Environmental Management Systems and ISO 14001 Federal Facilities Council Report No. 138 (1999) / Chapter Skim
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3 Use of Environmental Management Systems and ISO 14001 in the Public Sector
3 Use of Environmental Management Systems and ISO 14001 in the Public Sector
Pages 10-31
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From page 10... ...
What about efforts to avoid causing pollution in the first place? EPA has had a strong pollution prevention program that has been growing in strength, especially for the past five years.
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From page 11... ...
However, at this point, EPA will not be offering additional benefits or incentives to organizations that undertake ISO 14001 registration. EPA needs to understand whether any correlation exists between the use of ISO 14001 and the tendency of organizations to achieve or even exceed compliance or to improve their overall environmental performance.
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From page 12... ...
Another component of the executive order is to have federal agencies agree to a code of environmental principles, emphasizing pollution prevention, sustainable development, and state-of-the-art environmental management programs. In addition, these agencies would have to agree to subunit applications to EPA for individual federal facilities to be recognized as `'model installations." Agencies are also to encourage individual employees to demonstrate outstanding leadership in pollution prevention.
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From page 13... ...
The agency implements proactive programs that aggressively identity and address potential compliance problem areas and utilize pollution prevention approaches to correct deficiencies and improve environmental performance. The third principle, enabling systems, calls for the agency to develop and implement the necessary measures to enable personnel to perform their functions in a manner consistent with regulatory requirements, agency environmental policies, and agency mission.
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From page 14... ...
The EMR program is an evaluation of federal facilities' environmental programs and management systems. EMRs include consultative technical assistance visits intended to identify root causes of environmental performance problems.
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From page 15... ...
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY John L Stirling Senior Environmental Protection Specialist Office of Environmental Policy and Assistance There has been a gradual shift away from traditional compliance in environmental protection to a more preventive mode that adopts a systems approach and examines ways to make that system effective.
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From page 16... ...
DOE acquisition regulations require clauses devoted to pollution prevention and waste ~ninimization in its contracts. The EMS is then the bridge between a management system and sustainable pollution prevention system.
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From page 17... ...
An increasing number of facility managers are evaluating - and in many cases, implementing - an EMS or ISO 14001 based on their judgment that it makes good business management sense. This is a key in the evolution of environmental protection in public agencies.
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From page 18... ...
Environmental stewardship is one of DOD's goals. An EMS provides for an integration of activities such that, if DOD plans, implements, checks, and reviews its environmental activities, it will work across the entire organization, not just the environmental, safety, and health community, but the operational community as well.
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From page 19... ...
One DOD objective in implementing an EMS is to have a good set of requirements and to show what the fiscal impact is going to be on overall operations. Others in the organization must be convinced that resources should be allocated to pollution prevention.
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From page 20... ...
From the international perspective, with standardization comes a set of environmental guidelines for the military sector in 44 nations, principally in Eastern, Western and Central Europe; Africa; and North America. DOD will add guidelines for EMSs in the military sector as part of a NATO pilot study.
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From page 21... ...
In many ways, public agencies at the state level are trying to redefine success to regulatory agencies, moving away from "bean counting" and a focus on compliance toward some measure of environmental performance. State environmental protection agencies have interpreted '`environmental protection" over the past 20 years as counting compliance.
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From page 22... ...
The source of the data is a series of pilot projects in the 12 to 15 states that are members of MSWG. These pilot projects are being conducted under a variety of models, depending upon the state; the main differences involve the roles that the public regulatory agencies play in partnerships with organizations implementing ISO 14000.
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From page 23... ...
It contains guidance about the generation of results information in six categories: environmental performance indicators, environmental condition indicators, compliance indicators, costs and benefits, pollution prevention indicators and measures, and stakeholder preferences and confidence. Core Information for a National Database These are the six areas in which MSWG is interested in generating core information for the national database.
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From page 24... ...
MSWG anticipates that there are over 100 pilot projects that are going to be conducted over the next one to two years to generate data on performance and results that will go to the national database. Why would organizations want to participate and partner with a regulatory agency?
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From page 25... ...
The USPS firmly believes that its environmental activities should not be driven by compliance with the law and regulations, but rather by doing the right thing for the environment. The USPS is using an EMS approach to improve environmental protection, to enhance employee commitment, and to serge its customers.
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From page 26... ...
It also has national environmental performance indicators and leadership and compliance targets. All of the systems are process and results oriented, so that USPS business processes can be improved through changes in the operational deliver process by considering the environmental aspects of these processes.
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From page 27... ...
It is strengthening Postal Service effectiveness by increasing environmental awareness and education programs for employees. It is improving financial performance for environmental programs through best management practices and cost avoidance, which will better serve USPS business interests.
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From page 28... ...
However, the mission has not changed. The Environment, Safety, and Occupational Health Technology Office needs to better leverage resources because budgets and manpower levels will continue to go down.
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From page 29... ...
One example is a dental clinic for which an engineer identified a piece of instrumentation, a dental radiographic device that takes x rays using a digital camera. The Air Force was able to save $136,000 per year and effect a payback time of nine months.
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From page 30... ...
Performance indicators can be separated into measures and standards. Examples of measures include effectiveness of training, no adverse press, EHS factors in financial decisions, and performance evaluations.
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From page 31... ...
The Air Force believes that it can achieve its goal to increase productivity by 30°/O by 2005 if it has a management system that is fully integrated into core business practices. This is not just about the ESH community, either.
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