General guides and manuals for all types of
facilities:
- CEC Principles: Improving
Environmental Performance and Compliance: Ten Elements of Effective
Environmental Management Systems
(PDF 48KB) Commission
for Environmental Cooperation, June 2000. This document sets out
what the three North American governments have agreed is important
to address in implementing EMSs. It is intended to assist EMS users
make responsible decisions and take actions to achieve better
environmental performance through maintaining compliance with
environmental laws and moving beyond compliance.
- Compliance-Focused Environmental Management System - Enforcement Agreement Guidance (PDF 130KB) Since the late 1980s, civil multimedia compliance investigations conducted by the EPA National Enforcement Investigations Center (NEIC) have increasingly involved identifying causes of observed noncompliance. In a significant number of cases, the causes arise from inadequate EMSs. NEIC, in response, developed key elements for a compliance-focused EMS (CFEMS) model, which have been for EMSs in a number of settlement agreements. The purpose of this guidance is to present those key elements and to show how they can be incorporated into a settlement agreement.
- Design for Environment (DFE) Guide: Integrated
Environmental Management Systems (IEMS) Implementation Guide. This
Guide has been designed to help companies integrate environmental
concerns into business decision making using the Design for
Environment Program's Integrated Environmental Management System.
The Design for the Environment Program involves voluntary
partnerships with industry and other stakeholders to develop
cleaner, safer alternatives to existing products and
processes.
- SME Guide: An Implementation Guide
for Small and Medium-Sized Organizations. In December 2000, the
U.S. EPA, in cooperation with NSF International, completed a
revised version of this guide entitled "Environmental Management
Systems: An Implementation Guide for Small and Medium Sized
Organizations". This revision replaces the original Guide,
published in 1996. Like its predecessor, the revised Guide is
intended to offer a plain English, common sense guide to
organizations interested in implementing an EMS, using the basic
Plan-Do-Check-Act model. The revised guide includes a number of
updated examples and can be used by organizations of all
sizes.
