EMS Case Study – University of South Carolina

University of South Carolina

Columbia, SC 29208

The University of South Carolina is situated in Columbia, South Carolina where its main campus includes 155 facilities on over 350 acres. Chartered in 1801 as South Carolina College, the university offers more than 350 courses of study.

In 1997, USC was a founding member of the South Carolina Sustainable Universities Initiative (SUI), established by the state’s three research universties and subsequently expanded to include 13 affiliate schools. A grant from SUI was used to begin the development of the university’s environmental management system (EMS). The original plan was to develop an EMS for each of the three SUI member universities and train faculty and graduate students to audit EMS’s at each other’s schools.

Administrators were initially apprehensive about developing an EMS and cited the system’s complexity and potential for identifying expensive problems as reasons to not develop the system. Many also felt that the ISO 14001 model for an EMS was too industry-focused to apply to universities. It was the recommendation of an external consultant, brought in to conduct a compliance audit at USC, that swayed administrators that the university take action and develop an EMS.

EMS Team

The university’s Core EMS Team was charged with coordinating campus EMS development across departments, and is made up of personnel from:

· Environmental, Health, and Safety (EH&S);

· Housing;

· Facilities Services; and

· A representative from the Environmental Advisory Committee.

The Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) EMS Team developed and implemented the EH&S department’s EMS and is made up of representatives from the following EH&S departments:

· Radiation personnel;

· OSHA personnel;

· Environmental personnel; and

· Fire personnel.

Setting Goals

The fenceline for the EMS was set at the EH&S department within the Columbia campus, which is responsible for the inspection and compliance of all campus facilities, and did not initially include academics, housing, or any other facilities on campus. The EH&S department sought to achieve ISO 14001 registration and then develop a strategy wherein the university would eventually have an EMS that encompassed the entire campus.

USC’s goals for the EMS were to:

· Enhance and continuously improve programs identified by SUI;

· Link existing programs to develop an integrated management system for EH&S;

· Develop a better structure for linking the university’s EH&S initiative to other departments; and

· Help the university become more proactive with its EH&S efforts.

Getting Started

Prior to developing the EMS, USC had undertaken a number of environmentally-friendly activities as a result of membership in SUI, such as:

· A comprehensive effort to teach staff and students about the environment and to decrease the university’s impact on the environment;

· Conducting environmental assessments;

· Establishing a university-wide Environmental Advisory Committee and developing an environmental policy; and

· Creating or strengthening ongoing programs for recycling, composting, biodiesel buses, green building, and others.

The university felt that to develop an EMS it needed to simply enhance its existing policy, practices, and procedures. In order to understand the EMS process, several EH&S employees attended an EMS conference in Kentucky and received EMS training. A core team of four people spent six to nine months writing procedures and work instructions, and revising sample documents so that they were appropriate for a university setting. The team developed 10 objectives and targets for the university and defined the integrated EMS to cover environmental systems as well as OSHA, fire safety, and risk management. This expansion of the traditional environmental focus made the EMS more useful as a model to other schools in the state.

Implementation

To begin implementation of the EMS, graduate students at the university developed an on-line tracking system and began collecting and entering data into the system.

EH&S adopted USC’s existing environmental policy almost exactly as it was and began the EMS process by identifying all significant environmental and health and safety aspects and impacts of products, activities, and services provided by the organization. Ten objectives and targets were then established to be consistent with the environmental policy. Programs were then set in place to implement these activities.

Internal audits were conducted routinely to ensure that non-conformances to the system were identified and addressed. A management review process was also developed to ensure that management was involved in the assessment of the EMS. At the same time, graduate students from other parts of campus were trained as auditors to begin spreading the word about the EMS across campus. Students also participated in document review and conducted on-site interviews to assist other departments with EMS development.

In August 2002, USC’s EH&S became certified to the ISO 14001 standard and became the first academic health and safety program in the US to achieve the distinction without the pressure of regulatory involvement or penalties (USC was the second academic health and safety program in the US to achieve this distinction overall). The EMS was initially certified by American Quality Assessors, an accrediting agency that will periodically review the program to ensure that it remains in conformance to the ISO 14001 EMS Standard. The university also began submitting quarterly reports to the university’s Environmental Advisory Committee, which is made up of faculty, administration, operations, and students and chaired by the Dean of the School of Environment. After the development of the EMS, the university patented the EMS template, although the template has been widely shared within the SUI schools.

Benefits

As a result of USC’s EMS, the EH&S department has:

· Been better able to track and define deficiencies, such as areas that were loosely managed in regard to legal and other requirements.

· Established documentation that should have been part of the university’s records.

· Developed an electronic, paperless system to link all EMS-related documents. Objectives and targets are reviewed monthly and results are input into corresponding documents. The system provides a structured way of attacking complex compliance issues.

· Saved a significant amount of money on hazardous waste costs by improving training and ordering smaller quantities of chemicals. USC disposed of 21,900 pounds of hazardous waste in 2002 compared to 18,650 pounds in 2004, a reduction of more than 17 percent.

USC has not yet applied to EPA’s Performance Track, but may join in the future. USC was not originally aware that universities could join the partnership.

Communication

USC communicates with its students regarding the EMS through the university’s student environmental group, student government, and student representatives in the Environmental Advisory Committee. Ongoing training of graduate students assists in spreading the word.

USC communicates with the community about its EMS through annual reports and presentations of the SUI, as well as workshops held for college and university personnel throughout the state. The university also communicates about its EMS during audits of other facilities.

Lessons Learned

USC learned a number of lessons during the development of its EMS, including the following:

· Expect resistance to the EMS due to additional accountability the system assigns to everyone in the organization;

· Ensure widespread support during the development of all EMS procedures, requirements, objectives, and targets, or people will not buy into the system after it is developed;

· Establish critical senior management buy-in from the beginning of the effort (potentially hold a day-long training prior to implementation); and

· It is beneficial to share information about the EMS implementation process with other universities. Describing the process helps to solidify it and we can continually improve our EMS by learning what works and what doesn’t work from other colleges.

Next Steps

USC’s EH&S department is currently establishing a framework and defining legal and other requirements to help other groups on campus develop their own EMS.

Testimonial

“EMS has helped organize our overall structure and help us provide better oversight and support for the rest of the campus. Our EMS has given us the opportunity to be more proactive. “–Tom Syfert, Director Environmental Health & Safety, University of South Carolina, TSyfert@gwm.sc.edu