EMS DEVELOPMENT COURSE 
FOR GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

Beginning in the summer of 2001, the N.C. Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance (DPPEA) offered a yearlong development course on environmental management systems and ISO 14001 for government agencies.  This page contains information about the course schedule, speakers, exercises and participants, and is intended to give guidance to other states or local governments interested in sponsoring a similar course. 

The course met nine times over the course of a year, with additional days for an overview class, an internal auditor training class, and a graduation ceremony. Each meeting included a homework assignment, so that by the end of the course, a small to medium-sized facility could have its EMS largely completed. Twelve facilities signed up for the course, including two federal facilities, four state facilities, and six local facilities. However, due to the events of Sept. 11, 2001, several participants were forced to leave the course in order to devote their time to anti-terrorist activities. Nine facilities graduated from the course, including one federal facility, three state facilities, and five local facilities.  

An important part of the course was the Web site, which was updated monthly and was used to convey information about the course to participants, such as directions to the next month's meeting place, the day's schedule, handouts which the participants were asked to print and bring to the course meeting, and links to related information. Additionally, each speaker's presentation was linked to the page so that participants could review or print the slides. This significantly reduced the amount of paper handouts required at the meeting and ensured that participants who missed a meeting were able to access all the relevant handouts and presentations. The Web site also served as a starting point from which participants could link to relevant information as they developed and implemented their EMSs. The site was linked to DPPEA's main EMS Web site and to individual pages that might be useful to participants, such as pollution prevention information for POTWs or EMS information for government agencies. 

A second important part of the course was the course coaches. Each participant was assigned at least one coach from DPPEA. Coaches were available for consultation as requested by the participants, and were asked to check in with their facilities on a regular basis. Many coaches traveled to their facilities and assisted in the development of EMSs and training of facility personnel. 

The course met approximately every five weeks, or nine times over eleven months, skipping major holiday times, plus a graduation ceremony. The day before the first meeting, a half-day general training course on EMSs and ISO 14001 was held, and the day after course 8, a day-long internal auditor training course was held for participants. The complete course schedule charts the course by meeting. Each course subject in the table will link to a page with that day’s schedule and relevant documents, including speaker presentations, links to information about the day’s topics, links to examples, directions to the course meeting place, and course handouts. 

Three participating facilities became certified to the ISO 14001 standard in 2002, including the City of Shelby Wastewater Treatment Plant, the N.C. Zoological Park's Horticulture Division, and the Metropolitan Sewerage District of Buncombe County Wastewater Treatment Facility. Case studies about their EMS experiences are available.