BACKGROUND:

An EMS is a set of management tools and principles designed to guide the allocation of resources, assignment of responsibilities and ongoing evaluation of practices, procedures and processes that a company needs to integrate environmental stewardship and compliance into its daily business practices. The EMS developed and outlined by the International Standards Organization (ISO) in its ISO 14001 standard for environmental performance, is one such example. The ISO 14001 EMS provides an internationally recognized set of standards, that detail how to integrate environmental business activities.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Position Statement on EMSs states, “EPA reaffirms its long-held opinion that implementing an EMS will enable business, agencies and other institutions to improve their environmental performance and business competitiveness.”

In response, NSSGA created, and has since revised, its EMS template for use by its members. The template was created to provide producer members with a written framework that can be used in sections or used in its entirety to develop a voluntary EMS program. While the EMS template follows the general guidelines of ISO 14001, the NSSGA template takes the form of modules so that each producer member can choose the individual modules and adapt them, as appropriate, to best fit its company’s needs and stated environmental goals and principles.

TALKING POINTS:

• An EMS is a continual cycle of planning, implementing, reviewing and improving the processes and actions that an organization undertakes to meet its environmental obligations.
• EMS models are based on the “Plan, Do, Check, Act” model which endorses the concept of continual improvement.
  
• NSSGA’s EMS is one approach that NSSGA members might want to consider when formulating and developing an effective and comprehensive environmental management program for their operations.
• NSSGA’s EMS meets the federal EPA and international ISO requirements for an EMS.

The benefits of an effective EMS include:

• Improving environmental performance
• Enhancing compliance
• Preventing pollution and conserving resources
• Reducing/mitigating risks
• Increasing efficiency/ reducing costs
• Enhancing public image with regulators, public, lenders, investors
• Achieving/improving employee awareness of environmental issues and responsibilities
• Qualifying the site for recognition/incentive programs such as EPA’s Performance Track

Updated: November 2008