EMS Primer - What is an Environmental Management System (EMS)?

An Environmental Management System (EMS) offers an approach that focuses on environmental management practices rather than environmental activities themselves. It is a system that needs to be continually monitored and periodically reviewed to provide effective direction for an organization's environmental management in response to changing internal and external factors. It is a problem-solving tool that which provides a framework and a roadmap for environmental management that:

Enables an organization to control the environmental impact of its activities, products and services,
Focuses on constant system improvement and involves a continual cycle of planning, implementing, reviewing, and improving the processes and actions that an organization undertakes to meet its mission and environmental goals,
Allows an organization to commit to sustainable development as a strategic objective,
Integrates responsibilities and practices into one overall environmental management system to increase efficiency and reduce environmental impact,
Incorporates people, procedures, and work practices in a formal structure that ensures that an organization's important immediate- and long-term environmental impacts are identified and addressed, and
Allows for flexibility and adaptability so that environmental management decisions can be based on organizational-specific needs, resources, missions, and goals.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines an EMS simply as "the part of the overall management system that includes organizational structure, planning activities, responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes and resources for developing, implementing, achieving, reviewing and maintaining the environmental policy."

Because an EMS focuses on environmental management practices rather than environmental activities themselves, it is effective for all types of facilities such as installations, offices, ships, hospitals, or laboratories that vary in size, complexity, and mission. As a result, the adoption of an EMS does not mean "one size fits all." An EMS allows each agency, service, organization, or facility to address its own particular goals, budgets, missions, and conditions. The purpose of an EMS is to provide the structure by which the specific and defined activities of each individual facility can be carried out efficiently and effectively, in a manner consistent with key organizational goals.

When implemented, an EMS provides a verifiable process to improve a facility's regulatory compliance, promote its adoption of pollution-prevention measures, and ensure continuous improvement in managing its impact on the environment. In addition, by adopting an EMS, a facility can potentially discover many opportunities to reduce wasteful uses of resources, thus saving money and otherwise enhancing its economic performance while reducing environmental impacts.