Implementation Core Team Leads to Successful EMS Implementation at Eglin AFB
Location and Mission
Eglin Air Force Base, located in the Florida Panhandle, 65 miles west of Panama City, is the premier munitions testing facility for the U.S. Air Force. Eglin has 724 square miles of land area and more than130,000 square miles of water ranges. The base has 50 specific testing areas and operates with approximately 8,500 active duty military personnel, 4,000 civilian employees, and 3,000 contractors.
The Air Armament Center (AAC) is the host unit at Eglin AFB. The AAC is responsible for developing and testing non-nuclear, air-delivered weapons. The core mission of the AAC is to provide national capability in air armament weapon systems.
The Environmental Management System (EMS) developed by the AAC Environmental Management Directorate (EM) at Eglin AFB applies to all base organizations and 45 tenant units, including an F-15 Fighter wing, an Army Ranger training camp and the Navy's Explosive Ordinance Disposal School. The EMS policy standard, EMS guidance documents, and all controlled documents are accessible through the Environmental Management Directorate's Intranet site.
Establishing an EMS that conforms to the ISO 14001 standard was part of the AAC Commander's Quality Initiative. Several activities led to Eglin's successful approach and key to the process was Eglin's selection to participate in a DoD-sponsored EMS pilot study (1998-2000). In addition, the Environmental Management Directorate sought more effective management of numerous potential environmental issues attributable to the Eglin's core mission activities, many of which were being addressed independently. Although Eglin AFB has chosen not to seek third party certification, the Eglin EMS complies with EO 13148. The EMS environmental policy commits the base to environmental stewardship while at the same time ensuring mission accomplishment. Compliance along with continuous improvement is obtained through ongoing measuring and monitoring of progress obtaining targets and objectives.
As part of the EMS implementation, Eglin AFB developed a comprehensive "Environmental Management System Manual" that was issued in February 2002. The manual serves as the principle source of guidance for the Eglin AFB EMS and will be one of the tools used to achieve continual improvement. The manual includes Eglin's environmental policy, information about the methodology and rationale used to develop and implement the EMS. The manual also details the responsibilities for developing, implementing, and maintaining the EMS.
Eglin posts related EMS components, such as documented procedures, objectives, and targets on its Intranet site. Objectives and targets are tracked and maintained in the Executive Management Information System (EMIS) under Environmental Management Performance Indicators.
Pilot Study Participation
The commitment of Eglin's senior management, particularly that of the Center Commander, led to Eglin's participation in the DoD EMS Pilot Study. According to Eglin staff, the major goals of the Pilot Study included the following:
- Define an environmental policy.
- Identify significant environmental aspects and impacts of business operations.
- Set objectives and targets.
- Write documented procedures for EMS elements
- Write an EMS manual.
- Develop audit procedures, including an audit manual, to determine conformance with stated goals.
During the early stages of developing the scope and strategy for the Pilot Study, Environmental Management Directorate staff developed an Implementation Plan and Team Charter incorporating the following assumptions and boundaries:
- Certification by an independent third party would not be a goal, but a declaration of full implementation would be completed.
- The final system should not create additional work or any additional compliance burden.
- The EMS would allow implementation by all organizations at Eglin in the future.
- Limited personnel and funding resources would be provided.
- Objectives and targets would be developed only for those processes defined as significant.
Roles and Responsibilities
The first steps toward planning the EMS included building and training an Implementation Core Team (ICT), reviewing the quality programs that had recently been completed, and determining the scope and strategy of the implementation process. The ICT included staff from the Air Wing and Test Wing, as well as legal and contractor staff. Tasks for which the ICT was responsible for included the following:
- Conducting initial gap analyses.
- Identifying all activities that were part of the EMS.
- Grouping the activities into business processes.
- Identifying procedure(s) to be documented within each business process.
- Creating a standard format and style to which all procedures would adhere.
- Identifying procedure owners.
- Verifying that documentation is accurate.
- Providing training support on EMS requirements to unit management representatives.1
Planning and Implementing the EMS
In an effort to understand the environmental impact of AAC operations, the ICT conducted an environmental aspect analysis to identify and evaluate activities, products, and services that interact with the environment. Due to the fact that comprehensive programs were already in place to manage environmental issues throughout the installation, the ICT did not conduct additional shop-level identification of environmental aspects and impacts. Instead, the ICT focused on the inputs and outputs of activities conducted within the mission areas to determine environmental impacts. The following highlights the methodology employed:
- The AAC was divided into smaller, operational units with definable work functions.
- A table listing the ICT-identified activities, products, or services of each operational unit was developed.
- The environmental aspects of the activities, products, and services were identified in an Aspects Matrix and the Matrix was used to determine which operational units had large numbers of environmental aspects.
- Four key business areas were selected for determination of significant environmental aspects based on the results from the Aspects Matrix. The four business areas were Installation and Support (I&S), Test and Evaluation (T&E), Information Management (IM) and the Armament Product Division (APD).
- The environmental aspects and impacts considered for each key business area were:
| Aspect |
Impacts |
| Air Emissions |
Degraded Air Quality |
| Cultural Resource Modification |
Loss of Resource |
| Natural Resource Modification |
Loss of Habitat, Loss of Species, Degraded Aesthetics |
| Noise From Aircraft/Munitions Testing |
Noise Pollution |
Release to Soils
(Hazwaste Generation, Subsurface Contamination and Spills, Solid Waste Generation) |
Subsurface Contamination and Degraded Water Quality |
| Releases to Surface & Groundwater |
Degraded Water Quality, Subsurface Contamination |
- A ranking system that considered business/mission and environmental criteria was developed to determine the significant environmental aspects and resultant impacts of the four key business areas. The business criteria consisted of potential regulatory and legal exposure, potential cost to minimize impact, and the potential for a negative effect on the public image. The environmental criteria included scale of impact, severity of impact, probability of occurrence, and duration of impact.
