Location and Mission
NASA Ames Research Center occupies approximately 1,700 acres at Moffett Field, California in the heart of Silicon Valley. The Center was founded by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) on December 20, 1939 as an aircraft research laboratory. In 1958, Ames became part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), specializing in research to create new knowledge and new technologies that span the spectrum of NASA interests. The mission at NASA Ames Research Center is to improve life here, to extend life there, to find life beyond. The facility is located in EPA Region 9.
Basic science describes the major activities conducted by the 1,500 civil servants and more than 2,000 contractor personnel at NASA Ames Research Center. Engineers and scientists at Ames study a wide range of technology issues relating to aircraft and the national Air Transportation System. Research topics include: astrobiology, technology and applied research, aviation, astronomy, space station, air traffic management/air traffic control, computing, aerodynamics, thermal protection systems, Hyper g studies, and human factors simulations. In addition, approximately 300 graduate students, cooperative education students, post-doctoral fellows and university faculty members work at the Center.
EMS at NASA Ames Research Center
NASA requires that each Center develop and implement an Environmental Management System (EMS). The Ames Research Center's Environmental Services Office is responsible for the environmental performance of all NASA operations, as well as the operations of contractors and resident agencies. The EMS was crafted to fit the existing well-organized, effective environmental management organization. The EMS formalized what was already in existence. Management is supportive of the Environmental Services Office and of the EMS. Management demonstrates support by providing adequate resources in support of NASA Ames Research Center's environmental management program.
The Ames Research Center EMS was implemented over a two-year period by one full-time civil servant and one full-time contractor. These individuals have primary responsibility for the ongoing maintenance and 'operation' of the EMS program. In addition, the following participating organizations will be conducting self-assessments over the next four years.
The costs of implementing EMS were equivalent to the costs of two full time employees, one civil servant and one contractor. NASA Ames Research Center has a contract team of environmental professionals that implement work as part of the environmental management program. The EMS professional was added to this contract in order to implement EMS.
NASA Ames Research Center has identified the following Environmental Aspects
NASA Ames Research Center Environmental Aspects
Significance is determined based on regulatory compliance requirements and natural resource impacts. The EMS program has many objectives and a number of targets that are organized 'in line' with NASA Ames Research Center's overall environmental management program. For example, for the air management program, the objectives are primarily compliance, and then, control, awareness, and proactive communications, and the metrics are the percentage of sources that have permits and percent of the non-compliance issues resolved within thirty days. The Ames' environmental management program is comprised of twenty-four program areas. Each has an objective and metrics.
EMS training has been incorporated into the existing environmental training program. NASA and Ames EMS procedures and guidelines (NPG 8553.1 and APG 8800,3) require that the Ames community is made aware of the EMS and the environmental impacts of Ames activities. EMS awareness, including awareness of specific impacts, was added to specific training programs. For instance, to the Storm Water Management class that persons' working with potential storm water impacts must take, knowledge of specific impacts and potential impacts to optimal storm water management were added. Staff throughout the center are aware of their environmental training requirements and the frequency of training is specified as part of each employee's work requirements. Successful completion of training is part of staff performance evaluations.
This year (2003) is the first year that Ames Research Center has collected metrics to document progress toward achieving EMS objectives. NASA Ames' Research Center's Environmental Management program currently has 72 metrics it tracks. This list may be shortened in time. NASA Ames' continually improves its' environmental management program. Examples of metrics are: 0% incidental take of threatened burrowing owl species, 100% review of projects that have been evaluated for potential impacts to burrowing owl habitat, annual update of mailing list, percentage compliance with federal, state and local laws, percentage of findings corrected within thirty days, 35% reduction in certain chemical use, 35 % of solid waste diverted from landfill, 100% of projects with environmental requirements identified during the planning phase, 100% of tank operators trained etc. There is a person that has the responsibility for tracking and reporting metrics for each environmental program area. The EMS Coordinator is responsible to collect, report and comment on the program reports. This information is captured in the existing system. There is room for improvement.
At this point, NASA Ames Research Center has not documented any cost savings associated with the EMS.
Challenges
Today, there are various interpretations of what the EMS program 'could be' at NASA Ames Research Center. There is some concern about the validity of pursuing a handful of high priority environmental management objectives when nearly all compliance programs and any program associated with a natural resources impact is considered "very high priority." Limited staff and funding resources are always a challenge, so for Ames Research Center that already had a well functioning environmental organization, the question is whether the benefits of an EMS were worth the time and money spent on its implementation. The probable answer to this question is 'not yet'. Though, with change in leadership for instance, the EMS may show benefits. In the long term, the EMS could be very beneficial to the organization.
Successes
Culturally, NASA Ames Research Center has always had an EMS. The EMS program requirements were addressed by making the EMS explicit and integrating the particular components of EMS into the existing flow of work.
One of the key successes is the fact that NASA Ames Research Center has a central repository of environmental policy. Each environmental sub-program has a chapter in the environmental handbook. The program objectives are the policy statements. The targets are the metrics that have been specified in monthly environmental program integration (epi) meetings. These have been developed at a rate of a program or chapter a month. The development of the entire environmental management program took more than two years to complete. The metrics have been added to the chapters. Staff are organized such that individuals have complete responsibility for their program area, including tracking and reporting metrics.
The individual on the contract with EMS responsibility is knowledgeable about the database, leads the self-assessments and the external audits, and coordinates the implementation of the EMS among the other staff. Staff training was integrated into the existing training program. NASA Ames Research Center hopes to improve the database so that each member of the staff can enter their program data into the EMS database and be responsible for maintenance of this data. Currently, this information is processed by the EMS Coordinator.
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