General Environmental Management

Systems Awareness Training

U.S. Department of the Interior

Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance
Washington, D.C.

August 2007
U.S. Department of the Interior
• The Mission of the Department of the Interior (DOI) is to
protect and provide access to our Nation's natural and
cultural heritage and honor our trust responsibilities to
Indian Tribes and our commitments to island communities.
• DOI manages 500 million acres of surface land, or about
one-fifth of the land in the United States and has
jurisdiction over approximately 1.76 billion acres of the
Outer Continental Shelf.
• DOI is a large, decentralized agency with over 73,000
employees and 200,000 volunteers located at
approximately 2,400 operating locations across the United
States, Puerto Rico, U.S. territories, and freely associated
states.

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Some Examples of DOI’s Many Missions

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As DOI Employees, We Must Understand How Our
Day-to-Day Activities Impact the Environment

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 Objectives
After this awareness training, you should
know:
• About Executive Order (EO) 13423.
• What an environmental management system
(EMS) is.
• The benefits of an EMS.
• Why an EMS is important to what you do.
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 Executive Order (EO) 13423, “Strengthening Federal
Environmental, Energy, and Transportation
Management”
● Signed by President Bush on January 26, 2007.
● Consolidated five previous executive orders and two
Memoranda of Understanding into one order, 85 pages
down to 7 plus instructions.
● Provides a holistic approach to integrating energy,
environment, human health considerations into mission
implementation.
● Updated and set more aggressive goals for energy
efficiency, renewable energy, water conservation,
acquisition, pollution prevention/recycling, high
performance buildings, fleet management, and electronics
stewardship.
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 Executive Order (EO) 13423, “Strengthening Federal
Environmental, Energy, and Transportation
Management”

● Clarifies roles of Heads of Agencies and senior

management officials.
● More closely aligns environmental and energy
requirements with the Office of Management and
Budget performance scorecards approach.
● Clarifies and strengthens role of Environmental
Management Systems as the foundation
management framework to meet the goals of the
order (including compliance management).

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 DOI Policy

• Secretarial Memorandum of April 4, 2007,

directs DOI to lead by example on the
implementation of E.O. 13423.
• Directs DOI to achieve results and make
progress toward E.O. 13423 goals.

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 Environmental Management Systems (EMS)
Requirements in EO 13423

• Section 3(b) states, “…implement within the agency

environmental management systems (EMS) at all appropriate
organizational levels to ensure (i) use of EMS as the primary
management approach for addressing environmental aspects of
internal agency operations and activities, including
environmental aspects of energy and transportation functions, (ii)
establishment of agency objectives and targets to ensure
implementation of this order, and (iii) collection, analysis, and
reporting of information to measure performance in the
implementation of this order.”

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 What Is an Environmental Management System
(EMS)?

• An EMS is simply a set of procedures to reduce our

environmental footprint in our day-to-day activities.
• An EMS is the combination of people, policies,
procedures, review, and plans to help address
environmental issues.
• An EMS is that part of an overall management system
which includes organizational structure, planning
activities, responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes,
and resources for...achieving environmental policy.
• Important EMS elements include continual improvement,
management commitment, formalization, and awareness of
a systems based approach.

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 Purpose of an EMS

An EMS brings together the people, policies,

plans, review mechanisms, and procedures
used to manage environmental issues at a
facility or in an organization.

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 Benefits of an EMS
• Helps maintain compliance
• Reduce operating costs
• Integrate environmental programs
into mission
• Increase employee involvement
• Reduce environmental impacts

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Things About EMS You May
Not Know
• Your organization may already have an
have EMS established or have elements of
an EMS in place.
• You may be able to contribute to
implementing and improving your
organization’s EMS.