- The results of the rankings were considered in setting objectives and targets to reduce, improve, or eliminate the identified impacts.2
The result of the evaluation indicated the activities, products and services associated with the greatest number of environmental impacts. These identified significant aspects and impacts are the focal point of programs and procedures. In addition, the ICT also considered environmental aspects to have significant impact if:
- The aspect is governed by Federal, State, Air Force, local law, or other regulation imposed for the protection of the environment
or
- If the environmental aspect is one the AAC Environmental Protection Committee determines is significant based on its importance to AAC, the local community, and control of the aspect is within the center's operational, technical, and financial capabilities.3
After the Pilot
The Environmental Policy continues to be a driving force of AAC EMS and is communicated to base personnel through the Eglin AFB Intranet, EMS pamphlets, and articles in the Eglin Eagle.
| ACC Environmental Policy
The AAC's core purpose is to provide a national capability for air armament systems, and satisfy diverse customer requirements with world-class facilities, expertise and support resources. Our strategic plan gives direction, states strategies that guide the way we conduct business, and identifies supporting goals. One of these strategies is to be recognized for our environmental stewardship. Our goal is to implement best practices for environmental stewardship across the AAC. Our commitment to continual improvement in environmental quality adds to our reputation as a proven contributor to national security.
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Eglin AFB has adopted the use of the Air Force concept of a Compliance Site Inventory to identify and rank its significant environmental impacts. The database ranks sites based on the potential impact on human health and the environment, regulatory liability, and Air Force mission impact. The Eglin database of compliance sites is available for review and use by all Environmental Management personnel on the Intranet site. The staff use the database to direct the installation's pollution prevention measures.
Today, Eglin's Environmental Management Directorate reports on 54 performance measures to the Center Commander through the user-friendly, web-based Executive Management Information System (EMIS). Performance measures are color-coded for quick review and include metrics and background data. Each of the performance measures has the metric listed and improvement is documented in the EMIS.
Training and Cost Savings
Eglin's EMS Training Program has been an evolutionary process. The ICT attended ISO 14000 training that included information on developing and implementing an EMS and also ISO 14000 EMS auditing. EMS status updates and informational briefings were provided to senior base leadership during Environmental Protection Committee meetings. Eglin also developed and presents an EMS video production that provides an overview of the environmental program at Eglin and informs personnel of their EMS responsibilities. Training also is conducted at Commander's Calls, monthly Environmental Coordinators meetings, and EMS auditors receive annual training.
The cost savings attributed to the EMS program are not directly reported but the effectiveness of the EMS can be measured in the reduction of mission delay rates and by the efficient management of resources such as sensitive habitats and threatened species.
Challenges and Successes
Integrating and packaging the EMS system components into a streamlined, user-friendly system was one of Eglin's initial challenges. As part of the AAC EMS, Eglin AFB has created a formal Document Control System to control EMS and other environmental documents and make them readily available at all locations where environmental operations are performed. The DCS is located EM's intranet-web site and provides a centralized vehicle for maintaining and updating environmental documents.
Documents located in the DCS include environmental AAC Operational Plans, AAC Environmental Plans, EMS-program and EMS Programmatic procedures and documentation as well as Federal and State laws and regulations, DoD and Air Force guidance documents, policies, and environmental permits. The Document Control Administrator (DCA) controls the EMS Manual and the EMS procedures, as well as, other environmental documents. The DCA notifies users (using distribution lists provided by EM Program Managers) when a document has been revised to ensure the removal of obsolete versions. Notification of revisions and the proposed changes are distributed to appropriate employees electronically. Employees that do not have access to electronic documents may request hard copies of the document from the responsible EM Program Manager or the EMS Representative. 4
The success of Eglin's EMS program is summarized by the following measures:
- Improved awareness among some employees about the concern and support of executive management for pollution prevention during the conduct of business.
- Defined the significant environmental aspects and impacts of activities, products, and services of the AAC and a formal procedure for continual improvement.
- Formalized the procedure for identifying legal and other environmental requirements that are a result of AAC mission.
- Raised employee's awareness of the environmental consequences of disregarding proper protocols.
- Developed a DCS with a responsible DCA that brings environmental documents under one authority and ensures that appropriate employees have current documentation to perform their job functions.
- Developed an internal audit procedure to determine if the EMS is performing as expected and established corrective action procedures for areas that are not in conformance with the goals of the EMS.
Other successes include:
- Compliance Sites Inventory
- Air Source Manager's Web Page Automated Environmental Impact Analysis Process Web Page Unit Environmental Coordinator Information Web Page and Handbook
- Web-Based Training Database
- Historical Buildings Web-Based Database
- EMS Policy, Manual, and Procedures
Tools
Visit Eglin's EMS Day (4Mb PowerPoint Presentation File)
Contacts:
For more information
1Environmental Management System Manual, Air Armament Center (AAC), Environmental Management Directorate (EM), Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, February 2002, pg. 6.
2 Ibid. pg. 7.
3 Ibid. pg. 8.
4 Ibid. pg. 22.