Legal Requirements

One of the EMS Elements, Legal and Other Requirements, requires each facility to identify and evaluate all the applicable legal and other requirements to which the organization subscribes that apply to the environmental aspects of any activity, operation, service, or process of the facility. In addition, each facility must ensure that the applicable environmental legal and other requirements are considered during development, implementation and maintenance of their full EMS.

It is important to determine all the activities in your organization, in addition to the environmental programs, that must abide by environmental legal and other requirements. It is also important to determine the resources these additional activities currently are using to access environmental requirements and any additional resource needs. Some of the activities that need to be considered include:

Procurement and contracting personnel who follow Federal Green Purchasing requirements,
Food service operations that follow rules for the management of grease and other wastes,
Medical and dental clinic responsibilities for managing, storing, tracking and reporting on medical wastes,
Programs such as the Federal Electronics Challenge (FEC), Energy Star, or LEED Building Certification that involve specific environmental performance, tracking, and reporting requirements,
Unique local requirements, such as a qualified recycling program or tribal regulations, that address environmental issues,
Applicable international environmental management and reporting requirements that may need to be considered by federal facilities, especially Joint Service installations, located in or doing business with other countries.

All of these types of requirements are as important as formal legal requirements and should receive the same degree of attention. They must be identified and incorporated into the EMS list of legal and other requirements for each facility. Often it is helpful to circulate a questionnaire throughout your organization to determine all the activities that have legal and other requirements that impact your EMS.

The establishment of a searchable master list or database of EMS legal and other requirements that impact all the different activities within a given organization is often very helpful. This list or database should be available to all personnel. Such a list, routinely reviewed and updated by all appropriate operations within the organization, may help to ensure that staff can easily access legal and other requirements. This resource also can be used to reinforce employee awareness of the legal and other requirements that impact their work, and the potential environmental consequences of his/her activities and job performance.

The Federal Laws, Executive Orders, Directives, and Instructions listed in this section are meant to provide basic guidance only. It is the responsibility of each facility to identify all the applicable legal and other requirements that impact any environmental aspect of any activity, operation, service, or process included in the EMS fenceline. Applicable requirements are installation-specific and are based on the mission, operations, and location of a facility