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 DOI Policy
• DOI’s existing EMS Policy (515 DM 4)
issued in 2002, requires EMS
implementation by Bureaus and Offices.
The policy is currently undergoing revision
to reflect the new E.O. 13423 requirements.
• Furthermore, DOI committed to fully
implement EMS by the end of FY 2009 in
the 2007-2012 Strategic Plan.
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 EMS Frameworks

• The International Standard ISO 14001 is the

most widely used and respected.
• Organizations, however, use many EMS
frameworks and models.
• The EO 13423 Implementing Instructions
directs Federal agencies to align their EMS
programs with ISO 14001.
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 Questions
• What does an EMS look like?
• How is it structured?

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A Basic EMS Framework
Plan, Do, Check, Act

PLAN DO

ACT CHECK

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 The Continuous Cycle
• Plan
Planning, identifying environmental
aspects and establishing goals

• Do
Implementing, includes training and
operational controls

• Check
Checking, includes monitoring and
corrective action

• Act
Reviewing, includes progress reviews
and acting to make needed changes
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 EMS Components
(e.g., ISO 14001)
• Environmental Policy
• Planning
• Implementation and Operation
• Checking and Corrective Action
• Management Review

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 Environmental Policy
• Issue a policy statement signed by facility
manager
• At a minimum, commit to
– Continual improvement
– Pollution prevention
– Environmental compliance
• Identifies EMS framework
• Publicly available

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 Planning
• Identify aspects and impacts from facility
activities, products, and services
• Review legal requirements
• Set objectives and targets
• Establish formal EMS program

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 Implementation and
Operation
• Define roles and responsibilities
• Provide EMS training
• Establish internal and external
communication mechanisms
• Establish document control system
• Establish operational controls
• Integrate with or establish emergency
preparedness procedures
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 Checking and Corrective
Action
• Conduct periodic monitoring of
environmental performance
• Identify root causes of findings and conduct
corrective and preventive actions
• Maintain environmental records
• Conduct periodic EMS audit

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 Management Review
• Conduct periodic senior management
review of EMS
• Revise policies as needed

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 The EMS
Plan, Do, Check, Act Cycle
(e.g., ISO 14001)

Management Environmental
Review Policy

Checking/ Continuous Planning

Corrective Actions Improvement
• Environmental Aspects
• Measurement and Monitoring
• EMS Nonconformance and • Compliance
Corrective Actions • Objectives and Targets
• Records • Environmental Mgmt.
• EMS Audits
Implementation Programs
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Training and Communication
• EMS Document Control
• Emergency Preparedness
and Response
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 Bottom Line EMS
Requirements
• Must have commitment of top managers.
• An EMS doesn’t exist in isolation.
• Must be consistent with other management
systems (e.g., IT) in your organization.
• An EMS must be owned by everyone in
your organization.

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 Some Basic EMS Definitions
• Environmental Aspect (Cause) – The elements of an organization’s
activities, products, or services which can interact with the environment.
– It is important to establish, implement and maintain a procedure to identify the
environmental aspects of activities products and services that you “can control
and …can influence.”
– After identifying environmental aspects you must determine those which have
or can have significant impacts on the environment.
– Examples include: air emissions, water discharges, , use of raw materials,
energy use, use of natural resources, use of volatile organic compounds.

• Environmental Impact (Effect) – Any change to the environment whether

adverse or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from an organizations
activities, products, or services.
– Examples include: depletion of natural resources, air pollution, hazardous
waste generation, soil and water contamination.

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 Examples of Aspects and Impacts

• Facility Operations
– Aspect: Office use of electronic equipment
• Impact: Generation of recyclable waste (paper,
batteries, toner cartridges)
– Aspect: Use of solvents, oil, fluorescent lamps,
and excess furniture
• Impact: Land contamination (landfill)
– Aspect: Air emissions from buildings
• Impact: Air pollution, global warming

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 Examples of Aspects and Impacts
• Facility Operations (continued)
– Aspect: Motor vehicle operations
(Use of oil, rags, antifreeze, tires, and batteries)
– Impact: Hazardous waste generation and air pollution
– Aspect: Custodial Operations
(Use of cleaning products, paper, water, energy)
• Impact: Depletion of natural resources and
contamination of land
– Aspect: Grounds Maintenance
• Impact: Depletion of natural resources (pesticides,
fertilizer, water use, fossil fuels)

