| Environmental Management Program |
What is an EMS/EMP?
The Citywide Environmental Management System (EMS) establishes a framework for reducing the
environmental impacts of City operations and services including establishing
the environmental policy, roles and responsibilities, and a reporting
structure. The Environmental Action Agenda (EAA) is the "action" part of
the EMS. The EAA establishes the current EMS goals and targets and lays out
the programs to achieve the targets. We will measure our progress implementing
the EMS against the performance targets spelled out in the EAA.
Government agencies and businesses the world over have
been improving their environmental performance by implementing Environmental
Management Systems (EMSs). An EMS provides an organization the tools to:
An EMS provides an organization with a structure and process to:
- Develop an environmental policy that is linked with organizational goals
- Evaluate its activities and the associated environmental impacts
- Prioritize what activities and impacts should be addressed
- Create a systematic plan for making changes that improve performance
- Periodically review how changes have improved environmental performance
- Revise the approach based on a review of results and other new
information
Why is an EMP a good idea for the City of Seattle?
The City impacts the environment in many ways ranging
from using chemicals to regulate land use. Some examples of specific
activities which may impact the environment include permitting land-use
activities, regulating sensitive areas, painting, maintaining hundreds of
facilities and thousands of acres of public land, construction, maintaining
and operating a fleet of vehicles, generating electricity, maintaining roads
and bridges, and providing clean water.
The City is already a recognized leader in minimizing environmental impacts
through our accomplishments in arenas such as recycling, energy and water
conservation, and fish recovery and watershed management programs. In order to
further reduce the environmental impacts of our operations, the City is
implementing an EMS (called the Seattle Environmental Management Program or EMP). We chose to pattern the system after the
international ISO 14001 standard, the most recognized and widely accepted EMS
format.
This City-wide systematic approach helps us to better communicate and
coordinate across departments. The EMP provides a broad policy framework.
How will the EMS change to address sustainability?
Environmental Management Systems are simply tools for systematically
addressing aspects of organizational behavior, typically the environmental
aspects. These systems, however, are inherently flexible and can be
adapted to address a range of other organizational issues. The City of
Seattle’s EMS will evolve over time to address broader organizational
objectives, including fiscal responsibility, economic performance and social
elements like employee well-being and satisfaction, community development and
enhancement. Though the City may adopt a broad sustainability management
framework, the transition to include sustainability issues in the EMS will
also be driven by departments who choose to consider social, economic, fiscal,
and/or community contributions in their existing EMS.
Links - City of Seattle
Environmental
Management Systems Benchmarking Report (Doc 478 KB)>
Links - Other
Environmental
Management Resources on the Internet
Global
Environment and Technology Foundation
Public
Entity Environmental Management System Resource Center
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