NORTH CAROLINA EMS PILOT PROGRAM

General Information on the Pilot Program

The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), with the Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance (DPPEA) as the lead agency, is closely evaluating the effectiveness of an EMS in improving environmental performance and compliance as well as pollution prevention.
In addition, DENR’s interest in the pilot program is to:

• Determine if EMS implementation results in improved environmental performance; 
• Participate in public policy discussion; 
• Encourage pollution prevention; 
• Investigate leveraging of DENR resources;
• Encourage “beyond compliance;”;
• Develop partnerships between environmental groups, industry, trade associations and academia. 

Through this pilot program, DENR hopes to better understand the implementation of an EMS, particularly the ISO 14001 model. DENR’s pilot program is being supported by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water. Each pilot participant has agreed to provide data on its environmental performance, compliance, pollution prevention, environmental conditions, costs/benefits of EMS implementation, and stakeholders involvement/confidence. These are key areas identified by MSWG for data collection. Baseline data are being collected from North Carolina pilots as well as about 80 other organizations nationwide. Data are being compiled into a national database, maintained by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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