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 Examples of Significant Environmental
Aspects
• Purchasing chemicals • Use of electronic
• Use of chemicals equipment
• Building temperature
• Application of control
pesticides
• Grounds and custodial
• Office products/paper operations
consumption • Motor vehicle
operations

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 Objectives and Targets

• Compliance with Regulations

• Reduce Waste Streams
– Hazardous, Solid, and Universal
• Reduce Energy Consumption
• Recycle
• Green Purchasing
• Pollution Prevention

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 Definitions
An EMS objective is an overall goal arising
from the environmental policy statement
set by the organization.
An EMS target is a detailed measurable
performance requirement related to the
objective.

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 Examples
Objective: Increase solid waste diversion
Target: Achieve a 60% diversion rate for all
solid waste by the year 2008.

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 Examples
Objective: Improve environmental compliance
Target: Reduce the number of external
environmental compliance audit findings by
50% on an audit-to-audit basis.

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 Examples
Objective: Reduce transportation congestion
Target: Increase the number of employee-
days of mass transit use by 50% by the year
2007 based on a 2002 calendar year
baseline.
Target: Purchase 25 bicycles for use within
the facility by the year 2004.

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 An objective of EMS is to reduce environmental impacts.

Below are ways you can support this objective:

• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – Reduce your use of resources such as

water. Reuse resources such as office supplies Recycle all batteries,
paper, electronics, toner cartridges, metal scraps, metal cans, glass and
plastic containers, and fluorescent light bulbs, etc.

• Purchasing Requirements – Government purchasing agents,

including credit card holders, are required to follow the Affirmative
(Green) Procurement Plan.

• Carpool – Conserve fuel by carpooling to field sites or other work

related destinations.

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 What Managers and Supervisors Need to Do

Provide support to change habits

• Old habits die hard.

• Employees need support through both

motivational and technical hurdles.

• Initial training and periodic refreshers are

essential to continuing pollution prevention
success.
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 Top Ten Pollution Prevention Techniques
1. Good housekeeping and 6. Alternate cleaning
maintenance practices processes

2. Spill prevention and 7. Reduce/reuse process

preparedness wastes

3. Inventory management 8. Process modifications

4. Prudent purchasing 9. Changes in equipment or

technology
5. Waste exchange programs
10.Environmentally
preferable purchasing

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 An Example:
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing

Definition:
Products or services that have a lesser or
reduced effect on human health and the
environment when compared with
competing products or services that serve
the same purpose.

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Environmentally Preferable Purchasing

Environmentally
preferable
purchasing
means
examining the
pollution
prevention
practices of your
vendors and
subcontractors
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 Summary
• An EMS is the combination of people,
policies, procedures, review, and plans to
help address environmental issues.
• Important EMS elements include continual
improvement, management commitment,
formalization, and awareness of system
approach.

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 Summary
• Being a good environmental steward is every DOI
employee’s business.
• Performing your job in an environmentally safe
and sound manner benefits us all by protecting the
health of the surrounding ecosystem, preserving
resources for future generations, being good
neighbors, minimizing mission impact due to non-
compliance issues, and saving money by
decreasing wasted resources.

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 Your Participation
All personnel have roles and responsibilities at the
location for EMS. Your level of participation will vary
according to the work you perform. At a minimum, you
are responsible for knowing:

• The commitments of the Environmental Policy.

• How your job impacts the environment.
• The procedures/protocols of your job and adhering to
them.
• The potential environmental impacts of departing from
the procedures of your job.
• The legal and other requirements of your job.
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 Congratulations and Thank You!
• You have completed general EMS Awareness
Training.
• Your feedback allows us to continually improve
EMS implementation.
• For more information or to actively participate
in EMS implementation, please contact your
Bureau or Office EMS Coordinator.

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