

Implementing and improving an environmental management system (EMS) is a four-step cycle:

1. Plan. In the planning phase, the organization identifies the impacts of its activities on the environment and develops a plan to minimize them. This generally involves the development of policies, procedures and individual job duties that lay out what will be done, and how to meet the goals of the plan.

2. Implement. The organization puts its plan into practice by implementing new policies and procedures, communicating specific job duties to staff and providing employee training.

3. Evaluate. Once the plan has been implemented, there is a formal review or audit of the EMS to determine whether it is helping the organization achieve the goals outlined in the beginning.
   
   

4. Refine. In this most critical of steps, the organization takes the results of the evaluation phase and makes the necessary adjustments to the system to ensure continuous improvement.

DEP Leading by Example: An EMS for Wall Experiment Station
From the July/August 2000 issue of "Inside DEP"
Web page