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On April 1, 2002, White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Chairman James L. Connaughton and Office of Budget and Management (OMB) Director Mitchell Daniels sent a memorandum to the heads of all federal agencies emphasizing the importance of developing environmental management systems (EMS). The Administration supports significantly increasing the number of federal facilities using EMS and federal agencies are required by Executive Order 13148 to implement EMSs by the end of 2005 at all applicable facilities.
Memoranda
April 1, 2002
Dear Secretary/Administrator:
The President strongly supports our effective and efficient management
of the nations' resources.
Enhancing our environmental management capabilities empowers local
resource managers'
stewardship of the resources entrusted to their care and management.
Over the past year, several
agencies have taken great strides in developing and implementing
environmental management
systems (EMS). We applaud the leadership those agencies have
demonstrated and urge agencies
that have not begun developing and implementing EMS to begin that
process.
At the annual meeting of the Environmental Council of the States in
Hawaii this past summer, the
Administration stated its support for significantly increasing the
number of private and federal facilities
using EMS in the United States. Effective EMS, where decision-makers
integrate environmental
performance into daily business decisions, improves awareness and
assures compliance with
regulatory requirements and can result in significant cost savings at
federal facilities. The federal
government must be a leader in using this tool of effective management.
In order to chronicle successes in implementing EMS and to establish a
baseline for measuring
continual improvement, the calendar year 2001 Executive Order 13148
annual report will include a
report on your progress in establishing and implementing EMS. On
February 20, 2002, the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator, Governor Christie
Todd Whitman, sent you the
guidance for the annual report that was coordinated through the
Interagency Environmental Leadership
Workgroup over the past several months. As noted in Governor Whitman's
cover letter, EPA will
provide copies of the annual report to the Council on Environmental
Quality.
Your support is critical to the success of the Administration's goal to
promote environmental
leadership. We urge you to actively participate in your agency's efforts
to make EMS a priority at all
levels of your agency. Thank you for your support in this important
undertaking.
Mitchell E. Daniels
Director
Office of Management and Budget
James L. Connaughton
Chairman
Council on Environmental Quality
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