2006 Benchmark Survey
of the State of Environmental Management Systems
Two-thirds of colleges and universities are developing or have an interest indeveloping an Environmental Management System (EMS), yet EMS activities are still in their infancy. That finding, and many others, can be found in this invaluable report.

The 2006 Benchmark Survey of the State of Environmental Management Systems at Colleges and Universities© is the product of an on-line survey conducted by the C2E2 during April and May of 2006. More than 250 individuals at 206 colleges and universities completed the survey.

Improving Environmental Performance
The new Improving Environmental Performance area of the website, featuring the new Planning for Environmental Performance Poster also features links to more resources, upcoming events and tracking tools. Available now at www.c2e2.org/sustainability.

MIT Virtual Tour
Environmental Virtual Campus
The Environmental Virtual Campus (EVC), conceived by MIT and the EPA, helps colleges and universities understand how they can achieve compliance through a unique, interactive Web site that demonstrates environmental regulatory requirements for a typical research university. This project was undertaken by MIT in connection with the settlement of an enforcement action brought by the EPA and the U.S. Department of Justice for alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. There is no allegation of actual harm. Go to site>

The Application of PDAs for EH&S on Campus
The C2E2 and UMass Boston hosted a workshop on "Using Hand-Held Devices to Gather and Manage Electronic EH&S Information on Campus." The May 27, 2004 workshop was held on the campus of UMass Boston.
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Download the White Paper "Using Handheld Devices to gather and Manage Electronic EH&S Information on Campus." It is our first White Paper or Report, but the latest in a series of C2E2 tools designed to assist colleges and universities improve their environmental performance.

 

Environmental Management Systems
Cornell University hosted an Environmental Management System (EMS) workshop for C2E2 members and their invited guests in Ithaca, New York. Brief summaries of the presentations and the speakers' presentations are available on the site.
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Environmental Performance

Track, Analyze, and Benchmark Your Environmental Performance
The Colleges and Universities Sector’s Performance Measurement Workgroup developed a new online tool that allows colleges and universities to collect and analyze data on their campus’ environmental impacts. The tool gathers four years of data on energy use, hazardous waste, solid waste/recycling, and water consumption. Schools can use the tool to identify and analyze trends in their data in an easy-to-use format.

The tool also allows colleges and universities to track and benchmark their environmental indicators against aggregated data from other schools of similar size and type. School names are kept confidential. All colleges and universities are invited to input data and provide suggestions for improvement of the tool.

Visit the Colleges and Universities Self Tracking Tool to learn more and/or input data.

Environmental indicators (or metrics) can help track performance, manage compliance, shape the future, or inspire action. They can measure outputs or impacts, such as pounds of trash or gallons of water used. Other indicators measure proactive efforts such as the number of training classes. Others may include waste generations, or utility usage, items central to continuous improvement efforts. Condition indicators measure water or soil quality, factors important to the community. Selection of environmental indicators is varied and depends upon your organization, programs, and goals.

Poster “Measuring Environmental Performance”
Colleges and universities are welcome to download these files to print copies of the Poster. If a college or university wishes to copy and distribute significant quantities (>25) of the poster, we request that you seek permission from the C2E2 to print this copyrighted poster, and provide us with information regarding total quantity printed.

No reasonable request will be denied. This Poster cannot be sold or distributed for commercial purposes. Send your request to Tom Balf at tbalf@c2e2.org


You may wish to upgrade to Adobe Reader 6.0 or above for best display.

Full Size Poster 15.5x22
Full Quality CMYK Printing 10.7MB
Screen Resolution Colors 220K
Ebook compressed for onscreen viewing 570K

Letter Size Poster 7.75x10.75
Full Quality CMYK Printing 2.7MB
Ebook compressed for onscreen viewing 218K

Resources and Information
Measuring and determining how well your C/U is performing is a key function of an environmental program that goes beyond compliance. The C2E2 has gathered this information to provide users with a variety of tools to measure their environmental performance.
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Assessments
EMS Self- Assessment Checklist, September 2000

EH&S Performance Indicator List
100 OH&S performance indicators