Environmental Management Systems

A Design for the Environment Approach U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics

DRAFT March 1999

DRAFT, March 1999

Acknowledgments This document was prepared by Abt Associates Inc., Cambridge, MA, as part of an effort to show how Design for the Environment (DfE) technical work could be used to support development of an Environmental Management System (EMS). This document is based primarily on The ISO 14000 Handbook and other EMS reference documents acknowledged in the references section and on DfE guidance documents such as the Cleaner Technologies Substitutes Assessment Methodology. The EPA Project Officer is Bill Hanson, Chief, Design for the Environment Program, in the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics. Important contributions were made by Jenny Fisher and Ted Cochin, EPA. The Abt project team included Dennis Chang, Jonathan Greene, Cheryl Keenan, and Jean E. (Libby) Parker. Important contributions were received from the Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG), Lexington, MA and from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Center for Clean Products and Clean Technologies. The ERG project team included Jeff Cantin, Bob Ferrone and Dave Galbraith. The University of Tennessee project team included Kerry Kelly, Lori Kincaid and Mary Swanson. Valuable contributions were also received from Marci Kinter, Screen Printing and Graphic Imaging Association International (SGIA), Fairfax, VA.

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Disclaimer This document is a preliminary draft. It has not been formally released by the Environmental Protection Agency and should not at this stage be construed to represent Agency policy.

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Foreword EPA’s Design for the Environment (DfE) Program has over seven years of experience building voluntary partnerships with industry, public interest groups, universities, research institutions, and other government agencies to develop cleaner, safer alternatives to existing products and processes. The DfE Program has developed technical methodologies that provide small businesses with environmental, economic, and performance information on traditional and alternative manufacturing methods and technologies. These approaches allow for a comparison of environmental issues, including options for addressing concerns that help businesses integrate environmental concerns into their daily business activities. In addition, DfE has gained valuable

L POINTER: An Environmental Management System provides a systematic way to review and improve operations for better environmental performance and improved profitability, by setting up procedures that ensure the work gets done. An EMS requires both administrative and technical work.

experience in communicating to a wide variety of people with varying degrees of technical sophistication, and in establishing and maintaining diverse stakeholder groups. The DfE Program is offering this experience to support the development of Environmental Management Systems in companies. An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a set of management tools and principles designed to create the administrative procedures that a company needs to integrate environmental concerns into its daily business practices. The EMS developed and outlined by the International Standards Organization (ISO) in their standard ISO14001 provides a widely recognized set of principles and standards for integrating environmental management into quality control and other business activities. This manual uses ISO14001 as a guideline. To implement an EMS, however, there are steps that involve some technical work, such as identifying and prioritizing environmental concerns, evaluating options for addressing those concerns, and measuring the success of implementing those

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L POINTER: While based on the ISO 14001 approach, the DfE/EMS process described in this manual does not include all steps or core elements necessary for ISO certification.

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options. The DfE approach to creating an EMS involves using the DfE

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technical methods as the technical foundation of the EMS. The

An EMS is intended to address only environmental concerns over which your company has control or which your company can affect.

DfE approach emphasizes reducing risk to humans and the environment, pollution prevention, and wise resource management. DfE principles are presented below. Those elements of the EMS that require strictly management or administrative expertise will also be presented so as to maintain the continuity of the process, but more detail on these elements will be found in other referenced sources. This manual takes you and your company through the EMS creation process, step by step.

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DfE Principles A goal of DfE is to create healthier environments for workers, communities, and the ecosystem. Method Integrate environmental considerations of risk reduction and wise resource management into daily business decision making that includes performance and cost. Seek environmental solutions that promote competitiveness. Recognize need for a commitment to continuous improvement. Provide business with tools and methodologies to make better environmental choices. Operating Principles Identification and comparison of alternatives to identify tradeoffs and information gaps. Use the DfE Substitutes Tree outline to structure this Cleaner Technology Substitutes Assessment. Understand the environmental effects of material flows. Use the Pollution Prevention Principles as a guideline for evaluating and ranking approaches.

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Operating Approach Work in partnership with stakeholders; engage participation and support of employees; encourage open communication.

Pollution Prevention Hierarchy